(Credits: Far Out / Apple Corps)
Sat 7 March 2026 15:00, UK
During the peaks of their psychedelic revelry, a family-run fish and chips shop in Taunton nearly found themselves brief stars of The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour film venture.
It wasn’t the first time the Fab Four had passed through the old Somerset market town. Way before Beatlemania had rocked the world’s charts and counting only two singles under their belt, The Beatles first played Taunton’s Gaumont Theatre a month ahead of their Please Please Me debut on 26th February 1963, supporting Helen Shapiro as part of a whopping 11-act bill.
A lot has changed in four years. Dropping UK number ones left, right and centre, appearing on America’s The Ed Sullivan Show and unleashing the British Invasion, selling out the world’s stadiums, then standing as a titanic force of the countercultural bloom on both sides of the Atlantic off the back of their Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band opus. Bookings for Gaumont Theatre weren’t likely to happen any time soon.
In late 1967, Paul McCartney conceived of a joint television feature and soundtrack EP featuring a mystical coach journey through England’s surrealistic eccentricity, interspersed with musical numbers from The Beatles themselves and comedic skits involving mischievous wizards and various dream sequences.
Inspired by Liverpool’s coach trips to Blackpool Lights, as well as Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters’ LSD championing travels across the States, the crew acquired a Plaxton-bodied Bedford VAL and coated it in vivid yellow and blue with the Magical Mystery Tour logo emblazoned on the sides.
Following a scant script, loose direction, and a make-it-up-as-you-go shooting schedule, as much as ten hours of material were in the can when the time came to cut the 52-minute feature. One sequence that fell on the cutting room floor was captured in Taunton. Returning after their second live show back in 1963, The Beatles had corralled a bus of 40-odd travellers in September, comprised of friends and family, actors, and fan club members, and set off on the Magical Mystery Tour from London to Devon. Staying the night, then spending three days in Torquay, the travelling entourage headed back to the capital, but not before stopping by Mr and Mrs Smedley’s Taunton fish and chips shop around lunch time.
It turned out that Amy Smedley was an extra for the Newquay shoot; her niece reportedly assisted the crew with assembling extras and roped her aunt into the Magical Mystery Tour shoot. After casually announcing her business, a hungry Beatles called Smedley takeaway, informing them of their imminent arrival. Footage was shot by Ringo Starr and featured The Beatles, plus road manager Mal Evans and Scottish poet Ivor Cutler, all squeezed into the little eatery at 108 Roman Road, ordering chippy meals and eating in the main dining area.
However, word soon got around Taunton that The Beatles were in town, crowds of kids and music fans swiftly congregating outside Smedley’s to gawp at the surreal sight of the world’s biggest band snacking in a Somerset fish and chips, the team ducking out after lunch to continue their journey home. “It was wonderful having them,” Mrs Smedley told the Evening Post at the time. “They were ever so nice, and we hope that their film, in which I was an extra in an excursion coach, will be a success.”
Eventually premiered to an underwhelming critical reception on BBC One on Boxing Day 1967, Magical Mystery Tour documented a moment where healthy naivety was allowed to explore new ideas with unreined creative liberty, a charm that carries the TV movie a long way. 108 Roman Road is now The Phoenix Chinese takeaway, but still forms a key spot of The Beatles’ tourist map for the most dedicated Fab Four fan.
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