The BBC has announced that it will be broadcasting a range of programmes on TV, radio and online to celebrate the legacy of The Beatles.
The new itinerary from the broadcaster follows at the heels of the recently shared details of the band’s “final” song, which is set to arrive next week and will be the last to feature all four members.
The project titled ‘Now And Then’, was completed by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr with the help of AI, and is comprised of past demo recordings of John Lennon, which were salvaged and used to make a new song by the surviving members.
To celebrate the forthcoming release which the band teased with projections across the Fab Four’s native Liverpool, and an image of a cassette tape across social media and internet as well, the BBC has announced that it will be airing a range of programmes dedicated to the rock veterans.
These will include an extended edition of The One Show on BBC One, set to be shown on 1st November (next Wednesday). Shown between 7 pm and 7:45 pm, it will see BBC Radio 6 Music’s Lauren Laverne introducing and commenting on the exclusive UK TV broadcast of Now And Then which was The Last Beatles Song – a poignant short film, written and directed by Oliver Murray, which tells the story behind the track.
Also, new podcast series from BBC Radio 2 and BBC Sounds titled Eras: The Beatles will be broadcast to celebrate the release. The show hosted by Martin Freeman, will take a look at how the band shaped the music of today, and reveal their history “as never before with extensive archive and in the band’s own words”.
For this, for the first time in nearly 60 years, a recently unearthed interview will be aired with McCartney, Starr and George Harrison.
Episode one will begin by introducing the members and follow the early days of their careers, while the second will demonstrate how they ventured across the pond and cracked America. Episodes Three and four will perceive how their lives began to become impacted by the pressures of fame, and five will see the way the members navigated life after the band and formed their respective solo careers. The sixth and final episode will contain a new interview with McCartney and Starr about the new track.
On 4th November (Next Saturday) a range of new and archive programmes will be aired on BBC Two and iPlayer, including The Beatles & The BBC being a new compilation featuring performances and appearances from the band, and the members’ opinions on programmes such as Doctor Who (1965), A Degree of Frost (1964) and Our World (1967).
Finally, The Beatles at the BBC collection available now on BBC Sounds, offers another chance to hear programmes that have previously been broadcast on BBC Radio networks.
These will include Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl talking about his unique memories and passion for The Beatles, as well as similar interviews from songwriter Guy Chambers, Craig Charles and record producer/broadcaster Tris Penna.
Other previous broadcasts in the collection include John Lennon at 80 where Sean Ono Lennon, Julian Lennon, Paul McCartney and Elton John celebrate the musical legend John Lennon on what would have been his 80th birthday, and Paul McCartney: Inside the Songs. The latter sees Macca discuss his life and songwriting through the prism of 10 key lyrics, including from The Beatles’ classics, ‘Eleanor Rigby’, ‘All My Loving’ and ‘Penny Lane’.
In other Beatles news, the surviving members of the band alongside revealing details of the upcoming ‘final’ song, also revealed that they will be sharing new expanded editions of ‘1962-1966 (The Red Album)’ and ‘1967-1970 (The Blue Album)’, mixed in stereo and Dolby, on 10th November.
The two releases will span 75 songs from ‘Love Me Do’ to ‘Now And Then’ and feature 21 newly-added tracks, with 12 on ‘Red’ and nine on ‘Blue’. These come from stereo and Dolby mixes of recently reissued albums of recent years, plus new mixes created by Giles Martin and Sam Okell at Abbey Road Studios with the support of the AI-provided WingNut Films’ audio de-mixing technology.
