Reviews

I have left one point off as, being from Liverpool, I can spot a dud Liverpool accent a mile off, and while the lead actors accents were very good, some of the "cough and spit" actors did not get the sixties accent correctly. The accent seems to have become more rough around the edges than in those days when BBC English ruled the airwaves. Other than that the series was a joy. I loved hearing Sheridan Smith's versions of 60s classics. I especially enjoyed the revival of "Love of the Loved" as I liked this song on its first release and thought it should have been a much bigger hit. As an 11 year old I was glued to the TV screen whenever Merseybeat stars appeared. I remember Cilla Black being interviewed and saying that she was more excited about that song getting to number 35 than she did about her next release getting to number 1. Watching this I had to sympathise with Cilla as I enjoyed the scenes of her singing in the Liverpool clubs better than her later more middle of the road studio recording, but that is an ageing Liverpool music fan for you! I also enjoyed seeing the remnants of 60s Liverpool in this show, looking as dingy as I remembered the street back cracks of the time. And my, didn't the place look a treat when it was dressed up as New York using Civic Buildings also still around from that60s era. People I have chatted to have proudly told me that they were served hot-dogs and Coke by Cilla at the Cavern, so it seems to have tapped a wave of warm affection from older inhabitants of Modern Liverpooltowards Cilla. There is surely scope for a series two as there are several big Cilla hits from the late 60s and 70s such as "Surround Yourself With Sorrow" "Conversations" and the recently revived "Something tells me Something's going to Happen Tonight" still to come plus some emotionally charged episodes in the life of Cilla. But as it stands anyone who is still in thrall to the music of this period,with specific reference to lovers of Lennon and McCartney songs should watch this to get another take on the Beatles story as it delivers new information on Brian Epstein's managing abilities. I also loved hearing "Bad To me" by Billy J Kramer(One of the "lost" Beatles compositions like "Love of the Loved"? Well done to all concerned. It really,truly left me wanting more. A feature it shared with its subject, the legendary Cilla Black

I saw this at the time of its first release. There was some contention with the British distributors not liking the movie and it was in danger of being pulled from the cinemas. They reckoned it was confusing and no-one knew what if was supposed to be about. So as soon as it premiered in Liverpool my cousin and I went to see it immediately at the first-run cinema The Gaumont in Liiverpool City Centre. There it was paired with a gung-ho action movie called "Mozambique" and the sound was not up to standard for the start of the movie, but even these shortcomings could not detract from the fabulous experience of seeing this film. We knew all the Sgt Pepper songs off by heart and it seemed to encapsulate what the Beatles were all about at that moment in time. As for those cinema bosses in London well they were just "blue meanies". Zoom to 1999 and the Liverpool re-release of the remastered film at the Philharmonic Hall. Tribute bands were playing outside the town hall and a character dressed as a Blue Meanie was walking around. I went to see the film again. It had survived all that the cinema bosses could throw at it and was louder and more colourful than ever. It is another revolutionally piece of cinema under the Beatles name and is an absolute animated classic.

