Interview for The Daily Mail

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On December 26, 1967, the British television channel BBC1 aired The Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” TV special for the first time. However, the initial broadcast was in black and white, and it was met with harsh criticism from both viewers and critics, marking the first major failure for The Beatles.

Undeterred, Paul McCartney appeared on The Frost Programme the following day, December 27, to defend the film. In an interview with Ray Connolly in the Evening Standard published the same day, he acknowledged the criticism, saying “I suppose if you look at it from the point of view of good Boxing Day entertainment we goofed really.“

Two days after, December 28, the following interview was published in The Daily Mail, as well as an interview with Don Short in the Daily Mirror.

THE Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour was a mistake, Paul McCartney said yesterday. But he does not regret making the film, shown on BBC1 on Boxing Night. Beatle Paul, who first thought of the show, was answering protesting viewers and newspaper critics who slated the film. He said:

“It was a mistake because we thought people would understand that it was ‘magical’ and a ‘mystery tour’.

“We thought that the title was explanation enough. There was no plot and it was formless. Deliberately so. We enjoy fantasy and were trying to create this.

“Perhaps we should have had someone say, ‘We are going magical now, folks!’ We did not and the trouble is, if people don’t understand, they say, ‘A load of rubbish,’ and switch off.

“Our problem is that we are prisoners of our own fame. We could put on a mop-top show, but we don’t really like that sort of entertainment any more. And we don’t work for the bread now.

“We will make another film, and we won’t employ choreographers, directors and the rest. We will make it ourselves. We learned a lot. It was not such a bad thing that we were slated. It still leaves us a challenge.“

He added:

“But, was the film really so bad compared with the rest of the Christmas TV? Frankie and Bruce’s show with Frankie Howard and Bruce Forsyth on ITV on Saturday just wasn’t funny! And you could hardly call the Queen’s speech a gasser!”

The 50-minute film cost the Beatles more than £30,000 to make. But it is expected to earn them nearly £1 million from world sales. The BBC paid less than £10,000 for the film. Mr. Paul Fox, head of BBC1, was unrepentant yesterday about showing it at a peak viewing time.

He said: “I still think it was worth it. I agree that it wasn’t the easiest film to understand. I saw it four times and I began to understand it. I would guess we had 20 million viewers for the show and I doubt if any switched off. It was probably our biggest Christmas audience. My final verdict is: Touching, amusing and enjoyable.”

The film has also upset some of its cast.

Comedian Nat Jackley, 57, who played Nat the Rubber Man, said: “I thought it shocking, I couldn’t make head or tail of it. All my comedy stuff, lasting 20 minutes, was cut out.”

The Beatles remain top of this week’s New Musical Express Top Ten chart with their extended-play package from Magical Mystery Tour at No. 2.