“All My Loving” TV documentary broadcast on UK TV

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On this day, “All My Loving“, a music documentary by Tony Palmer on the contemporary pop and rock music scene was broadcast on BBC1 in the UK. It was filmed in colour but was broadcast in black and white (BBC 1 did not switch to colour until 15 November 1969).

It features interviews of the Beatles. From 45spaces.com:

[…] The Beatles are represented in the documentary in various ways:

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are interviewed individually at Abbey Road studios, 23 May 1968.

John Lennon is seen in an extract from an interview with Larry Kane filmed in New York in May 1968.

All four Beatles are seen in (mute) extracts of the Lady Madonna promo and in Beatlemania era footage from 1964.

Lovely Rita, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Flying and Money (That’s What I Want) can be heard as part of the soundtrack.

Interviews are also undertaken with George Martin, Derek Taylor and Louise Harrison (George’s mother). […]

I was always frightened of classical music. And I never wanted to listen to it because it was Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, and sort of, big words like that… and Schoenberg. I mean, like… A taxi driver the other day had some sheet music of a Mozart thing, and I said ‘What’s that?’ And he said ‘Oh, that’s the high-class stuff. You won’t like that. No no, you won’t like that.’ And I said, ‘well, what is it?’ (giggles) He said ‘No, you won’t like it. It’s high-class, that. It’s very high-brow!’ And uhh, that kind of way I always used to think of it. I used to think ‘Well you know, that’s very clever, all that stuff.’ And it isn’t, you know. It’s just exactly what’s going on in pop at the moment. Pop music is the classical music of now.

Paul McCartney – Interviewed for the “All My Loving” documentary. Read the entire transcript

The Beatles are to appear in an ambitious BBC-TV documentary about the current pop scene. The hour-long programme – plans for which were exclusively revealed in the NME in February – is being produced and directed by Tony Palmer. It will be screened by BBC-1 in September, with a colour repeat by BBC-2 shortly afterwards. Title of the show is “All My Loving”.

Also taking part in the production are Donovan, the Who, Eric Burdon and the Animals, Jimi Hendrix, Lulu, Manfred Mann, Cream, the Pink Floyd and Simon Dupree and the Big Sound. Several of these artists were films in America, when Tony Palmer and a camera crew visited the States in March.

The Beatles’ contribution to the programme is in the form of lengthy interviews, in which they give their opinions of recent developments in pop. They are not seen performing in the show – but all the other artists have been filmed in action.

Tony Palmer told the NME that plans for his projected “My Generation” BBC-1 series in which the Who will be resident, have now been completed. “The series could well be scheduled for screening in the very near future”, he added.

From New Musical Express – June 1, 1968

Last updated on October 3, 2021