0:00:06 > 0:00:10This programme contains some strong language.
0:01:17 > 0:01:22DIRECTOR: End number, that was a wild track, applause, clapping, and all the rest of it, cut.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26ANNOUNCER: Now everyone try and look very sad. Awwww!
0:01:30 > 0:01:33Now, everybody, run out past the cameras. Go!
0:01:38 > 0:01:41I haven't seen colour, I live in a monochromatic world.
0:01:44 > 0:01:46I can't use colour.
0:01:50 > 0:01:52I can do everything.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55What do you mean by everything?
0:01:55 > 0:02:00Everything, everything... Oh, it was shape before, but now it's colour.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38If you look to your left, ladies and gentlemen, the view is not very inspiring.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42Ah, but if you look to your right...
0:02:50 > 0:02:57We didn't really want to do something that didn't represent where we were up to.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00However, people didn't know where we were up to,
0:03:00 > 0:03:05and it wasn't the kind of thing we could say, do a disclaimer before it and say,
0:03:05 > 0:03:10"Ladies and gentlemen, what you are about to see is the product "of our imaginations,
0:03:10 > 0:03:14and believe me, at this point they're quite vivid".
0:03:14 > 0:03:17You couldn't do that you know, you just had to be, "Here it is".
0:03:21 > 0:03:22Who is that man?
0:03:52 > 0:03:56Anyway, I tell you something, you ain't coming away with me any more.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58Who bought the tickets? I did.
0:03:58 > 0:03:59Yeah, with my money.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03I bought them, right, I'm taking you out, you're not taking me anywhere.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11Oh, ain't he lovely? Look at him,
0:04:11 > 0:04:13look, just look at him.Who's that?
0:04:13 > 0:04:16Ringo, one of The Beatles, he's marvellous.Oh, those fellas.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19He's smashing, plays the drums, goes out and earns five bob, not like you.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21Listen, I've heard a few stories about those boys.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24I don't care what you've heard, they're smashers and you shut up.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27If you learnt to play the drums you could earn an extra five bob.
0:04:27 > 0:04:28I'm not doing so bad, am I?
0:04:28 > 0:04:30Doing so bad?
0:04:30 > 0:04:33You're as skint as arm holes every week, what's the matter with you?
0:04:33 > 0:04:36What's the matter with you? You've moaned ever since we got on this bus.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38Well, I promised your father I'd take you, I'm sorry now,
0:04:38 > 0:04:41I'm dead sorry. I'm sorry I came, believe me.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44'Just ad lib, I mean, there's no script.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47'We thought we could have something running through it
0:04:47 > 0:04:52'and it was me and her and we're always arguing,
0:04:52 > 0:04:55'and it sort of got us from one place to the next.'
0:04:56 > 0:05:00This picture probably reflects their state of mind more than
0:05:00 > 0:05:02anything else they had done at the time.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05That's the way they perceived the world around them
0:05:05 > 0:05:08MUSIC: "I Am The Walrus" by The Beatles
0:05:08 > 0:05:13For me, the freedom of the picture was something that was very
0:05:13 > 0:05:18very important, the sense of breaking all the form.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22Obviously some of it I didn't quite understand in terms of the humour,
0:05:22 > 0:05:23but it's the way it was in those days,
0:05:23 > 0:05:25I mean, people were trying everything
0:05:25 > 0:05:32and whether it fully succeeded or not was really beside the point.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35RADIO: 'In Scotland and Northern Ireland there'll be slight frost,
0:05:35 > 0:05:38'leading to icy patches on roads around dawn.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42'Afternoon temperatures will range from 5 degrees centigrade, 41 Fahrenheit, in northern Scotland,
0:05:42 > 0:05:47'to about eight degrees centigrade, 46 Fahrenheit, in southern England.'
0:05:51 > 0:05:56ANNOUNCER: 'The Val Doonican Show...
0:05:56 > 0:05:59'Top of the Pops...
0:06:03 > 0:06:06'These are just some of the BBC One programmes this Christmas.'
0:06:10 > 0:06:13# I'm in with the in-crowd
0:06:13 > 0:06:16# I go where the in-crowd goes
0:06:16 > 0:06:18# I'm in with the in-crowd
0:06:18 > 0:06:23# And I know what the in-crowd knows... #
0:06:23 > 0:06:27'In my family, Boxing Day was more often the party day really, lots of relatives around.'
0:06:27 > 0:06:29'Aunties and uncles,
0:06:29 > 0:06:33'and my sisters and brothers would have all been over, having had their
0:06:33 > 0:06:36'Christmas at home together, and then over to us on Boxing Day.'
0:06:38 > 0:06:43'It was tradition for us to go into the neighbour's house on Boxing Day
0:06:43 > 0:06:49'and we used to play Monopoly in the afternoon, and I was always
0:06:49 > 0:06:53'allowed a snowball with Advocaat and lemonade in, that was my treat.'
0:06:55 > 0:06:59The Christmas schedule is always a difficult thing to get together,
0:06:59 > 0:07:05and on that particular year in 1967 I had a gap on Boxing Day.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09And suddenly I got to hear of this film the Magical Mystery Tour.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12It was described to me as a film made by The Beatles,
0:07:12 > 0:07:15containing The Beatles, and containing a lot of music,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18and that as far as I was concerned was good enough.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31Sitting in front of the television, very, very close to the screen,
0:07:31 > 0:07:36no clue who was in the room with me apart from my dad, because
0:07:36 > 0:07:39he seriously didn't like The Beatles and spent most of his time grunting
0:07:39 > 0:07:42and saying it was a load of rubbish, "Why don't you turn it over?"
0:07:42 > 0:07:46and, "Why don't you talk to the visitors because we've got guests?"
0:07:46 > 0:07:49My dad said, "They should get their hair cut," and I said,
0:07:49 > 0:07:53"Dad, you "know Jesus had long hair, don't you?" and he just didn't know what to say.
0:07:53 > 0:07:58My parents didn't like it, my dad thought it was rubbish,
0:07:58 > 0:08:01and I'm pretty sure he turned it off before the end.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04I loved it, it was a great movie, to see The Beatles doing
0:08:04 > 0:08:08something different, as wizards and all that sort of thing.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11I was 15 years old, I remember we sat
0:08:11 > 0:08:17and we watched it right the way through in silence, and afterwards
0:08:17 > 0:08:20we looked at each other and we said, "What was all that about?"
0:08:20 > 0:08:24That was the beginning of the end of their innocence to me
0:08:24 > 0:08:25and my innocence.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33DAVID FROST:'I liked it, with reservations and so on,
0:08:33 > 0:08:36'but why were people so puzzled by it, do you think?'
