{"id":293308,"date":"2025-12-01T16:29:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T16:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/293308\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T16:29:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T16:29:15","slug":"the-beatles-anthology-2025-review-extensive-and-exhaustive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/293308\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beatles Anthology 2025 Review \u2013 ‘Extensive and exhaustive’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A remastered edition of the classic documentary series about the legendary rock band \u2014 with an additional episode included.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost impossible to get the definitive story of the Beatles,\u201d says Paul McCartney in The Beatles Anthology. That hasn\u2019t stopped people trying. The craze for filmed fodder about the Fab Four has barely relented since the band split up in 1970; in the last five years alone, we\u2019ve had films ranging from excellent (Peter Jackson\u2019s Get Back<\/a>) to perfectly fine (Martin Scorsese-produced Beatles \u201864<\/a>) to niche (the Cirque du Soleil\/Beatles collab All Together Now). Not to mention the four major biopics on each member<\/a>, from Sam Mendes, arriving in 2027.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Now we have the return of the account that arguably comes closest to \u201cdefinitive\u201d. The Beatles Anthology was a landmark project when it was released in the early \u201890s, consisting of an 8-part television series (broadcast on ITV in the UK and ABC in the US), a collection of albums, and a book. Made with full participation of the band\u2019s surviving members (McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr), it aimed to tell the exhaustive story of the band \u201cmore popular than Jesus\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Anthology now makes its debut on streaming with a bit of lick and polish from Jackson\u2019s Wingnut Films, who apply the same magic they used on Get Back to turn the grainy footage higher resolution, the music higher fidelity. While it certainly feels sharper, a lot of material here might feel familiar: footage of policemen holding back screaming girls as the mop-topped men grin cheekily has over time become its own clich\u00e9.<\/p>\n

To see the three of them hanging out and jamming together is a joy.<\/p>\n

And yet. The extended running time of this series allows for deeper cuts. It is still remarkable to watch a minutes-long uninterrupted shot of the band giggling in a limo while fans claw at the windows like zombies, or play to Shea Stadium, treated like gods, bodies willingly flung at the stage. Despite their eternal cultural dominance, the facts of the Beatles remain extraordinary. \u201cBy the time I was 23, we\u2019d done Sgt Pepper,\u201d notes Harrison casually at one point.<\/p>\n

McCartney, Harrison and Starr are engaging hosts, and it\u2019s entertaining to see them recall their early years with \u201890s fashion and evolving facial hair (Harrison\u2019s moustache pops in and out, from episode to episode). And they are most emotionally forthright in the new ninth episode, cobbled together from unreleased footage and DVD extras, which acts as a kind of meta-history of the Anthology project itself, the band\u2019s first quasi-reunion in over two decades.<\/p>\n

We watch Paul being a little defensive (\u201cI like the Beatles, I\u2019m not ashamed of that,\u201d), Starr being openly heartfelt (\u201cI like hanging out with you two guys!\u201d) and Harrison telling a lovely anecdote about spiking tea with uppers. To see the three of them hanging out and jamming together \u2014 a bunch of dads just having a nice time on a Sunday afternoon \u2014 is a joy. No guitars weeping gently here.<\/p>\n

This remains the most extensive, and therefore exhaustive, account of the biggest band of all time. It\u2019s strictly for-fans-only, which, when it comes to the Beatles, basically means everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A remastered edition of the classic documentary series about the legendary rock band \u2014 with an additional episode…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-293308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}