Filming “Help!” at Twickenham • Day 1

Following three weeks of location filming in the Bahamas and Austria, the Beatles returned to familiar territory on 24 March 1965 when production on Help! moved to Twickenham Film Studios in St Margaret’s, west London — the very studio where A Hard Day’s Night had been shot at this same time the previous year. Working a daily schedule of approximately 8.30am to 5.30pm, the group filmed interior sequences for the Bahamas section of the picture, including a scene in which John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison dive through a hollow sacrificial altar and emerge into water — a shot that connected back to footage filmed at the Nassau Beach Hotel on 23 February. The Twickenham phase of the production, which would continue until 9 May, was the longest sustained stretch of filming on a picture that would ultimately take eleven weeks to shoot in principal photography.

Going further

The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years

With greatly expanded text, this is the most revealing and frank personal 30-year chronicle of the group ever written. Insider Barry Miles covers the Beatles story from childhood to the break-up of the group.

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• https://www.beatlesbible.com/1965/03/24/filming-help-23/