The Beatles Films Podcast

Latest Episodes:

A Hard Day's Night (Part 6: And a room) Aug 24, 2026

Show notes

More chasing and more studied pointlessness as we head into the film's final scenes. We look at the Buster Keaton influence on the escalating police chase scenes, and ask whether Ringo is actually back where he belongs when he rejoins the group, given that there's been no narrative resolution of his earlier discontent. We look at the filming and editing techniques of the concert scene, and have a look at John's final words for Grandfather.

A Hard Day's Night is often on BBC iPlayer, although not at the moment, and available to rent on a few streaming services. https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/a-hard-days-night There's also a good quality copy on YouTube at the moment, which might of course be taken down soon. Do yourself a favour and buy the Blu-ray anyway.
Get Samira Ahmed's excellent book about the film, from the BFI Modern Classics series: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/hard-days-night-9781839029394/
The 1905 film The Life of Charles Peace: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCNuY7SH6YY
Buster Keaton's Cops: https://youtu.be/_JdW1vJbKCY
The film's car thief John Bluthal as the Leaning Tower of Pisa replica salesman in Superman III: https://youtu.be/Vvz6MTymE-U
The Young Ones episode "Boring" has the discriminatory language we refer to cut out on BBC iPlayer but you can find the original scene if you're interested enough to Google it. This does have an Abbey Road visual gag for good measure though: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00bfqm6/the-young-ones-series-1-3-boring

Meet the Beatles Films Podcast

The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.

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A Hard Day's Night (Part 5: And a room) Aug 17, 2026

Show notes

(Ringo's Theme.) We get on to Ringo Starr's real introduction to the world as an actor, when everyone thought "Hey, he's not bad at this, is he?" In particular he does a great job with Wilfred Brambell in the canteen, convincing us he's slowly becoming persuaded to leave the group. We spend some time parading with Ringo, looking at his interactions with the boy and in the pub.

A Hard Day's Night is often on BBC iPlayer, although not at the moment, and available to rent on a few streaming services. https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/a-hard-days-night There's also a good quality copy on YouTube at the moment, which might of course be taken down soon. Do yourself a favour and buy the Blu-ray anyway.
Get Samira Ahmed's excellent book about the film, from the BFI Modern Classics series: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/hard-days-night-9781839029394/
Ringo's handwritten lyrics to Octopus's Garden: https://www.beatlesbible.com/gallery/lyrics/lyrics-octopuss-garden_01/
A little article about Paul McCartney's selfie from his Eyes of the Storm exhibition: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c741wvwk3qvo
The opening sequence of Superman III, in which Gordon Rollings, having had Ringo throw a dart in his sandwich, is part of a domino rally of mishaps: https://youtu.be/P9BwmdEfrDk
Ringo's book, Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver, a pen name for John D Voelker: https://share.google/ASKJ6NDsUVGkXcIe0

Meet the Beatles Films Podcast

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A Hard Day's Night (Part 4: And a room) Aug 10, 2026

Show notes

Part 4 takes in three of the film's key solo spots: John Lennon's scene with Anna Quayle, George Harrison in the teen TV show office, and Paul McCartney fronting the Beatles' performance of And I Love Her.

A Hard Day's Night is often on BBC iPlayer, although not at the moment, and available to rent on a few streaming services. https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/a-hard-days-night There's also a good quality copy on YouTube at the moment, which might of course be taken down soon. Do yourself a favour and buy the Blu-ray anyway.
Get Samira Ahmed's excellent book about the film, from the BFI Modern Classics series: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/hard-days-night-9781839029394/
The picture of George Harrison scowling, and the context: https://www.reddit.com/r/beatles/comments/1lh31ss/i_heard_george_loved_this_photo_so_much_he_had_a/
Joe Lycett talking about he and James Acaster being mistaken for one another: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Wa91yrX2d8M
How to Be Cool by Philip Pullman: https://share.google/HyHlY8dpVwsurWT6o
Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront came out a full decade earlier than we thought it might have: 1954. Still, our point stands, probably.
Dexy's Midnight Runners performing Jackie Wilson said on Top of the Pops in 1982 with an image of darts player Jocky Wilson behind them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwcBkRUifmY

Meet the Beatles Films Podcast

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A Hard Day's Night (Part 3: And a car) Aug 03, 2026

Show notes

From the hotel to the TV studio. We see the Beatles at a press event, which revisits one of the film's themes: that Beatlemania persists with or without the Beatles themselves. We get into more class dynamics between Ringo Starr and the sound engineer ("Aren't you being rather arbitrary?") and John Lennon's delivery of If I Fell gets us into discussing whether he could sing love songs straightforwardly without undercutting them with a joke, something which Paul McCartney didn't struggle with.

