A Whole New Look at The Beatles

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So what is your earliest memory of The Beatles? I mean, were you a fan from being a child, or what?

PETER JACKSON, FILMMAKER: Well, I was born in 1961. So, theoretically, I was alive when all their albums were coming out. But I had a mother and father who were not Beatle-orientated. I mean, they — like my — at home, we had the soundtrack album of “South Pacific” and those were sort of things, not a single Beatles record. So I have no memory particularly of The Beatles during the ’60s, apart from the fact that I must have liked them. I must have heard them on the radio. I must have seen them on TV, because as soon as I could save up enough pocket money, which took me until I was about 12 — I went out about 12. I went into the city, went to the record store, and I bought my very first Beatle album. And they’d already broken up at this stage, which was about 1972 or ’73. But I spent my first bit of pocket money buying my first ever Beatles album. So I must have liked them. Yes. So, yes.

AMANPOUR: I guess this was then meant to be. I mean, Peter Jackson was meant to put this incredible series together. Are you surprised that one of the most mega-groups of all humankind of all time actually had 50-plus hours of unseen film footage that’s been — or, no, more — that hasn’t been seen for so many decades?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCARTNEY: The best bit of us always has been and always will be is when we’re backs against the wall.

LENNON: All we have got is us, don’t you think?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JACKSON: It completely blows my mind. And I’m not describing my — the film that I have made and anything else, just the fact that this stuff, after 50 years — over 50 years, all the documentaries, everything, we — you have got to think you have seen everything there is to do with The Beatles. So, the documentaries you see tend to recycle the same footage, “Ed Sullivan,” press conferences, so that you just sort of think, OK, well, we have sort of seen it all. And now we’re just looking at interviews and various things. Suddenly, out of nowhere seemingly out of nowhere, there’s — and it’s not just that there’s 60 hours of new Beatles footage. It’s actually the best Beatles footage that has ever been seen. Michael Lindsay-Hogg shot it in 1969. And it was used for his movie “Let It Be,” which was about 80′ minutes long. So we’re talking about the outtakes from “Let It Be,” which is essentially 60 hours, that The Beatles, because of the whole stigma of the breakup when “Let It Be” was released, they actually — I mean, it’s The Beatles themselves that have ordered this to be locked in a vault and never be seen. It’s not just that it was lost and forgotten about. They have never wanted anyone to see it.