The Beatles: Get Back
DISNEY+
Based on 57 hours of footage that had been locked in a vault, unseen for 50 years, and a further 150 hours of audio, this extraordinary three-part, eight-hour documentary (being released today, tomorrow and Saturday), plunges us back into 1969 and a London recording studio where, two months before they split up, The Beatles are feverishly writing and recording 14 new songs for the album that would eventually be released as Let It Be – the last they made together.
Director Peter Jackson puts the restoration skills he honed on his superlative Second World War documentary film They Shall Not Grow Old
to brilliant use again to bring a shimmering vividness to picture and sound in this production which, in the ultimate seal of approval, is co-produced by Paul Mccartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison. Among the classics created in front of our eyes are Let It Be, Get Back and Don’t Let Me Down with an intimacy that, at times, really is like being in the room
with the band. In the face of their near-impossible deadline, their creativity and friendship are put under extreme pressure –
at one point fracturing completely when George simply ups and quits the band. Superb. Gerard O’donovan investigation uncovered a €1.9 bn black hole in the company accounts.