A Hard Day's Night and Yellow Submarine often appear in lists of the best rock films of all time, Help less so despite it including 3 of John Lennon's best songs. This may be because the plot resembles not Monty Python but a Goon Show episode. This breakthrough show of the 50s and very early 60s often featured a nemesis called the Red Bladder played by Ray Ellington as well as other Indian characters voiced famously by Peter Sellers in Spike Milligan's surreal story lines in which Milligan also acted. They were often set in far flung corners of the British Empire and mercilessly lampooned the British, It was a fore runner of Monty Python and its spin off Ripping Yarns. Readers may be interested in the Goon Show episode called the Last British Banana Tree where our "heros" are sent to protect the last bananas. Not only do the bananas get blown up, so do the Goons to the catchphrase "You've deaded me". Richard Lester was heavily involved with this comedy partnership and it is my contention he has referred to this "default position" when organising Beatles film two. The Goons had 20 minutes comedy interrupted by two musical interludes per half hour. Then it stopped. Help! goes on its manic way for an entire feature pausing only to have musical interludes featuring the Beatles. But the problem is this. When we tuned into the Goons we expected the show to be dominated by comedy, when I went to the Gaumont, Liverpool in 1965 we expected to hear Beatles music and so came out of the cinema theatre feeling unsettled and shortchanged. Maybe this intention to slightly unsettle was deliberate on Lester's part. It seemed asif it could be that in Britain that the writing was on the wall for the Beatles as Merseybeat and the Cavern were on the wane in the popularity stakesat this point in time. Could this be that this is why there is no victorious ending to the film. It ends with a dust up on a beach (or should that be sand up)to the title song. The Beatles survive but that is about it. As Lester has just played "Help" as the film descends into Goon like fiasco, he can hardly repeat the same song for the end credits so he resorts to a shot of the ring with the Beatles imitating the Goons (I kid you not) before THE END title shows. .We could have had another Lennon and McCartney song or John singing "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" that is o the flip side of the UK "Help" album. But instead we have something not Beatles related.We get a snatch of classical music. At no time do we see anyone enjoying the Beatles music. Leo McKearn says it is "shocking" and throws darts at a cinema screen with the Beatles tearing through the opening song "Help!". This is despite the music being fabulous. Later the Beatles perform in a recording studio or in a series of remote locations such as Salisbury Plain, icy Scandanavia or on a deserted Caribbean beach. Never to an audience.The Beatles were still a performing band at this stage and only a short while later played Shea Stadium so why not play out with a shot of the Beatles in concert? Granting that the public would have been in danger from the Eastern Cult (according to the plot line)before this we could at least have had a "live" performance as a climax as in Hard Day's Night, Let It Be or even Magical Mystery Tour, even if it was with the titles superimposed across it. Maybe the symbolism of the end with its camera perspective being viewed through the faces of the red ring-jewel is to hint to us that we have been watching the Beatles through "a prism". Rather than the intimacy of "A Hard Day's Night" we have been kept at a distance from the Fab Four. The first feature felt as if we were "with the Beatles". This keeps us at an arm's length from them. Nevertheless what we are left with is a fun,melodic feature, its colourful sheen and frantic plot lines stopping us from realising that. Beatles music apart, there is nothing of much substance going on here. Best viewed by Beatles fans as "the one in colour". It has some great innovations that would be used in music videos such as "Ticket to ride etc" and as a Beatles fan I wouldn't be without it,but... Magical Mystery Tour (or should it be "a Day Out in the Life of the Beatles") is more authentically Beatles and has about the same ratio of music in a much shorter film. It continues the great video experiment pioneered by Lester.

My experience of Magical Mystery Tour dates from the first black and white showing on BBC TV. Earlier in the year an experimental telecast was broadcast called "One World"on the Beeb. Countries from around the globe submitted a short feature. It was monumentally boring. I remember something about pine forests from one place! But the BBC item corrected all that. Their contribution was the Beatles giving "All you Need is Love" its first airing. It totally eclipsed all the other offerings on view. Maybe as a favour to the Beatles for giving them this "feather in their cap" the Beeb decided to commission MMT for a Christmas time showing. The commissioning officer has gone on record to say how pleased he was with the Beatles offering. It was family friendly, had great songs,no swearing, and the viewing figures were astronomical. I must admit that seeing it in black and white was perhaps not the best introduction to this movie. "Flying" should have been retitled "50 shades of grey" for grainy monochrome but, hey, it was whole slew of great new songs from my favourite pop band.I was a complete Sgt Pepper freak. Sure it was uneven but when it was good,it was very,very good. Forward some years later and I experienced a Liverpool Magical Mystery Tour of my own. It was during a festival of comedy and we took a boat from the Liverpool landing stage, Frank Sidebottom was "piloting"-he of the polystyrene head fame-(see new film "Frank" for further details)and various eccentric characters were wandering around on the upper deck. Once we arrived at our destination we were whisked off ion a similar coach to that seen in Magical Mystery and ended up in New Brighton Funfair situated on the far bank of the River Mersey. There amidst the sideshows and nets hung up with multicoloured baubles we discovered the "mystery". We were being treated to a set by Liverpool band "The Farm" who were riding high with their hit "All Together Now". Had this been filmed the resulting documentary would have been very similar to that of Magical Mystery Tour.At the time the format of the Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack was as weird as the film itself. (UK only) It was on two singles encased in a full coloured booklet outlining the story. The two discs played at 33 rpm instead of the usual 45 rpm. In this way, they managed to fit the entire song selection on two discs. To this day it remains a firm favourite. I must have played these discs a hundred times in all innocence until on one play the ending of the introductory song hammered home. It said "DYING TO TAKE YOU AWAY. TAKE YOU TODAY". To me it seemed so slyly inserted into the mix that I felt that I was onto something. The bus tour was actually a metaphor for the soul passing over and was somehow linked into George's Eastern mysticism on "Blue Jay Way".Thanks Steve Nyland for your review reminding me of this "revelation". Of course it is easy to put a false construct on Beatles output, but it does seem as if the passengers pass through circles of hell full of screaming army officers,baying vicars and sinister policemen not to mention that demonic waiter before they reach their destination. The Beatles descend a (heavenly?)staircase and Paul sings "Your Mother Should Know". An elderly relative of mine heard me playing this song and exclaimed "It sounds so sad". I explained Paul's mother had died. Much has been made of John's song "Julia" on the White album but here is Paul singing a jollier version of a Mother song on a previous album. Everyone seems to be happy and having a really good time, Is this where our souls are going to end up? The Beatles are well known for pioneering the music video. At the time people were used to and were expecting a linear story line and were not as "hip" to music video films. Today with our more sophisticated viewing of videos and MTV it just seems like a great long form music video that includes all the latest batch of new songs from the Fab Four way back then. Taken in this context, you will probably enjoy the film. Just a few thoughts to concur with your review,Steve.. Thanks Steve in New York. Greetings from Steve in Liverpool an Oldie Beatles Fan