0:08:36 > 0:08:41I think they thought it was bitty, which it was a bit, you know, but it was supposed to be like that,
0:08:41 > 0:08:47I think a lot of people were looking for a plot, and there wasn't one.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51I think the younger people would get it, the people who knew what
0:08:51 > 0:08:55was going on in society, would get it, and the older people who
0:08:55 > 0:09:00were expecting Morecombe and Wise or a British Variety Show,
0:09:00 > 0:09:04wouldn't get it and I think in a way quite rightly would be annoyed,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07it was like they'd been cheated out of their Christmas special.
0:09:10 > 0:09:11There was, it seemed,
0:09:11 > 0:09:14very little magic about this particular mystery tour,
0:09:14 > 0:09:17most reporting viewers in fact finding it virtually incomprehensible.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22There was no theme or storyline, they complained, the programme
0:09:22 > 0:09:25appearing to consist of confused, disconnected shots of the weirdest
0:09:25 > 0:09:30things, and suggesting a nightmare rather than a mystery tour.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34The following are just a few of the many outraged comments...
0:09:34 > 0:09:38"The biggest waste of money since the Ground Nut Scheme."
0:09:38 > 0:09:45"Positively the worst programme I can remember seeing on any TV channel."
0:09:45 > 0:09:48The small minority who did enjoy the programme hailed it
0:09:48 > 0:09:51as something completely different. A schoolboy had this to say...
0:09:51 > 0:09:57"It was one of the best Christmas programmes we've had for a long time.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59"The idea was clever as well as original,
0:09:59 > 0:10:02"it was very funny in parts, a marvellous programme in black and white,
0:10:02 > 0:10:06"in colour it would be indescribable."
0:10:13 > 0:10:17When they first toured they were touring with comedians and singers
0:10:17 > 0:10:20and stuff and it was part of a showbiz package deal,
0:10:20 > 0:10:23you know, so that was what, '63 they were doing that?
0:10:23 > 0:10:27So in the space of four years, which is nothing, we're in the world
0:10:27 > 0:10:31of Sergeant Pepper and kaftans and incense and San Francisco
0:10:31 > 0:10:37and all that kind of thing, so I should imagine some members of the establishment were rather sort of,
0:10:37 > 0:10:39perturbed, because it looked like
0:10:39 > 0:10:42The Beatles had gone from being Take That
0:10:42 > 0:10:44to "Take This" or something, you know?
0:10:44 > 0:10:49The entire nation had been let down by The Beatles.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53They hated it, at least the people who wrote in the newspaper
0:10:53 > 0:10:59hated it, you know. Don't forget that with all the success
0:10:59 > 0:11:04we'd had, every time something came out, a new record or whatever,
0:11:04 > 0:11:07they'd all try and slam it so that, you know,
0:11:07 > 0:11:11because once they'd built you up that high, all they can do is
0:11:11 > 0:11:15knock you back down again, I mean that's what happens, that's life,
0:11:15 > 0:11:19so they really didn't like it, but it's understandable too because
0:11:19 > 0:11:24it wasn't a brilliant scripted thing that was executed well,
0:11:24 > 0:11:30it was like a little home movie really, an elaborate home movie.
0:11:30 > 0:11:36I don't know, I should never have brought you, you're really getting on my nerves.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38There's no pleasure for me either, there really isn't,
0:11:38 > 0:11:41I've had the worst time of my life here.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43Worst time of your life?!
0:11:43 > 0:11:45Worst time of my life,
0:11:45 > 0:11:47it's the draggy-ist tour I've been on with you.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49Good God, I don't know.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52And it won't happen again, it's the last time I take you out,
0:11:52 > 0:11:53you come round to our house moaning
0:11:53 > 0:11:57and groaning, nothing to do, I take pity on you, "Come on, I'll take you on this tour."
0:11:57 > 0:12:00You take pity on me and I have to pay for you, oh, yes, very good!
0:12:00 > 0:12:02Well, that's fair, I'm taking you out, aren't I?
0:12:02 > 0:12:05Oh, you're a beautiful nephew, yes, you are.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09Anyway, just behave, there's a lot of nice people on this coach and they're all looking at us.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12I'll smack you, don't talk to your auntie like that.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14Don't you smack me down missus, I'll smack you down!
0:12:14 > 0:12:17Don't talk to Auntie like that! Don't smack me.Now shut up! Please!
0:12:17 > 0:12:19It was Paul's idea really.
0:12:19 > 0:12:24We were hanging out in the studio, you know, looking for stuff to do,
0:12:24 > 0:12:31really, and he came up with this idea, he said, "Look,
0:12:31 > 0:12:33"I've got this idea."
0:12:37 > 0:12:40And we said, "Great!"
0:12:40 > 0:12:46And it actually moved from that circle...to this...to this...
0:12:46 > 0:12:49Then you can cut in the movie.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53'When a man buys a ticket for a Magical Mystery Tour,
0:12:53 > 0:12:56'he knows what to expect.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59'We guarantee him the trip of a lifetime
0:12:59 > 0:13:04'and that's just what he gets...the incredible Magical Mystery Tour!'
0:13:07 > 0:13:11It was basically a charabanc trip which people used to go on
0:13:11 > 0:13:16from Liverpool to see the Blackpool Lights, and they'd get, you know,
0:13:16 > 0:13:20loads of crates of beer and an accordion player and all get pissed.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30All the coach trips I went on to Blackpool,
0:13:30 > 0:13:33the lights were very fuzzy... but that's another story!
0:13:49 > 0:13:51INAUDIBLE SHOUTING
0:13:55 > 0:13:58'On your marks.
0:13:58 > 0:13:59'Get set.
0:13:59 > 0:14:01'Go!'
0:14:09 > 0:14:15This time I mean it. I can't breathe any more
0:14:16 > 0:14:22MUSIC: "I Am The Walrus" by The Beatles
0:14:26 > 0:14:30MUSIC: "Death Cab For Cutie" by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
0:14:45 > 0:14:49The part of Magical Mystery Tour
0:14:45 > 0:14:49that I didn't get, and which I knew
0:14:49 > 0:14:55Americans would also not get, were the things that were very English.
0:14:56 > 0:15:01For example, the concept of a Mystery Tour, America didn't have,
0:15:01 > 0:15:05you had to know where you were going before you got on to a bus.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09It's a very English concept that you have old dears that
0:15:09 > 0:15:12you like to be around no matter how hip you are
0:15:12 > 0:15:15and that you have extended family that you're not embarrassed by,
0:15:15 > 0:15:19and the people on that coach were old dears and extended family.
0:15:19 > 0:15:24So it just seemed like a very odd thing for The Beatles to want to do.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27The Beatles were cultural mission control,
0:15:27 > 0:15:31they were where it was at, culture was them,
0:15:31 > 0:15:35they were culture...why are they hanging around with fat old women?
