EPISODE NINE

The Beatles finally went their separate ways between 1969 and 1970. But two decades later, they began to add a coda to their story: “Anthology,” which first brought Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr back together in 1991. The three of them, together with their friend and aide Neil Aspinall, soon arrived at a guiding idea: as this episode’s opening titles put it, “a revolutionary endeavour to tell The Beatles’ story comprehensively on screen, and in their own words.” Neil had begun gathering footage of their history soon after the final split, but this new project was something else again. Now, the resulting eight episodes have now been restored, subtly re-cut, and given a new sense of pace—as well as being joined by this new closing installment.

Time suddenly scrolls backwards, and The Beatles’ past is all around them: here they are three decades ago, talking about their memories of an even more distant past. “When we got over our business troubles, we decided that we might do the definitive story of The Beatles,” says Paul, speaking in 1994.

“Seeing as other people had had a go at it, we thought it might be good from the inside-out, rather than the outside-in.” “You’ve heard it from everybody else,” says Ringo. “Now you can hear it from us.” “I’m glad it didn’t get made till now,” offers George. “I think it’s been nice for us, and the public, just to forget about The Beatles for a while [and] let the dust settle, and now we’ve gone back to it with a fresh point of view.”

Intimate footage filmed in the 1990s, most of which has never been seen before, shows the three of them meeting again in a variety of locations (including Studio 2 at Abbey Road, where most of The Beatles’ music was recorded), playing together and talking about their collective past. They listen to the original tapes of their songs in the company of George Martin, who was working back then on the collections of unreleased material that would be collected on the three original Anthology albums. And the three of them discuss everything from their old on-tour sleeping arrangements, through their clothes and haircuts, to their shared sense of humour, and how they kept their heads in the face of almost constant drama and hysteria.

This is a constant theme that runs through the “Anthology” series: “We were lucky that there were four of us to take that pressure,” says Ringo. “The four of us held each other together. At certain times, each one of us went mad. But the other three could bring us back. I was an only child, and suddenly I had three brothers.”

In this footage, though, there are only three Beatles (and viewing “Anthology” in its new form movingly reminds us that there are now only two). In their interactions and exchanges, there’s a sense that any tensions from the past are long gone, but also an underlying sadness about one particular absent friend.

“For Ringo, Paul and I, we’ve had the opportunity to have all that go down the river and under the bridge, and to get together in a new light,” says George at one point. “I feel a bit sorry that John wasn’t able to do that. I think he would have really enjoyed this opportunity to be with us again.”

But in “Anthology’s” episodes, John is suddenly everywhere. “It’s four of us,” says Paul. “Even though John’s not here, he’s here. He’s represented. He talks. His point of view comes over.”

John is also at the centre of the three new Beatles tracks Paul, George and Ringo, and producer Jeff Lynne are filmed working on: “Free As A Bird,” first released in 1994, 1995’s “Real Love,” and “Now And Then,” which Paul and Ringo finally took to completion between 2021 and 2022.

His vocal parts from these uncompleted songs are taken off cassettes, cleaned up and then combined with elements played and written by the other three. At first, this is a breathtakingly emotional experience; then as the work goes on, a kind of magic starts to happen. “Having not done it for so long, you become an ex-Beatle,” marvels Paul. “But of course, getting back in the band and working on this Anthology, you’re back in the band again. There’s no two ways about it.”

This sense of the present seamlessly mixing with the past is also what defines The Beatles’ legacy—and why, because of the timeless nature of the music, the story “Anthology” tells never seems to fade. “The Beatles will go on and on—on those records and films and videos and books and whatever, and in people’s minds,” George says. “And The Beatles, I think, exist without us.”

He cracks a smile, and mentions one of their most trailblazing songs, recorded almost sixty years ago. “Play the game existence to the end of the beginning,” he says. “Tomorrow never knows.”