Thanks to the brilliant BBC 4 premiere of the 2014 remaster I have regained my former enthusiasm for this film in spades and am now suffering from an attack of Beatle mania. I can't wait to see the film again, only this time at a movie theatre, which will be a first for me, as in 1964 my father took my brother and I to see it at the Woolton Picture House in Liverpool; little did we realise that John Lennon lived around the corner and so there was a huge queue of people waiting to see the movie. We got all the way up to the front so that we could see into the foyer when we heard the usher proclaim: "FULL UP! NO SEATS LEFT INSIDE!". So that was it. I had to wait until it came on TV many years later to appreciate the greatness of this film. It is revolutionary,innovative, charming, hilarious and an absolute blast! And the songs aren't bad either,to put it mildly. To think it does all this on a U (US G) certificate. As a Liverpool person I have no trouble with the accent and in addition to documenting Beatlemanis it is also peppered with slang we all used at the time. It wasn't just the Beatles who said "Gear" and "Come 'ead".It was all of us in Liverpool. The music sounds better than ever due to the remastering. It felt more like a modern film produced about the era than a 50 year old classic. This is all credit to Dick Lester masterful direction. He truly captured "lightnong in a bottle."

I saw the Michael Bogdanov directed versions of these plays at the Old Vic some time ago and loved them! But they didn't translate that experience onto the videos sold. This was a fine effort to film the unfilmable with Richard ii and Henry IV Part one coming out of the mix very well. The latter's opening pub scenes are incomprehensible to me and the Bogdanov version solved this by having Pistol burst in wearing a Buffalo Bill costume and firing off his pistols. By the time the audience had recovered from this, the rather difficult scene was over. Get past the opening hurdle and this play becomes one of Shakespeare's wittiest and wisest. This was an excellent production.I was less enamoured of Part two but mainly because it has weaker material in it (the army recruitment scene was tedious.) However this was forgotten when in the second half of the play, Jeremy Irons gave a towering performance as Bolingbroke. Tom Hiddleston was great as Hal/Henry V and you could chart his progress from tearaway youth to hero soldier with fascinated admiration. Surely he is wasted in Marvel films, good as he is in them. Having seen Jeremy's performance as Richard ii in Stratford ,it was brilliant to see him play the man who caused the downfall of that king (Richard II). And all from the comfort of my armchair! Great casting of Ben Wishaw and Rory Kinnear as modern incarnations of Richard/ Bolingbroke in this feud. The BBC have acquitted themselves well.I only wish there was a series 2 featuring the Henry 6th trilogy and Richard iii that completes this cycle of plays .Steve Qualtrough

I arrived late to this show, never having heard of Count Arthur Strong before the current TV series. Neither was I enticed by the trailers. But having seen episodes of the re-run on BBC 2, I am convinced that Arthur is the funniest TV comedy creation since Basil Fawlty. Having enjoyed the first 2 episodes I went out and bought the DVD only to discover that the remaining 4 episodes were even funnier than the ones I had previously viewed. Rory Kinnear gives excellent support as the bemused writer Michael. I hear this is booked for series 2. I can't wait! The delusional Arthur reminds me of some characters I used to know at a poetry writer's club, one of whom described herself as "a household name" despite the fact that no-one had ever heard of her. Maybe Arthur should start something similar as one of his rackets. It would give him excellent scope for his ham acting talents.Having read the reviews mentioning the Radio Show, I bought season 2 on audio CD and found it to be equally hilarious. Standouts were Arthur posing as a self motivation guru and his lecture on Creationism vs Darwinism with reference to the films of Charlton Heston. Totally hilarious. Whether on TV or radio comic genius is still comic genius