0:15:35 > 0:15:37Nothing against fat old women, but I'm talking
0:15:37 > 0:15:41about the prejudices of the time of the people who would be watching.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44I don't think Americans would have gotten it.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49It was made like an art film.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53The small narrative of the bus just sort of held it together again,
0:15:53 > 0:15:58but again, it wasn't... You weren't supposed to know where it was going.
0:16:07 > 0:16:14'67, August, I arrived, I thought it was kind of a dream come true,
0:16:14 > 0:16:17because it was like a gigantic...the part
0:16:17 > 0:16:22I was focused on was a gigantic costume ball, it seemed to me.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26People were just dressed outrageously, beautifully.
0:16:26 > 0:16:28I want to do some breeches,
0:16:28 > 0:16:31some gold breeches down to the knee but with buttons
0:16:31 > 0:16:33from about there upwards.
0:16:36 > 0:16:37What is this thing you've got here?
0:16:37 > 0:16:44This button? That's a button... it's green, and it says "go".
0:16:44 > 0:16:46I can see it's green.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49Yeah, but it means "go", instead of you know all the other
0:16:49 > 0:16:53buttons that people wear that've got messages on them?Oh, yes.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56This one just says "go ahead" because it's green.
0:16:56 > 0:17:02What I loved was the contrast between the new generation,
0:17:02 > 0:17:07the music world, and the bowler- hatted, pinstriped city gents.
0:17:07 > 0:17:09Everything seemed to be nicely defined,
0:17:09 > 0:17:13which of course for an American, was fresh, because America,
0:17:13 > 0:17:17everything's supposed to be equal. People camouflage the differences.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19In England, it was clear what the differences were.
0:17:19 > 0:17:24Thing is, in the '60s, Britain was still very straight,
0:17:24 > 0:17:27there was the one British way of life.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31Businessmen still wore bowler hats and carried furled umbrellas,
0:17:31 > 0:17:36and if you deviated only quite slightly from how you were
0:17:36 > 0:17:40supposed to behave then you were very much frowned upon.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47This is still the period when they used to lock up
0:17:47 > 0:17:50children's swings on Sundays, we're talking about a very repressive,
0:17:50 > 0:17:53admittedly very benign, but still a very repressive society.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56# Cool Britannia
0:17:56 > 0:17:58# Britannia, you are cool
0:17:58 > 0:18:00# Take a trip
0:18:00 > 0:18:03# Britons ever ever ever shall be hip
0:18:03 > 0:18:04# Hit me, hit me... #
0:18:09 > 0:18:15I had a guy, and he came to paint on my wall of the extension,
0:18:15 > 0:18:19his idea of The Creation.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24And anyway, it went on and suddenly he's in the windows,
0:18:24 > 0:18:27he's all over the place, but anyway I come down...he's a hippie,
0:18:27 > 0:18:31a little hippie guy, and I see this guy and he's in the kitchen
0:18:31 > 0:18:34and he's got a suit and tie on, I said, "What happened?"
0:18:34 > 0:18:38He said, "Oh, I'm going home. Flower Power hasn't reached Leeds."
0:19:00 > 0:19:03The London sort of underground culture was really just a few
0:19:03 > 0:19:05hundred people probably, at the centre,
0:19:05 > 0:19:08and then maybe a few thousand all together.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12There were an awful lot of people who just used the sort of '60s ideas, just to have fun,
0:19:12 > 0:19:16I mean it was a hedonistic movement, very much, I mean, it wasn't
0:19:16 > 0:19:20a political movement in any of the normal senses of the word.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24Most of it was to do with hanging out on the King's Road
0:19:24 > 0:19:27and wearing frilly clothes and taking a lot of drugs
0:19:27 > 0:19:30and having a lot of sex basically.
0:19:31 > 0:19:36In London, it's still embryonic, the scene hasn't got very far at all.
0:19:36 > 0:19:38In Amsterdam, it's reached very large proportions,
0:19:38 > 0:19:43it's becoming a very big force there,
0:19:43 > 0:19:46people are getting worried by it, the older generation.
0:19:46 > 0:19:48But of course the answer they have is perfect.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52The young people are quite prepared to wait for the older generation to die out.
0:19:56 > 0:19:58This is Alexandra Palace,
0:19:58 > 0:20:03the people's palace or Ally Pally as it's known to everyone.
0:20:03 > 0:20:07And in the summer of 1967 we had a big benefit here for
0:20:07 > 0:20:10International Times, which we called The 14 Hour Technicolour Dream.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27It was because International Times had been busted for obscenity and
0:20:27 > 0:20:31we really thought that we had a big court case on our hands and needed
0:20:31 > 0:20:37to raise money, and 42 different bands and performance acts
0:20:37 > 0:20:41offered their services, all for free.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51Of course a huge number of people used it
0:20:51 > 0:20:54as an excuse to take acid, which was nice in a way because it's
0:20:54 > 0:21:00a beautiful location, you know, the grounds here are absolutely gorgeous.
0:21:00 > 0:21:01# Revolution
0:21:01 > 0:21:06# Revolution
0:21:06 > 0:21:09# Revolution
0:21:15 > 0:21:18I really wish the people who look with anger at the weirdos,
0:21:18 > 0:21:21at the happenings, at the psychedelic freak outs,
0:21:21 > 0:21:25would instead of looking with anger, just look with nothing
0:21:25 > 0:21:29and with no feeling you know, be unbiased about it,
0:21:29 > 0:21:33because they really don't realise that what these people are talking
0:21:33 > 0:21:36about is something that they really want themselves, it's something
0:21:36 > 0:21:40that everyone wants, you know, it's personal freedom to be able
0:21:40 > 0:21:44to talk and to be able to say things and it's dead straight, it's a real
0:21:44 > 0:21:48sort of basic pleasure for everyone, but it looks weird from the outside.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55So this is the original premises of Indica Books and Gallery,
0:21:55 > 0:21:58which was started by Peter Asher, John Dunbar
0:21:58 > 0:22:04and myself back in 1965 and it had a lot of very close Beatles connections,
0:22:04 > 0:22:08Paul McCartney for instance, helped put up the shelves
0:22:08 > 0:22:12and paint the walls, he was very good at filling in holes in concrete.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15There's always this gang of people from International Times,
0:22:15 > 0:22:18Indica and the whole scene, you know, it's trying to do,
0:22:18 > 0:22:26trying to see where we are now, you know it's just a straightforward...
0:22:26 > 0:22:31endeavour kind of thing, just to do something, other than what's been
0:22:31 > 0:22:34done before because what's been done before isn't necessarily the answer.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38John Lennon of course, famously met Yoko Ono here
0:22:38 > 0:22:41when we gave her her very first show in Europe.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45In addition to that, we used to have a big settee
0:22:45 > 0:22:47when it was a book shop, on the ground floor
0:22:47 > 0:22:51and that's where John Lennon first encountered the work of Timothy Leary
0:22:51 > 0:22:54and in Leary's re-writing of The Tibetan Book Of The Dead
0:22:54 > 0:22:58is where he found the line, "Turn off your mind and drift downstream."
