The Beatles Anthology

August '65 to July '66 (1x5)

Air date: Nov 22, 1995

There is a real joy within this video... yet now and again we hear the bell of a cash register ringing up some early charges in the price of fame. Within lie 'miles' of archive of performance and off-duty fun, either unseen or forgotten and certainly never before assembled in such a feast of words, music, sights and sounds. This is substantially the autumn and winter of 1965 and the continuation of their rule as Lords of the Earth into 1966, absorbing Rubber Soul and Revolver. They meet Elvis and hang out with him. The four are never more musical, confident, fluent or assured than in this episode, which is my favourite because everything has come together in full colour, with the keys to all kingdoms theirs for the asking. Hints of a bad day in Manila bring us up short and it seems that things are about to change... Exciting? Or ominous? Maybe both.