The Beatles Films Podcast

Time for some wild speculation, now we've got a lot of the Beatle wives and fifth Beatle candidates' casting confirmed. We look in particular at Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney, and discuss the film Foe, in which she and Paul Mescal played a couple living in an isolated setting. A bit like Paul McCartney and Linda's Scottish farmhouse exile? We've been watching lots of films featuring the cast too, and we look at what their performances suggest they'll bring to these roles. Does the casting of high-profile actors to play wives and Beatle family members suggest big roles for them, and does this in turn suggest these films will have a focus on the band's home lives, and how fame affected them?

We'll do our best to cite all the films we've mentioned. For Mescal and Ronan, watch Foe on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.co.uk/FOE-Saoirse-Ronan/dp/B0C9G86K94
To make sure we've got it right: Ronan was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in 2008, and for Best Actress in a Leading Role three times: 2016, 2018 and 2020
The other Mescal films: Hamnet and The History of Sound, both out in UK cinemas in January 2026
Mescal talking about stepping back from public view while the Beatles films are in production: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/02/i-dont-want-to-resent-the-thing-i-love-paul-mescal-and-josh-oconnor-on-romance-rationing-and-retirement
You can and should buy and rent Harris Dickinson's Urchin in lots of places: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/urchin
Other Dickinsongs: Where the Crawdads Sing, Blitz, Babygirl
Joseph Quinn in Hoard: https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/hoard
Stranger Things, featuring Quinn from season four: https://www.netflix.com/title/80057281
The trailer for Andrea Arnold's wonderful Bird, with Barry Keoghan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y0iJkT97Jc
More Keoghanicals: Dunkirk, Bring Them Down, The Batman
Mia McKenna-Bruce stars in Seven Dials on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81314952
And in How to Have Sex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWmF8KpxxmA
The films' entry on the FDA website, that currently suggests they'll all be released on 7 April 2028, but as we say is likely to change: https://filmdistributorsassociation.com/release-schedule/past-present-and-future-releases/?filmSearch=beatles

Meet the Beatles Films Podcast

The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.

But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod
Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/beatlesfilmspod.bsky.social
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast
Threads https://www.threads.net/@beatlesfilmspod
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622
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Happy Christmas! Let's have a look at Dave Mullins' film, co-written with Sean Ono Lennon, which won Best Animated Short Film at the 2024 Oscars. We discuss the animation techniques, including use of the Unreal Engine, and talk about how John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Christmas song Happy Xmas (War Is Over) came about in 1971, and how it came to be used in the film.

Watch the film on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W68-XaFepOg
We made a donation to the War Child charity for this episode, which you can too if you'd like: https://www.warchild.org.uk/donate-war-is-over-film
The "making of" short documentary piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADIePh3JR40
Yoko Ono's 1966 piece, Play It By Trust: https://www.imaginepeace.com/archives/24764
Dave Mullins' Pixar short, Lou: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIL0vSNx8Xg
The Toy Story 3 scene in which the characters accept and wait for their death: https://youtu.be/Hg2DBQNvLBQ
An article about the auction of the 1969 postcard John and Yoko sent UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-61174089

Meet the Beatles Films Podcast

The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.

But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod
Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/beatlesfilmspod.bsky.social
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast
Threads https://www.threads.net/@beatlesfilmspod
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What did we expect from the new episode? Well: the big decision here is not to include any new interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr from the 2020s. We discuss the effect that decision has on this episode, and on how it rounds off the series as a whole. Does the episode work as a general making-of-Anthology, or as a patchwork of unused clips from the other eight episodes? And is there any more Threetles footage to come, or is that your lot?

The 2025 Beatles Anthology is available to watch on Disney+: https://www.disneyplus.com/en-gb/browse/entity-cab32c53-c3f8-4879-86f5-c8e4a1657338
You can find our five-part deep dive into the original Beatles Anthology earlier in this feed
Tom Doyle's book Ringo: A Fab Life: https://share.google/JTtimJRkRdc9nEJaj
The episode of the Beatles Books Podcast featuring Tom Doyle: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-sjt4u-19a1a32

Meet the Beatles Films Podcast

The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.

But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod
Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/beatlesfilmspod.bsky.social
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast
Threads https://www.threads.net/@beatlesfilmspod
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

They couldn't let it lie, could they? Well, fair enough: The Beatles Anthology felt like a sleeping giant for Apple: gathering dust on a lot of fortysomethings' DVD shelves when it could be out there, brand spanking new and showing a whole new generation how great these guys were.

And of course these episodes have been altered: we talk about what's new, and what's been removed and why. Plus there's the subject of the AI upscaling of some of the early performance footage: what effect does it have and what are the implications?

The 2025 Beatles Anthology is available to watch on Disney+: https://www.disneyplus.com/en-gb/browse/entity-cab32c53-c3f8-4879-86f5-c8e4a1657338
You can find our five-part deep dive into the original Beatles Anthology earlier in this feed
The 1929 short film The Singing Brakeman, starring Jimmie Rodgers: https://youtu.be/JvA9fWnEXw0
The episode of the Producing The Beatles podcast about Now and Then: https://www.producingthebeatles.com/new-episodes/2023/11/14/016-now-and-then-56hkt

Meet the Beatles Films Podcast

The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.

But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod
Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/beatlesfilmspod.bsky.social
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast
Threads https://www.threads.net/@beatlesfilmspod
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's part 2 and we're getting into it: what were the standout performances? There's a lot to choose from: Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney all had a go, but what motivated their song choices? We also discuss Paul in particular: less secure than Ringo in his relationship with George Harrison, it's fascinating to watch Paul tread carefully through his contributions. What would a Paul McCartney tribute concert look like and who would appear at it?

You can find ways to watch and listen to the Concert for George at https://concertforgeorge.com
We insist you listen to Steven's podcast with Jason Carty, Nothing Is Real: https://www.nothingisrealpod.com
You can also find their Radio Ulster series Back to the Irish, which examines the Irish connections of the Beatles and other artists, on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b079m78n
Prince's performance on While My Guitar Gently Weeps at George's Rock n Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2004: https://youtu.be/dWRCooFKk3c
The Art of McCartney compilation album that Matt likes a lot more than Steven does: https://open.spotify.com/album/4iZ49yyqqCiB4B1NVV98lM
The Prince's Trust Rock Gala 1986, where Paul performed I Saw Her Standing There, Long Tall Sally and Get Back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hivErCQ7R6I

Meet the Beatles Films Podcast

The Beatles Films Podcast is hosted by Matt Looker and Ed Williamson. We're both film writers and Beatles fans. Between us we've written for TheShiznit.co.uk, Total Film, Den of Geek and Virgin Media.

But tomorrow may rain, so you'll follow us on:
Instagram https://instagram.com/beatlesfilmspod
Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/beatlesfilmspod.bsky.social
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@BeatlesFilmsPodcast
Threads https://www.threads.net/@beatlesfilmspod
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.