Release date Oct 06, 2012
Documentary • For The Beatles • Directed by Francis Hanly
Last updated on May 15, 2023
As part of the promotional effort for the reissue of The Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” film, which was released on October 8, 2012, a new documentary titled “Magical Mystery Tour Revisited” aired on the BBC on October 6. This documentary included interviews with figures such as Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Peter Fonda, Paul Gambaccini, Terry Gilliam, Neil Innes, Paul Merton, Barry Miles, Annie Nightingale, and Martin Scorsese. It also featured accounts from Jeni Crowley and Sylvia Nightingale, who participated in the original Magical Mystery Tour and shared their experiences in The Beatles Monthly Book magazine.
Additionally, select interviews from this documentary were compiled into a condensed, 20-minute version. This shorter documentary was included in the deluxe edition of the “Magical Mystery Tour” reissue.
“Magical Mystery Tour Revisited” was broadcast in the US, on PBS, on December 14, 2012.
From BBC website:
Arena presents the greatest Beatles story never told – the making of Magical Mystery Tour – full of fabulous Beatles archive material never shown before anywhere in the world.
Songs you will never forget, the film you have never seen and a story that has never been heard. In 1967, in the wake of the extraordinary impact of Sgt. Pepper, The Beatles made a film – a dreamlike story of a coach daytrip, a magical mystery tour. It was seen by a third of the nation, at 8.35pm on BBC1 on Boxing Day – an expectant public, hoping for some light entertainment for a family audience.
However, Magical Mystery Tour was greeted with outrage and derision by middle England and the establishment media.
‘How dare they’, they cried. ‘They’re not film directors. Who do they think they are?’ they howled. Where were the four lovable moptops of Help! and A Hard Day’s Night?
What propelled The Beatles to make this surreal, startling and – at the time – utterly misunderstood film?
Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour!
From PBS website:
[…] Now with the film fully restored to the highest technical standard with a remixed soundtrack, it’s time to tell the extraordinary story of Magical Mystery Tour: why it was made, how it was made and the circumstances in which it was made. In the summer of 1967, The Beatles had the world at their feet. It’s impossible to overestimate the effect of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band; that was revolutionary too but everyone loved it. In August, Brian Epstein tragically died, leaving the Beatles not only without a manager, but without their ambassador. They decided to go ahead with the film they’d been planning.
To tell the story, this film calls on those who were there, most notably Paul McCartney, who had the original idea, and Ringo Starr, who is credited as the director of photography. John Lennon and George Harrison are represented through interviews over the years and through their appearances in the film itself and in the copious and fascinating outtakes.
Line producer Gavrik Losey and cameraman Michael Seresin evoke the heady atmosphere of the shoot, along with Jeni Crowley and Sylvia Nightingale who, as teenagers, reported from the coach for The Beatles’ Fan Club magazine. Paul Fox, then controller of BBC One, recalls making the deal with The Beatles for the film. Also sharing their reminiscences are Peter Fonda, Paul Gambaccini, Terry Gilliam, Neil Innes, Paul Merton, Barry Miles, Annie Nightingale and Martin Scorsese.
Finally, this is a chance for the film’s admirers to have their say; its detractors have been given plenty of opportunities to have theirs. It provides a chance to evoke 1967 as it was – post-war Britain as much as the summer of love, when a new set of artists with The Beatles at the helm came up with an alchemy that turned the ordinary and the commonplace into the magical and mysterious.
Magical Mystery Tour Revisited was filmed and directed by Francis Hanly; Jonathan Clyde is producer; Anthony Wall is executive producer for BBC; and Jeff Jones is executive producer for Apple. […]
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Joe • 1 month ago
"Magical Mystery Tour Revisited" is out of print in the United States. It is a really fine documentary, which brings MMT into focus.
Do you know where I can get a DVD copy? I would prefer one appropriate for the North American region.