What to know
A new ninth episode of The Beatles Anthology has been released on Disney+, complementing the newly restored and remastered original eight episodes.
Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison reflect on their early years, Beatlemania, and why the anthology couldn’t have been made earlier due to past tensions.
The episode includes rare archival footage collected over decades by Apple Corps’ Neil Aspinall, along with intimate moments of the surviving Beatles revisiting old songs and memories.
Want to know how The Beatles came up with their “forward” haircut and iconic boots?
What has Elvis Presley and the Traveling Wilburys got to do with the band’s post-breakup songs? Most importantly, what was it like being in The Beatles from the early days to the craziness of Beatlemania? These and more are answered by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison in the brand-new ninth episode of 1995’s The Beatles Anthology.
The entire series is now available on Disney+, the original eight re-edited, and remastered in 4K and remixed to Dolby Atmos.
Made by The Beatles’ Apple Corps, The Beatles Anthology is considered the definitive history of the world’s greatest pop band.
Sitting on stools, in Abbey Road’s Studio 2, in 1995, they all say this anthology couldn’t have been made in 1975 — five years after their breakup — because they were “at war” is how McCartney puts it. “We weren’t talking much,” Harrison — who died in 2001 — agreed.
The new episode was directed by Oliver Murray, who made the short film about “the final” Beatles single, 2023’s “Now and Then,” which included Lennon’s 1970 home demo.
“A while ago, when we got over our business troubles, we sort of decided that we might try and do the definitive story of the Beatles, seeing as other people had had a go at it,” explained McCartney. “We thought it might be good from the inside out rather than from the outside in.”
Starr added, “We’ve heard it from everybody else. Now you can hear it from us. Paul, George and myself, old footage of John, of course, telling how we felt it was like to be a Beatle.”
Executive produced by their longtime friend and head of Apple Corps at the time, Neil Aspinall (who died in 2008) had collected footage throughout The Beatles’ 10-year history including concerts, TV appearances and interviews, some of which the band had shot themselves. He had been planning to release a film in 1971 called The Long and Winding Road.
“I just called them all and said that everybody else and his uncle seems to have written or talked about the Beatles, and that maybe, just for ourselves, they should tell their own story, might put some film around it, and we might have a home movie,” said Aspinall, on camera.
I think it was the early ’70s, ’70, ’71, I collected all the footage that I could find from around the world, and we put a documentary together or a film together without the Beatles being interviewed or anything like that. Then I put it on the shelf,” Aspinall said.
Reflecting back 25 years, Starr said, “He put it together, then we couldn’t deal with it, you know. It’s like everything comes around when it should.”
Come the 1990s, the project was resurrected with the involvement of the three remaining Beatles. “I’m glad it didn’t get made until now,” Harrison said. “I think it’s been nice for us and the public just to forget about the Beatles for a while. Let the dust settle. And now come back to it with a fresh point of view.”
It aired in the U.S. in a double-length, three-part series, then the U.K. in six parts, and then was expanded to eight parts in 1996 for commercial release, originally on VHS and LaserDisc, then in 2003 on DVD.
In the ninth episode, McCartney, Starr and Harrison (who died in 2001) get together in 1994 and 1995 to reminisce about being a Beatle and the making of the anthology.
There are some gems included from all the wives showing up to a fun performance of “Thinking of Linking,” an unreleased ditty McCartney wrote in 1958, and even the three at the board in Abbey Road with producer George Martin playing back some tracks.
Martin, who died in 2016 said, “It’s like looking at an old scrapbook, but it’s coming to life most vividly.”
Starr said making the anthology “brought back a lot of good memories. It also gave me a chance to hang out with Paul and George again. The best thing was the three of us just sitting around.”
McCartney felt the same way. “The good thing about the anthology is it’s the four of us. Even though John’s not here, he’s here. He’s represented. He talks and it’s old interviews and stuff.”
Harrison admitted he felt sorry for Lennon because when the Beatles “split up, everybody was a bit fed up with each other” but with the distance they’ve been able to put the “turbulent times” behind them.
“…for Ringo, Paul and I, we’ve had the opportunity to have all that go down the river and under the bridge and to get together again in a new light, and I feel a bit sorry that John wasn’t able to do that, but I think he would have really enjoyed this opportunity to be with us again.”