0:22:58 > 0:23:01MUSIC: "Tomorrow Never Knows" by The Beatles
0:23:01 > 0:23:08# Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream
0:23:08 > 0:23:12# It is not dying
0:23:12 > 0:23:14# It is not dying... #
0:23:16 > 0:23:21People like Andy Warhol are trying to integrate themselves with
0:23:21 > 0:23:25a commercial world, to become a part of it,
0:23:25 > 0:23:30but also do what they want to do, this is what a breakthrough is.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36So here we are in Duke Street and at number 69 is where
0:23:36 > 0:23:39Robert Fraser had his celebrated gallery in the late '60s.
0:23:39 > 0:23:41He introduced them to a lot of artists
0:23:41 > 0:23:45and people surrounding the sort of Hollywood and New York art scene,
0:23:45 > 0:23:47people like Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52This is the story of your lives!
0:23:52 > 0:23:57The old dreams, the left placenta...
0:23:57 > 0:24:01I had a period of a few years, when I was living in London
0:24:01 > 0:24:03and I wasn't married like the other guys,
0:24:03 > 0:24:08they were living outside of London, so I would kind of probably see more
0:24:08 > 0:24:14cinema, see more theatre, go to more events, just because I was there.
0:24:14 > 0:24:21And one of the things that I got was a Super 8 camera,
0:24:21 > 0:24:26started off just doing snapshots, doing your home movies
0:24:26 > 0:24:30to go on holiday, but then I got more and more interested in it, and
0:24:30 > 0:24:35I found one that you could rewind so you could then go through again.
0:24:35 > 0:24:39I did a film that I wish I had now which was out of my hotel
0:24:39 > 0:24:45window in Paris, I filmed a gendarme on traffic duty
0:24:45 > 0:24:50and he's just stopping all the cars, so that was one roll through,
0:24:50 > 0:24:54and then the second time, he'd gone so I then just filmed all
0:24:54 > 0:24:57the traffic, so it looked like this impossible job where the
0:24:57 > 0:25:01traffic was just going through him all the time, which was nice
0:25:01 > 0:25:04enough for ten minutes, it was amusing enough for me.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08But then the nice thing was I found a soundtrack with a jazz
0:25:08 > 0:25:11saxophonist called Albert Ayler who did a wonky version
0:25:11 > 0:25:15of the Marseillaise, so while this guy is,
0:25:15 > 0:25:20"Oh, no, no, no, monsieur, oh la la," you hear this...
0:25:20 > 0:25:22HUMS THE MARSEILLAISE
0:25:24 > 0:25:26MIMICS DRUMBEAT
0:25:28 > 0:25:29FANFARE
0:25:29 > 0:25:36I was doing a lot of that, which I think is part of why I wanted to do Magical Mystery Tour.
0:25:47 > 0:25:52SAXOPHONE PLAYS THE MARSEILLAISE
0:26:06 > 0:26:07McCartney always had his antennae out,
0:26:07 > 0:26:11so those would be the avant garde kind of things he would do, but he
0:26:11 > 0:26:15would also go to the various kind of night clubs and hear torch singers
0:26:15 > 0:26:18and he used those words, that he always had his antennae out,
0:26:18 > 0:26:21stuff would go in and it might not come out for years and years.
0:26:26 > 0:26:32I went with him for instance to a concert by AMM, which was a sound band,
0:26:32 > 0:26:38which there was no noticeable rhythm or melody or anything like that.
0:26:38 > 0:26:40And McCartney after a while started to join in,
0:26:40 > 0:26:42he banged on the radiators and stuff like that.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45It was only a small group, about ten people in the audience,
0:26:45 > 0:26:49it was one of those sitting on the floor in the Royal College of Art sort of gigs.
0:26:55 > 0:26:57They've got all these rules for everything,
0:26:57 > 0:27:01rules of how to live, how to paint, how to make music, and it's
0:27:01 > 0:27:05just not true any more, you know, they don't work, all those rules.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08I think what happened with The Beatles is,
0:27:08 > 0:27:14we always thought, "Ooh, the people back home would love to know this,"
0:27:14 > 0:27:18so we felt like we were the megaphone,
0:27:18 > 0:27:21so if it was happening to us and we liked it, we thought,
0:27:21 > 0:27:24"We should let them know," because they're not down here hanging
0:27:24 > 0:27:29out with the artists but it would be good to pass on the good news.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32It was a 50/50 thing, they were influenced by what was
0:27:32 > 0:27:35going on in the underground but they themselves, by taking some of those
0:27:35 > 0:27:39ideas on board, spread the ideas so rapidly and so quickly through
0:27:39 > 0:27:43their fame, that they became sort of leaders of it, in a curious way.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47MUSIC: "A Day In The Life" by The Beatles
0:28:17 > 0:28:23I was going there and I asked Derek, "Is there anything I can bring?"
0:28:23 > 0:28:27With the emphasis on "anything", obviously pot,
0:28:27 > 0:28:32I was thinking maybe, and he said, "No, no, no, we have everything,"
0:28:32 > 0:28:38so I arrived and there's Cros and McGuinn and I was introduced to the
0:28:38 > 0:28:44lads, and then they announced that we were all going to take LSD, and
0:28:44 > 0:28:48I thought, "Hmmm, far out, I wonder how I'm going to drive this car home?"
0:28:48 > 0:28:55I assumed that it was the first time that they all had taken acid,
0:28:55 > 0:28:56it wasn't my first time,
0:28:56 > 0:28:59I doubt it was Crosby and McGuinn's first time either...
0:29:01 > 0:29:06No, I know it wasn't their first time, but for the boys, I don't know.
0:29:06 > 0:29:08# She said
0:29:08 > 0:29:12# I know what it's like to be dead
0:29:12 > 0:29:17# I know what it is to be sad
0:29:17 > 0:29:23# And she's making me feel like I've never been born... #
0:29:32 > 0:29:38# Well, in a villa in a little old Italian town... #
0:29:38 > 0:29:42Some beautiful underground stuff was happening, but it was underground
0:29:42 > 0:29:44and we needed to get above ground.
0:29:44 > 0:29:50# Many yearn to love her but their hopes all tumble down... #
0:29:50 > 0:29:54I was already a tremendous fan of Bruce Conner,
0:29:54 > 0:29:58he had a style of editing that was very influential on me
0:29:58 > 0:30:01as a shooter and as an editor and as a performer,
0:30:01 > 0:30:06because I spent a lot of time with him looking at his films.