A Hard Day's Night is often on BBC iPlayer, although not at the moment, and available to rent on a few streaming services. https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/a-hard-days-night There's also a good quality copy on YouTube at the moment, which might of course be taken down soon. Do yourself a favour and buy the Blu-ray anyway.
Get Samira Ahmed's excellent book about the film, from the BFI Modern Classics series: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/hard-days-night-9781839029394/
The scene we mention from Richard Lester's Superman II, in which General Zod walks on water and an onlooker throws away his drink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aISDPLtY-28

Meet the Beatles Films Podcast

But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:

Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod
Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/beatlesfilmspod.bsky.social
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast
Threads https://www.threads.net/@beatlesfilmspod
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622

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A Hard Day's Night (Part 2: And a room) Jul 27, 2026

Show notes

Part 2 covers roughly the next 12 minutes of Richard Lester's film. We look at the absurdist downplayed reaction to finding an intruder in your hotel room cupboard, and the generational disconnect in how comfortable the Beatles seem in the nightclub, vs how grandfather can only fit in at the casino by pretending to be someone else. Plus! The class dynamics in Ringo Starr's jump-dancing with a posh fellow clubgoer, and some more magic realism in John Lennon's bathtub scene.

A Hard Day's Night is often on BBC iPlayer, although not at the moment, and available to rent on a few streaming services. https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/a-hard-days-night There's also a good quality copy on YouTube at the moment, which might of course be taken down soon. Do yourself a favour and buy the Blu-ray anyway.
Get Samira Ahmed's excellent book about the film, from the BFI Modern Classics series: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/hard-days-night-9781839029394/
James Wood in Prospect magazine in 2000, coining the term "hysterical realism" with reference to, among other books, Zadie Smith's White Teeth: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/56397/hysterical-realism
Watch the 2024 Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/a-complete-unknown

Meet the Beatles Films Podcast

But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:

Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod
Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/beatlesfilmspod.bsky.social
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast
Threads https://www.threads.net/@beatlesfilmspod
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622

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A Hard Day's Night (Part 1: A train) Jul 20, 2026

Show notes

Come 'ead, then. We start by looking at roughly the first 16 minutes of the Beatles' 1964 film debut. Expect a detailed breakdown of their first dialogue scene in the train carriage ("Who's that little old man?"), and how it establishes straight away through absurdist techniques that these characters don't inhabit a strict reality, giving Richard Lester licence to do more or less what he wants from now on. We unpack the generational and class dynamics at play in the scene with the train commuter ("I bet you're sorry you won!") and discuss, in frankly more detail than anyone wants, whether or not the film is a musical.

A Hard Day's Night is often on BBC iPlayer, although not at the moment, and available to rent on a few streaming services. https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/a-hard-days-night There's also a good quality copy on YouTube at the moment, which might of course be taken down soon. Do yourself a favour and buy the Blu-ray anyway.
Get Samira Ahmed's excellent book about the film, from the BFI Modern Classics series: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/hard-days-night-9781839029394/
Guns N' Roses' November Rain video, which as explained would not exist without I Should've Known Better: https://youtu.be/8SbUC-UaAxE
The Proclaimers jukebox musical Sunshine on Leith, which is great: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/sunshine-on-leith
A bit more on Theatre of the absurd: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_the_absurd

Meet the Beatles Films Podcast

But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:

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Snodgrass (with David Quantick) Jul 06, 2026

Show notes

Ian Hart's third outing as John Lennon was 2013's Snodgrass, adapted by David Quantick from Ian R MacLeod's short story. Aired as part of the Sky Arts Playhouse series, it deals with a Lennon who left The Beatles in 1962 following his refusal to record How Do You Do It. With John now 50, bitter but insisting he did the right thing, it asks: where does creativity go when it has no outlet? We discuss this and its alternative timeline of a Beatles who went on to be nearly as big as The Hollies. Then we're joined by David Quantick to talk about how the project came to be and his attempts to make a feature-length version, the process of trying to capture Lennonian wit in dialogue, and his views on the Sam Mendes biopics and Paul McCartney's latest output, The Boys of Dungeon Lane.

