Filming of The Beatles’ Intertel promotional videos

By late 1965, The Beatles were growing tired of making multiple TV appearances each time they released a new single. Also, the release of their new double-A side single “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper” coincided with the debut of their new UK tour.

Instead, they adopted a new approach: filming their own promotional clips for distribution to television programmes around the world. This allowed them to avoid in-person appearances on shows like “Top of the Pops” and “Ready Steady Go!” while still reaching a global audience.

On this day, November 23, 1965, the band gathered at Twickenham Film Studios (Stage Three) to film a series of ten promotional films, later collectively known as the “Intertel promos,” after Intertel, the video production service involved. Five songs were taped that day: the new single “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper“, along with earlier 1965 hits “I Feel Fine“, “Ticket to Ride” and “Help!“.

This marathon shoot was produced by Beatles manager Brian Epstein’s company NEMS Enterprises and directed by Joe McGrath, a 35-year-old Scottish TV director. Intertel (VTR Services) provided the technical crew. Nicholas Ferguson, set designer from the TV show “Ready, Steady, Go!,” was brought in to design the backdrops and props for each clip. The crew included four cameramen, a lighting technician, a sound man, and a runner. Notably, the on-set runner was a young David Mallet, who would later become a prominent music video director in the MTV era. NEMS staffers Tony Bramwell (the production coordinator) and Vyvienne Moynihan were also present to oversee the filming.

Nicholas Ferguson, who had done similar work for the iconic British TV Show, Ready Steady Go! on which The Beatles appeared on a number of occasions, designed the various sets that were used for these films. The Beatles had appeared on the programme on a number of occasions. The band were also used to working at Twickenham Film Studios, the location for their two feature-length films, A Hard Day’s Night and Help!

From the liner notes of the 2015 “1+” DVD/Blu-Ray compilation

Wherever the Beatles were going to be, the network knew beforehand and arrived en masse. The police were fed up with being stretched to the limit and complained. It became so unsafe for them to go anywhere officially as a group, that we decided to do our own promo clips and just send them out. A good idea said everybody.

John said, “It’s great isn’t it, Tone? Just think, we won’t be hanging around at the BBC for hours on end when we could be sitting at home quietly taking our drugs.”

So we went in secret to Twickenham Studios on a single day in November 1965 and made promos for “Help!” “I Feel Fine,” “We Can Work It Out,” “Day Tripper,” and “Ticket to Ride”… bang bang bang. It seemed so easy. I sort of produced and directed them. I say “sort of” because there was never a script or format. It was all put together on the spot. “Right boys, what shall we do? Try standing there, Paul, okay?”

This was the real origin of the pop video format—and where would MTV be today without it? I don’t want to make a big thing of it because it was very loose back then and production and directorial “credits” for videos didn’t seem that important. I got paid my wages anyway. Paul and I edited the stuff together. He really loved film and everything to do with film and so took to video and television very fast, and we would work on many more videos down the years to come.

At Twickenham we shot up to three versions of each promo and simply sent copies of the best, free of charge, to every TV station The Beatles had ever been on. But it was too expensive, so we were told. When EMI called and complained that we had spent a total of seven hundred and fifty pounds, we fell about the office laughing. […]

Tony Bramwell – From “Magical Mystery Tours: My Life with the Beatles“, 2005

The Intertel promo clips filmed on this day:

Beatles film own inserts for next week’s TV shows

THE Beatles will after all undertake television appearances to promote their new record. In BBC-TV’s “Top Of The Pops” next Thursday (the day before release) they will sing both sides, “Day Tripper” and “We Can Work It Out.” But in ABC-TV’s “Thank Your Lucky Stars” tomorrow week (4th) they appear on a bill topped by the Shadows!

ABC announced without comment this week news of the Beatles’ inclusion in the edition of “Lucky Stars” for which the Shadows had already been set as headliners. The Beatles and Tom Jones share “guest star” billing. All three acts have been booked for two numbers.

The Beatles are not taking part in Sunday’s “Lucky Stars” tele-recording in Birmingham, nor will they be seen “live” in “Top Of The Pops.” Instead they have set a precedent by independently filming the same two numbers—but in different settings—as their contribution to both shows.

Their publicist Tony Barrow explained: “They have been busy preparing an entirely new stage act, featuring all new numbers from their forthcoming album, for the tour which begins in Glasgow next Friday.”

The Beatles have also recorded a medley of their three No. 1 records so far this year—“I Feel Fine,” “Ticket To Ride” and “Help!”—for the special edition of “Top Of The Pops” featuring the year’s No. 1 hits to be screened at the end of December.

• Peter Sellers’ recording of “A Hard Day’s Night,” coupled with “Help!”, is issued on Parlophone on December 10. He speaks both lyrics.

From New Musical Express – November 26, 1965

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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