0:30:06 > 0:30:08# Just a cold and lonely
0:30:08 > 0:30:12# Lovely work of art...#
0:30:12 > 0:30:20We had our own art, we had our own poetry, our own music and songs, lyrics,
0:30:20 > 0:30:26we had our own books, we had our own costumes, we had our own music,
0:30:26 > 0:30:31everything, we had all these... Whoa, we don't have our own film.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35Paul and Brian were sitting on a big settee,
0:30:35 > 0:30:38very long red settee similar to this and they had a number of papers
0:30:38 > 0:30:43in front of them, particularly Epstein had a pie chart
0:30:43 > 0:30:47and they were already planning who would do what in a film.
0:30:54 > 0:30:58Epstein was delighted of course because they'd just finished
0:30:58 > 0:31:00a major album, they were no longer touring,
0:31:00 > 0:31:03they hadn't really got a great deal to do,
0:31:03 > 0:31:06and he was quite clearly very, very enthusiastic about the whole thing.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23He was just a beautiful fella you know, and it's terrible.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26What are your plans now? Well, we haven't made any,
0:31:26 > 0:31:29I mean, we've only just heard, haven't we?
0:31:31 > 0:31:34Epstein had a little office in an ultra modern building with
0:31:34 > 0:31:38a parking space underneath it, and they were all in there,
0:31:38 > 0:31:43I didn't know what the hell it was all about, and they said to me,
0:31:43 > 0:31:47"We've said to Epstein we want to make this film," and I think
0:31:47 > 0:31:50they thought that now that he was dead they would go ahead,
0:31:50 > 0:31:54they wanted to go ahead and make it anyway, and this was an important
0:31:54 > 0:31:58sort of genuflection to the work that they had done with Brian,
0:31:58 > 0:32:05and they did try at that point to express, they wanted to be free and easy and
0:32:05 > 0:32:09not be constricted by the studio system and the things that were in it.
0:32:09 > 0:32:10They had the opportunity
0:32:10 > 0:32:14and the money to do something that nobody else would have been
0:32:14 > 0:32:18able to do, and therefore it is a unique piece of filmmaking.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21You could almost call it a vanity, like a vanity publication
0:32:21 > 0:32:25of what they were doing, but it was more than that.
0:32:35 > 0:32:39# Walking down a very narrow alley in the street
0:32:39 > 0:32:45# I saw an old man standing by a wall
0:32:45 > 0:32:49# Hastily, I ran up to the old man
0:32:49 > 0:32:53# And I said to him in phrases very small
0:32:53 > 0:32:57# Get away from the wall
0:32:57 > 0:33:01# Get away from the wall
0:33:01 > 0:33:06# Get away from the wall... #
0:33:08 > 0:33:11Ivor Cutler we knew, of course, because he had those great records.
0:33:15 > 0:33:19I'm sure somebody saw, Nat Jackley, was his name?
0:33:19 > 0:33:21You know, on a show or something.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42MUTTERS QUICKLY
0:33:46 > 0:33:50The other thing we used to do, at night,
0:33:50 > 0:33:54we'd go through the Artists Need Work books
0:33:54 > 0:33:58and we'd go, "Oh, yeah, he looks good," or "Oh, yeah look at that person!"
0:33:58 > 0:33:59and we'd just pick 'em out the book.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07# Oh, baby, you made me love you
0:34:07 > 0:34:12# I didn't wanna do it I didn't wanna do it...#
0:34:12 > 0:34:14ACCORDION MUSIC PLAYS
0:34:23 > 0:34:26APPLAUSE AND CHEERY ORGAN MUSIC
0:34:34 > 0:34:37MARCHING BAND MUSIC
0:34:47 > 0:34:50Good morning, lads and lasses,
0:34:50 > 0:34:53my name is Miss Winters. I just wanted to say,
0:34:53 > 0:34:56if there's anything I can do to be of assistance,
0:34:56 > 0:34:58you know what to do.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01I think what happened with The Beatles was, if you were around,
0:35:01 > 0:35:03you were on the bus, you know,
0:35:03 > 0:35:06if you'd been wherever the bus set off from that day
0:35:06 > 0:35:09and they thought you were all right, you'd have been on the bus.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13Would you like to come on a coach trip with The Beatles?
0:35:13 > 0:35:15They're making a film.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18They're making a film, that's it, that's all we knew.
0:35:18 > 0:35:20I think we had two days' notice
0:35:20 > 0:35:23Yeah, we got it on the Friday and had to go on the Monday
0:35:28 > 0:35:31I left my job on the Friday, and I didn't go back on the Monday.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35And I did lose it, but it was worth it.
0:35:35 > 0:35:37Yeah. Yeah.
0:35:39 > 0:35:41I don't know the rest of the words.
0:35:41 > 0:35:43You can 'la-la' it darling.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46Yeah, just sing, if you don't know the words...
0:35:46 > 0:35:49Are we on?Yeah we're running
0:35:52 > 0:35:55# Oh, yesterday... #
0:35:55 > 0:35:58Do you like your old Auntie, darling?
0:35:58 > 0:36:00Oh, you're all right, you're one of the best.
0:36:00 > 0:36:04# All my troubles seemed so far away... #
0:36:06 > 0:36:07That bus was hysterical!
0:36:07 > 0:36:11All the people on the bus, too, whoa, you know, what a great thought.
0:36:13 > 0:36:16There was something very musical, very dance-like about the
0:36:16 > 0:36:20editing of the Magical Mystery Tour number on the bus.
0:36:20 > 0:36:23The freedom of the camera along with the restraint of the characters
0:36:23 > 0:36:26looking towards the lens. For me this has always stayed,
0:36:26 > 0:36:28it's one of my favourite moments in movies.
0:36:30 > 0:36:33And that stayed with me over the years and I think actually looking back at it,
0:36:33 > 0:36:36has influenced a lot of the work I've done.
0:36:50 > 0:36:52Listen, this film.Oh, yeah
0:36:52 > 0:36:56Tell me something about the storyline?
0:36:56 > 0:37:00Well, you see, it's about a group of common or garden strange
0:37:00 > 0:37:04people on a coach tour, around anywhere, really,
0:37:04 > 0:37:09and things happen to them, you see, something will go diddly dee,
0:37:09 > 0:37:12di diddly dee, Magical Mystery Tour, and there's a little scene...
0:37:12 > 0:37:14You've got them!
0:37:14 > 0:37:16I've got what?
0:37:16 > 0:37:17You've got them on your head
0:37:17 > 0:37:21Oh, where are they, do you want to knock 'em off?Yeah.Go on then.
0:37:24 > 0:37:30It was lovely to see John being so comfortable in playing with
0:37:30 > 0:37:34this little girl, but it's a side of John that you never really saw.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37Put it on your hat!
0:37:37 > 0:37:43And I must say I don't think I'd really seen it much to that point.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51I'd love to say there was this incredible master plan,
0:37:51 > 0:37:53but, er, there wasn't.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01We thought it might be a good idea to go towards Cornwall,
0:38:01 > 0:38:06where I think we'd had fond childhood memories.