You can watch Snodgrass, albeit not in great quality, on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek89aSrwMN0
What is probably a better quality version is on Vimeo, but you need an age-verified account because it's supposedly "mature content": https://vimeo.com/240214664
David's website, including links to buy his books, is at https://davidquantick.com
Martin Carr's solo work is released under his own name: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3b02YDnufwl9CPIblMomrD and under the name bravecaptain: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4IpVpd0lNWwyReKr5MkloY
Beatles Forever by ELO (we apologise in advance): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4g3JgwYFio
David's mention of a film called The Ballad of John and Yoko starring "a McGann" is a reference to John and Yoko: A Love Story, which is on our list.

Meet the Beatles Films Podcast

But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:

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Raga Jun 29, 2026

Show notes

In Apple Films' 1971 documentary, Ravi Shankar is pondering whether he's diluted his beloved Indian classical music by promoting it to the West, through his association with George Harrison and The Beatles. We look at how the film explores this, and how it emphasises the spiritual connection necessary to perform the music, through techniques like focusing on the musicians' eye contact while playing. Plus! Was George actually rubbish at the sitar?

Watch the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvwf53_ZPEM
The final scene of Mad Men, in a very similar setting to the Esalen Institute, where Ravi and George practise sitar in Raga: https://youtu.be/LKPI56zW5AA

Meet the Beatles Films Podcast

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200 Motels Jun 22, 2026

Show notes

We're in agreement: this is the worst film we've covered. Yes, worse than Sextette. Ringo Starr's role in Frank Zappa's 1971 freakout film seems like it could've gone to anyone: is there a specific reason for using him as a Zappa avatar in this film? We also talk Zappa and free speech: do the arguably puerile lyrics undermine the virtuoso musicianship of Zappa and the Mothers of Invention? And did John Lennon and Yoko Ono rip off a Zappa song after they played together?

A WARNING: there is more effing and jeffing in this episode than usual, because of the necessity to quote some of the dialogue to discuss it.

Watch 200 Motels: https://m.ok.ru/video/1559126346278
The documentary The True Story of 200 Motels: https://youtu.be/hHupp3ZDKAk
Théâtre du Grand-Guignol: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Guignol
Cirque de Clunes on Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge: https://youtu.be/hPQHHP7dfjU
Benson Boone: https://youtube.com/@bensonboone
The Darkness: https://youtube.com/@theactualdarkness
Jamrag/King Kong, as of 2025's Power to the People box set, now credits Zappa as a writer: https://youtu.be/4BDPdquOpnk
Ringo's quote about his waning commitment to filmmaking is from Alan Clayson's book Ringo Starr: https://share.google/mEjJ4ljorGZFTVQmi

Meet the Beatles Films Podcast

But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:

Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod
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Evolver 62 Jun 15, 2026

Show notes

This film is of Mark Lewisohn's 2022 stage show bringing to life what the Beatles did in 1962, enhanced by director Chris Purcell's on-location filming. We talk about how it showcases a performance style and an enthusiasm that belies a reputation for dry historical detail. And quite a bit about Ringo Starr's drumming, as it turns out.

You can rent Evolver 62 on Prime Video and Apple TV at the moment: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/evolver-62
And buy it on blu-ray in some territories: https://www.wowhd.co.uk/evolver-62/824355814323
The Bill Hicks bit with the Ringo joke in it: https://youtu.be/-jIuP_Uk7Ak
The Red Dwarf episode with the Ringo joke is series 2, episode 6, "Parallel Universe": https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00b8qy6/red-dwarf-ii-6-parallel-universe. See also series 1, episode 2, "Future Echoes" in which we find out Lister's robot goldfish are called Lennon and McCartney.
The Ringo interview it turns out we were both thinking of was actually with Dave Stewart, not Elvis Costello: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl9188EPdLI
Trailer for Bart Layton's The Imposter, which repopularised reconstructions in documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1kHod0xa_8
Actor Peter Boyle, at whose wedding John Lennon was best man: https://share.google/7TH4WLlIiuMSOvzW1
Ed's point towards the end about how the surfeit of biography online affects fandom is paraphrased from Monsters: What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People? by Claire Dederer: https://share.google/pXQbXdAMaKS5qEJdf