The classic music documentary series, The Beatles Anthology, is being remastered by Peter Jackson’s production companies and will stream on Disney+ later this year. As well as digitally enhanced versions of the original eight episodes, there will also be a brand new ninth episode, created from previously unseen behind-the-scenes footage of Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr coming together around the release of the original series.
The series, which was first broadcast by ITV in 1995, was hailed as the definitive documentary on the Beatles thanks to the way it reunited the surviving three Beatles with their producer George Martin, former press officer Derek Taylor and one-time road manager Neil Aspinall to tell the tale of their career in their own words. Its release was accompanied by the single, Free As a Bird, the first new piece of music put out by the scouse quartet since their disbanding. It was so shrouded in secrecy that record label EMI used armed guards to protect it ahead of its release.
The remastered series, which coincides with the 30th anniversary of the original, is the latest Beatles project from Jackson’s Wingnut Films and Park Road Post teams. They previously worked on the eight-hour Disney+ docuseries The Beatles: Get Back – which used remastered footage originally filmed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg for his 1970 film Let It Be – and the accompanying concert movie, which Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw called “unmissable.”
It will be accompanied by an album featuring session outtakes, previously unreleased demos and other rare recordings, curated by Martin’s son Giles. Anthology 4 includes new mixes of the singles originally released to accompany the Anthology TV series, Free As A Bird and Real Love, featuring de-mixed John Lennon vocals used by the songs’ original producer, Jeff Lynne. Giles Martin has also remastered the three original Anthology albums, released in 1995 and 1996. The project will be released in November, alongside an updated version of the Anthology book.
It is the latest high-profile Beatles project alongside a quartet of movies from Sam Mendes, with each movie focusing on a different member of the band. Given that the Anthology project involves documentary footage rather than dramatisation, the signoff process should presumably be a lot easier than for the movie.
Starr has previously said of the movies that getting the scripts right took some work on his part. According to him, they “had a writer [involved] – very good writer, great reputation, and he wrote it great, but it had nothing to do with [wife] Maureen and I. That’s not how we were. I’d say, ‘We would never do that.’”