0:38:06 > 0:38:11I'd hitchhiked down there when I was a kid, George and I had done that.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16I don't think we ever really were told the reasoning
0:38:16 > 0:38:20behind much of it, it was just, "This is going to happen and
0:38:20 > 0:38:23"so and so is going to be doing this and so and so is going to be doing that."
0:38:23 > 0:38:27And we just did it, to be honest, it was...spontaneous
0:38:27 > 0:38:29I think is the word.Yes.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32Spontaneous.That's a very good word, yeah.
0:38:41 > 0:38:44You didn't have time to think about it because it was all sort of happening,
0:38:44 > 0:38:48but then if you analysed what was happening, you really didn't know anyway, did you?
0:38:48 > 0:38:51You couldn't really put your finger on what was happening.
0:38:56 > 0:39:01Paul always had a tremendous interest in spontaneity and random
0:39:01 > 0:39:07events and effects, a very '60s thing of course, but random in his
0:39:07 > 0:39:13sense would be an accidental trick of the light or a superimposition.
0:39:13 > 0:39:19# Oh, whoa, whoa...
0:39:19 > 0:39:23# Round and round and round
0:39:23 > 0:39:25# And round and round
0:39:27 > 0:39:31# He never listens to them
0:39:31 > 0:39:33# He knows that they're the fools... #
0:39:33 > 0:39:36How do you frankly feel about all the reporters and all the rest of us
0:39:36 > 0:39:40following you around?It's OK. You don't mind us?Well...
0:39:40 > 0:39:42We don't get on your nerves?No, you're not all that bad.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45What's the film going to be all about?
0:39:45 > 0:39:47It's a mystery...to me.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53Keep back, please. Excuse us.
0:39:54 > 0:39:58Well, what one could see very clearly were the sequences,
0:39:58 > 0:40:03but how the sequences related to each other, how they juxtaposed
0:40:03 > 0:40:08themselves in terms of an overall story, I could never see.
0:40:14 > 0:40:16There was almost like,
0:40:16 > 0:40:19improvisation where everyone gets into the groove and then
0:40:19 > 0:40:22they start expanding on that, and to be honest with you, I don't remember
0:40:22 > 0:40:25if they mimed to play back, I guess they did, actually they must have.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29Because all of a sudden, I remember the first time the sound guy testing and you
0:40:29 > 0:40:32hear one of the tracks booming out over the Kent countryside, it was amazing.
0:40:32 > 0:40:36And everybody was like galvanised, the energy that the music gave them.
0:40:36 > 0:40:39# I am the eggman
0:40:39 > 0:40:41# They are the eggmen
0:40:41 > 0:40:45# I am the walrus, goo goo goo joob... #
0:40:45 > 0:40:48Already there was abstract qualities in their humour and their writing
0:40:48 > 0:40:52and their approach to all sorts of stuff and I think the film
0:40:52 > 0:40:56was a sort of natural progression, all came out of that culture.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05I thought it was brilliant, I did, I just thought it was like anarchic.
0:41:08 > 0:41:10# Crying
0:41:10 > 0:41:14# I'm crying... #
0:41:14 > 0:41:17When we were doing, what was it, it was the Walrus scene or
0:41:17 > 0:41:21something like that, Paul got me up about two in the morning,
0:41:21 > 0:41:24he said, "We want a dozen midget wrestlers for tomorrow."
0:41:25 > 0:41:28Dozen midgets, you know. I said, "How the hell do
0:41:28 > 0:41:32"I get a dozen midgets down here in time to shoot tomorrow morning?" He said, "I don't know."
0:41:32 > 0:41:35I mean, it was worse than the Hollywood system, you know,
0:41:35 > 0:41:37because Hollywood had real power.
0:41:37 > 0:41:40But that's what I did, and they were produced.
0:41:44 > 0:41:49The sequences were just suggested,
0:41:49 > 0:41:53often by memories from our childhood, things that we'd
0:41:53 > 0:41:57remembered or we'd remembered seeing or doing ourselves.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00Action!
0:42:00 > 0:42:03So, for instance, a tug of war
0:42:03 > 0:42:07was something you'd see at all the village fetes,
0:42:07 > 0:42:11there'd often be a tug of war between
0:42:11 > 0:42:14the burly men of the neighbourhood.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18So, a lot of these things found their way in as ideas.
0:42:21 > 0:42:26I suppose the whole film has a bit of a village fete atmosphere to it.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32It's all their childhood memories, all being jumbled up
0:42:32 > 0:42:37and juxtaposed, coming out as a series of fairly surreal images.
0:42:39 > 0:42:43Don't get upset, don't expect something other than
0:42:43 > 0:42:47The Beatles, if you expect The Beatles, you're getting them,
0:42:47 > 0:42:50full force, they are really there, much more than
0:42:50 > 0:42:54they were in Help and much more than they were in Hard Day's Night.
0:42:54 > 0:42:57They were really there because it was all their thing, they were
0:42:57 > 0:43:01shooting, they were deciding what to say, what to wear, how to do this.
0:43:02 > 0:43:05In that way it was a Magical Mystery Tour of them.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08# Sitting on a cornflake
0:43:10 > 0:43:14# Waiting for the van to come
0:43:14 > 0:43:18# Corporation tee-shirt Stupid bloody Tuesday
0:43:18 > 0:43:22# Man, you've been a naughty boy You let your face grow long
0:43:22 > 0:43:27# I'm the eggman, they are the eggmen
0:43:27 > 0:43:30# I am the walrus, goo goo goo joob... #
0:43:46 > 0:43:51It seems to me now that Magical Mystery Tour is an attempt
0:43:51 > 0:43:55to fuse those elements of quintessential Englishness,
0:43:55 > 0:44:02which made The Beatles feel like the people they were,
0:44:02 > 0:44:06with the advanced psychedelic elements
0:44:06 > 0:44:11that they had introduced into the culture. It's a graft.
0:44:11 > 0:44:16# There's a fog upon LA
0:44:16 > 0:44:22# And my friends have lost their way... #
0:44:22 > 0:44:25Well, shooting Blue Jay Way was great, George had written
0:44:25 > 0:44:28that song because he'd stayed on Blue Jay Way in America.
0:44:29 > 0:44:35And I was just always interested in cameras and lenses,
0:44:35 > 0:44:42and I had all those prism lenses and close-up macro lenses
0:44:42 > 0:44:46and things, and so it sort of went with it,
0:44:46 > 0:44:51"Oh, I'll bring my cameras, and you'll sit over there, and it'll be
0:44:51 > 0:44:55"you know, smoky or whatever, and I'll just shoot it through these."
0:44:56 > 0:45:01And in those days, thanks to...
