The Beatles Films Podcast Ed Williamson and Matt Looker

Let's look at Ringo Starr's 1978 TV comedy film, written by Neal Israel and Pat Proft, both of whom would go on to make significant contributions to film comedy through the Police Academy and Naked Gun films, and loosely designed to promote his recent album Bad Boy.
We discuss where Ringo is in his career and how his performance (he plays two versions of himself in a take on Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper) made Hollywood reappraise him and led to his leading role in Caveman (also covered in a previous episode). We talk about why so many stars like Art Carney, John Ritter and an immediately-post-Star-Wars Carrie Fisher are keen to get involved.
And we discuss George Harrison’s performance, and why it’s a good job Ringo doesn’t seem to play You’re Sixteen live anymore.

Watch the film: https://youtu.be/LditHJXu4LUThe Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet is James Mangold's A Complete Unknown, currently in production: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11563598/Watch 1977's The Prince and The Pauper, starring Oliver Reed: https://youtu.be/CNx2-e-OcIUWatch 1983's Trading Places, with Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/trading-placesSetlist.fm stats which seem to show that Ringo wisely hasn't played You're Sixteen live since September 2019: https://www.setlist.fm/stats/ringo-starr-and-his-all-starr-band-63c6b20b.html
Meet the Beatles Films Podcast
The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast
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Leslie Woodhead's 2009 film for BBC Four wasn't his first entry into Beatledom: he also shot the Cavern Club footage in 1962 that we're all so familiar with. He's also spent time making films in Russia, so he's ideally placed for this look at Russian youth's relationship with The Beatles, during the Soviet era and into the early, less scary, Putin era. We look at Russian then-Deputy PM Sergei Ivanov's contribution to this film. He seems fun! Maybe less so these days. We also discuss the practice of smuggling contraband Beatle recordings about by etching them into X-ray acetates, and Paul McCartney's meeting with Vladimir Putin in 2003.

You can watch the film at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUO1atyECD8 Chuck Norris vs Communism doesn't look like it's on any streamers at the moment, but its details are here: https://g.co/kgs/uoaNUFT Nick Broomfield's film Kurt & Courtney: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2hfrtn Pete Paphides' excellent book, Broken Greek: https://g.co/kgs/3XqWL4KElton John's autobiography, Me: https://g.co/kgs/3XqWL4K
Meet the Beatles Films Podcast
The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paul McCartney's first solo project, other than judging beauty contests, was the score for The Family Way, a 1966 comedy-drama in which a northern English community have an invasive interest in the non-consummation of Hywel Bennett and Hayley Mills' marriage. Is Paul really the chief composer of the score for which he won the Ivor Novello award, or did George Martin do more than "supervise and arrange" it?
There's a lot going on in The Family Way in terms of changing attitudes in the sixties, and of course the Beatles were at the forefront of this. Intellectualism, sexual freedom and men being allowed to be sensitive and artistic. We look at how the film handles these things. Plus! A bonus (if you like that sort of thing) Kula Shaker connection!

You can watch The Family Way in good quality on Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8csmfpAnd listen to the soundtrack album on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4opUUCL6CG5SLSEysBytapSome more information about the Carry On film franchise, if you don't mind a wiki in your face: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carry_On_(franchise)There are full episodes of Hywel Bennett's long-running sitcom Shelley on YouTube. You might recognise the title theme if you like the Top Flight Time Machine podcast: https://youtu.be/BMduOLx6vToThe book Ed mentions is Steve Turner's excellent Beatles '66: The Revolutionary Year: https://g.co/kgs/n29WPBa
Meet the Beatles Films Podcast
The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We both loved Robert Zemeckis's 1978 debut feature, the story of a group of New Jersey teens trying to get into the Beatles' first Ed Sullivan Show performance in February 1964. We talk about the techniques Zemeckis and his writing partner Bob Gale use here and how a lot of it prefigures their later work, in particular the Back to the Future trilogy. We also discuss how using the Beatles as characters who are always just off camera or somehow out of reach plays into how America saw them at the time: almost as mythical figures or religious icons. And we get into how the female characters find self-expression through the freedom their fandom gives them, and how that mirrors the Beatles' sociological impact where teenage girls were concerned.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand isn't on a streaming service, but pick up the Blu-ray, which is cheap and a great restoration with an interesting commentary track from Zemeckis and Gale.Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/QEPDFYuhkDIWe also mention some other films in this episode, like Detroit Rock City, a similar story revolving around a Kiss Concert: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/detroit-rock-cityAnd American Graffiti, George Lucas's 1973 coming-of-age film: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/american-graffitiAnd Dazed and Confused, again about the last day of high school: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/dazed-and-confused
Meet the Beatles Films Podcast
The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 1988 documentary commissioned by Yoko Ono might have been the jumping-off point for the Lennon legacy project we know today. It shows John at his best, for the most part, and there's not much dissent from the talking heads, including May Pang, Julian Lennon and Cynthia Lennon. We ask why John chose George Harrison to play on How Do You Sleep?, his Paul McCartney diss track, when he could've got a session player. We discuss how John and Yoko's bed-in confrontation with the cartoonist Al Capp prefigures a lot of contemporary online discourse. And why wasn't Paul familiar with Real Love when Yoko gave him the demo cassettes, given he'd seen it used in this?

You can rent the film to stream very cheaply on a few platforms: https://g.co/kgs/RvcGK68Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/kqg3plZzxZYHere's the audience member who asked John and Yoko a question on Dick Cavett, wrongly thought by some to be Curt Claudio: https://youtu.be/-Ej3h02KPLU?si=nRgu_iUn3-DSYg6n&t=71A documentary, What Happened to Claudio? has been on the verge of release for a while and we're looking forward to seeing it. Here's its YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaR2o3qwr2RBu7s95IxSMXw John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky contains a longer version of the encounter with Claudio than you get in this film: https://youtu.be/99fXJ8nSR1M An in-depth article by Ryan H Walsh about Curt Claudio which is well worth reading: https://medium.com/@JahHills/on-claudio-the-man-who-sought-out-john-lennon-to-ask-if-his-songs-were-about-him-c0b34c5d57ac The interview Julian Lennon gave to the Daily Telegraph in 1998: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4713954/Dad-was-a-hypocrite.-He-could-talk-about-peace-and-love-to-the-world-but-he-could-never-show-it-to-his-wife-and-son.html Julian's 1984 song Too Late for Goodbyes: https://youtu.be/aQs1Ynq0rlk
Meet the Beatles Films Podcast
The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With the announcement that Sam Mendes is to direct four Beatles biopic films for release in 2027, one from each of the perspectives of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, it'd be remiss of us not to speculate wildly about what this might involve. Will it tell the same story four times? Will bits of it only be told from one Beatle's perspective? Will it actually just be a bit more metaphysical than that, bypassing the need for narrative realism? Will it be like Beatles Peep Show? God, we hope so. Join us as we discuss all this, plus thoughts on who should play who, and the mechanics of shooting and releasing four films simultaneously then releasing them all within 12 months of each other. And a reminder to Sam Mendes that we are very much available as creative consultants for a modest fee.

Meet the Beatles Films Podcast
The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.
But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Twitter https://twitter.com/beatlesfilmpodFacebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622/Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspodYouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.