Interview for Daily Mirror • Thursday, December 28, 1967

Interview

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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 with Don Short was published in the Daily Mirror.

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BEATLE Paul McCartney admitted it yesterday.

“We boobed,” he said.

That was his down-to-earth verdict on the group’s film, “Magical Mystery Tour,” watched by millions of mystified televiewers on Boxing Night.

“I got the general impression there was something wrong with it,” said Paul at his home in St. John’s Wood, London.

“Aren’t we entitled to have a flop? It’s hard because it’s our first, but we’ll get used to the idea. The lesson is good for us and we’re not bitter about it.”

By the thousand, viewers protested to the BBC, who screened the fifty-minute film. “What was it all about?” they asked. Others rang the Mirror. “Rubbish,” they called it. “Piffle… nonsense.” Paul explained:

“It wasn’t supposed to be about anything. It wasn’t supposed to have a theme or a plot. Everyone was looking for a plot. But purposely, it wasn’t there. And the more people kept seeking a plot the worse it must have become for them. We did it as a series of disconnected, unconnected events. They were not meant to have any depth. It was our interpretation of ‘magical’ — and to us, that meant we could do anything.”

The film — produced and directed by The Beatles — has an earning potential in America of well over a million dollars.
Offers have already been made for it, and negotiations to sell the film in the US are due to begin within a few days.
Danish viewers will see the film tonight. It is also scheduled for screening in Hong Kong and the Philippines.
TV stations in South America, Sweden, Germany, Holland, France and Finland are negotiating for it.

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Last updated on August 27, 2023