0:45:01 > 0:45:04some medication,
0:45:04 > 0:45:07it was the most exciting thing we'd ever seen!
0:45:09 > 0:45:13# Ask a policeman on the street
0:45:13 > 0:45:17# There's so many there to meet... #
0:45:19 > 0:45:21I think you can really feel the influence of the
0:45:21 > 0:45:25avant-garde cinema at the time, they all took their own home movies, etc,
0:45:25 > 0:45:30and always experimenting with this imagery and so it seemed natural
0:45:30 > 0:45:33that they would try to create something that was certainly not
0:45:33 > 0:45:37the traditional narrative they had worked with in the Richard Lester
0:45:37 > 0:45:41films which were quite wonderful, but in a very, very different way.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44Almost like making their own movie paintings, music pieces,
0:45:44 > 0:45:49dance pieces, and it wasn't cinema, it was something else.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52# Please don't you be very long
0:45:52 > 0:45:56# Please don't be long... #
0:45:56 > 0:45:59There was always good songs, there was a couple of good songs,
0:45:59 > 0:46:02and there was a few funny scenes.
0:46:02 > 0:46:05I mean, the scene to me that stands out, is the one of John
0:46:05 > 0:46:09shovelling the spaghetti onto the fat woman's plate.
0:46:09 > 0:46:11I mean, that was the best bit of the movie for me.
0:46:12 > 0:46:16Paul showed me what his idea was and this is how it went,
0:46:16 > 0:46:18it went round like this, the story and production.
0:46:18 > 0:46:23He says, "Here's the segment, you write a little piece for that."
0:46:23 > 0:46:27And I thought, "Fucking hell, I've never made a film, what does he mean?" He said, "Write a script,"
0:46:27 > 0:46:30so I ran off and wrote the dream sequence for the fat woman
0:46:30 > 0:46:32and all the thing with the spaghetti and all that.
0:46:35 > 0:46:37Action!
0:46:39 > 0:46:43John and Paul basically would put their heads together
0:46:43 > 0:46:48and come back and they'd say, "Right, this is what we want to do tomorrow."
0:46:48 > 0:46:50Something as simple as you know, half a tonne of spaghetti,
0:46:50 > 0:46:53and you have to get George Cook out of bed and say,
0:46:53 > 0:46:57"George, first thing you do is send your buyer down to get as much spaghetti as there is."
0:46:59 > 0:47:02I do remember watching John on rehearsal or whatever,
0:47:02 > 0:47:06and the pleasure he got, like a kid playing with mud.
0:47:06 > 0:47:09Slopping out all this spaghetti on that woman.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13ACCORDION MUSIC PLAYS
0:47:29 > 0:47:33I mean, there are bits of it that are silly, and a bit self-indulgent but on the other hand
0:47:33 > 0:47:37it's not pretentious, I don't think they ever were.
0:47:37 > 0:47:39They always managed to keep the right side of that line
0:47:39 > 0:47:46and where you had Paul wanting to reflect his background,
0:47:46 > 0:47:50John would come along, literally Spaniard In The Works and give it
0:47:50 > 0:47:55that edge and made it sinister, and bits of Magical Mystery Tour
0:47:55 > 0:47:59are actually quite frightening, and quite scary, and that's John.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02I can hardly get my breath.
0:48:04 > 0:48:08It's intake, Jessie, not output.
0:48:08 > 0:48:15I am, I am! I am already, three times this week already.
0:48:15 > 0:48:18For goodness sake, Jessie, sit down.
0:48:20 > 0:48:27When you talk about Bunuel, everyone was so shocked to see that shot of
0:48:27 > 0:48:29him apparently cutting an eye.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36and I remember how shocking it was to see that.
0:48:36 > 0:48:40Now you look back on it and go, that was a very important thing in
0:48:40 > 0:48:45the history of cinema. You probably couldn't have had Psycho without that.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48And that's the nice thing that happens with these things.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51I mean I don't want to elevate Magical Mystery Tour
0:48:51 > 0:48:53to the great heights of, you know,
0:48:53 > 0:48:56the most important things in cinema history,
0:48:56 > 0:48:59but I think in a lesser way,
0:48:59 > 0:49:04it did set a tone that then people could pick up,
0:49:04 > 0:49:07and sort of say, "Well, if they've done that, we could do this."
0:49:15 > 0:49:19It's not worrying too much about your public image at that point I think.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22It's about what you want to do. Here's an opportunity to make a film,
0:49:22 > 0:49:25what do you want to put in this film, what scene do you want to do?
0:49:25 > 0:49:28So, I admire it from that point of view.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31Ladies and Gentlemen, when the coach stops,
0:49:31 > 0:49:36would the gentlemen please follow Mr Johnson, and the ladies, stay with me?
0:49:36 > 0:49:39It is immensely entertaining because you don't know where
0:49:39 > 0:49:41it's going to go next, suddenly you're in a strip club.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44Off we go, a jolly evening with jolly Jimmy.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00Come on, where are they?
0:50:00 > 0:50:04I do remember Viv being rather sort of miffed at the thought,
0:50:04 > 0:50:07because Paul suggested he wore a kind of chiffony scarf
0:50:07 > 0:50:08to look more trendy.
0:50:08 > 0:50:13And I don't think Viv took kindly to that, but he did it.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20# The cab was racing through the night, mmm-mm-mm
0:50:20 > 0:50:24# Baby, don't do it
0:50:24 > 0:50:28# His eyes in the mirror, keeping Cutie in sight, uh-huh-huh
0:50:28 > 0:50:31# Baby, don't do it... #
0:50:31 > 0:50:34I think we related to them because they were mischievous and funny,
0:50:34 > 0:50:38but we didn't care about show business particularly.
0:50:38 > 0:50:40# Baby, curves can kill
0:50:40 > 0:50:42# Death-cab for Cutie...#
0:50:42 > 0:50:46We had a lot of that kind of art school world in common,
0:50:46 > 0:50:48you know, we'd all seen the art movies,
0:50:48 > 0:50:51we'd all seen the certain paintings. We knew Magritte and things
0:50:51 > 0:50:56like that, and you know, when you're twentysomethings, you like them
0:50:56 > 0:51:00so you want to kind of embrace them in a way and use them in things.
0:51:00 > 0:51:02And so if, you know, we had,
0:51:02 > 0:51:07robots or masks or things like that, we offered them up as images.
0:51:07 > 0:51:11# Someone's gonna make you pay your fare
0:51:15 > 0:51:19# Someone's gonna make you pay your fare
0:51:22 > 0:51:29# Someone's gonna make you pay your fare! #
0:51:33 > 0:51:38We have no idea what the film was going to be like, but there was
0:51:38 > 0:51:42a kind of clue in the title, you know, Magical Mystery Tour,
0:51:42 > 0:51:45it's a clever title because you can pretty much do anything, you know.
0:51:45 > 0:51:47# Death-cab for Cutie
0:51:47 > 0:51:51# Death-cab for Cutie...#
0:51:51 > 0:51:53I was sitting in front of my dad on the floor,
0:51:53 > 0:51:55he was sitting in the chair and I was like,
0:51:55 > 0:51:58resting against the arm of the chair and the stripper came on and
0:51:58 > 0:52:01as it started to get sort of, more and more risque I suddenly found
0:52:01 > 0:52:05this hankie being draped across my eyes, which was quite embarrassing
0:52:05 > 0:52:07for me because obviously I thought I was so grown up at 11 years old.
0:52:09 > 0:52:14Magical Mystery Tour, I think it was telling the older generation
0:52:14 > 0:52:17that things were changing, that's how I felt,
0:52:17 > 0:52:21that the old routines were going to change.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24I think probably my dad may have found it a bit scary.
0:52:48 > 0:52:53Sir, I am sorry that Mr Norman Hare disliked Magical Mystery Tour.
0:52:53 > 0:52:57We are an elderly couple and had never seen or heard of The Beatles.
0:52:57 > 0:53:02The film entranced us and was all too short.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06I thought it a clever blend of all too real life and pure magic.
0:53:07 > 0:53:10They achieved the atmosphere of a coach tour perfectly,
0:53:10 > 0:53:14the surge of humanity from the coach at each stop, the sad wet sands
0:53:14 > 0:53:18of the inevitable dead low tide on West Country beaches.
0:53:19 > 0:53:22These and other points were cleverly heightened by the fantastic
0:53:22 > 0:53:25dream or nightmare sequences,
0:53:25 > 0:53:27also familiar to the coach tourer who has nodded off.
0:53:29 > 0:53:31The photography was imaginative and original
0:53:31 > 0:53:36and I laughed till I cried several times.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39But I fear they will not make another film like it,
0:53:39 > 0:53:42and perhaps they had better not try.
0:53:42 > 0:53:47Yours faithfully, Ann Lee Michelle (Mrs). Milverton, Somerset.
0:53:50 > 0:53:53FIDDLE MUSIC
0:54:09 > 0:54:15I think there is within them, a kind of English idea of subversion,
0:54:15 > 0:54:19rather than the American idea of subversion, of stone throwing
0:54:19 > 0:54:22and that sort of thing, so it's much subtler,
0:54:22 > 0:54:25because England as itself is a very different place,
0:54:25 > 0:54:29observing it for 50 years as a foreigner, an outsider.
0:54:29 > 0:54:34The way the English respond and change is quite different
0:54:34 > 0:54:37from the way other nations, they don't actually go at it head on.
0:54:46 > 0:54:50It's a sort of travelogue, it's a sort of documentary,
0:54:50 > 0:54:53it's a sort of slice of British working class life.
0:54:53 > 0:54:58It has so many goodies in it, but I can understand why establishment
0:54:58 > 0:55:02felt threatened by what The Beatles were doing, because you know,
0:55:02 > 0:55:05if everyone grows their hair long who's going to be in the army?
0:55:05 > 0:55:09Get your bloody hair cut!
0:55:10 > 0:55:12For me, it certainly still holds up.
0:55:12 > 0:55:17The imagery was created without CGI at a time when it was
0:55:17 > 0:55:21all photochemical, and some of it we may have gotten used to now.
0:55:21 > 0:55:23Now of course, the emphasis on professionalism,
0:55:23 > 0:55:27and polish and politeness is very, very...has come back now
0:55:27 > 0:55:32with a vengeance, it's expected and there's a tendency to forget
0:55:32 > 0:55:36that's really only one choice, you know, one way of going.
0:55:40 > 0:55:42I think it's brilliant, I think it's just a laugh,
0:55:42 > 0:55:45and I don't think that's just because of our memories,
0:55:45 > 0:55:48I think it's just a piece of film that would be enjoyable.
0:55:48 > 0:55:53I don't care what the people think about it, I'm still proud to be part of it.Yes, yeah.
0:55:53 > 0:55:57THEY SING
0:56:01 > 0:56:07It's a charming acknowledgement, and indeed perhaps a profession,
0:56:07 > 0:56:11in a very positive way, of these are the people we are,
0:56:11 > 0:56:14and these are the people we've become, mixed together.
0:56:18 > 0:56:21# Let's all get up and dance to a song
0:56:21 > 0:56:24# That was a hit before your mother was born
0:56:24 > 0:56:30# Though she was a born a long, long time ago... #
0:56:30 > 0:56:32Ha. God, he's the worst dancer!
0:56:34 > 0:56:37# Your mother should know
0:56:37 > 0:56:40# Sing it again... #
0:56:40 > 0:56:43Yeah, Your Mother Should Know, the dancing boys.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46How great.
0:56:46 > 0:56:50# Before your mother was born...#
0:56:50 > 0:56:52Who choreographed that?
0:56:52 > 0:56:55I don't know if we did that or not, it looked too real for us,
0:56:55 > 0:57:01because it was all...you know, I'd like to say I did but I don't know.
0:57:14 > 0:57:17You can see that in some of the segments we'd had no idea,
0:57:17 > 0:57:19there's just a smiley face in number four,
0:57:19 > 0:57:22so that was like, "We'll think of something fun."
0:57:28 > 0:57:32And I think we thought that just to have an improvised film would give
0:57:32 > 0:57:39us a lot of freedom and would also show the kind of playfulness and the
0:57:39 > 0:57:43freedom that we were experiencing as The Beatles at that time.
0:57:44 > 0:57:48However, we realised we had to have something to show people,
0:57:48 > 0:57:50and when the cameraman would say, "Where do you want me to be?"
0:57:50 > 0:57:54you'd say, "On the coach, in the morning, 9 o'clock,"
0:57:54 > 0:57:56and then we thought, well, that's enough information.
0:57:56 > 0:57:59# Your mother should know
0:57:59 > 0:58:03# Your mother should know
0:58:03 > 0:58:05# Your mother should know... #
0:58:05 > 0:58:08You know, you could argue that, oh, The Beatles caught the bus,
0:58:08 > 0:58:12but The Beatles didn't catch the bus, they were the bus.
0:58:12 > 0:58:15# Roll up
0:58:15 > 0:58:19# Roll up for the mystery tour
0:58:19 > 0:58:23# Roll up And that's an invitation
0:58:23 > 0:58:27# Roll up for the mystery tour
0:58:27 > 0:58:30# Roll up To make a reservation
0:58:30 > 0:58:33# Roll up for the mystery tour
0:58:33 > 0:58:41# The magical mystery tour is coming to take you away
0:58:41 > 0:58:45# Coming to take you away
0:58:45 > 0:58:52# The magical mystery tour is dying to take you away
0:58:52 > 0:58:57# Dying to take you away Take you today. #