Recommendations of the Editorial team
As if four Beatles films weren’t enough, a new miniseries focuses on the inexperienced Fab Four’s years in West Germany. The BBC announced Tuesday that it has given the green light to “Hamburg Days,” a six-part miniseries about the period Beatles in Germany, which is partly based on an autobiography written by Beatles companion Klaus Voormann.
“In the smoky clubs in the red light district of Hamburg-St. Pauli, an inexperienced young rock’n’roll band from Liverpool meets two young artists, Klaus Voormann and Astrid Kirchherr,” says the series summary. “Together, they help trigger a transformation that transforms a chaotic group of teenagers into the greatest musical phenomenon the world has ever seen: The Beatles.”
While the cast hasn’t been announced yet, the series already has a showrunner (The Crown director Christian Schwochow) and a director (Mat Whitecross, who previously made documentaries on Oasis and Coldplay). Composer David Holmes was hired to compose the music.
The early encounters in Hamburg
“‘Hamburg Days’ is the fascinating story of how a young, unbridled band from Liverpool honed their musical skills in Hamburg in just two years, before returning home to become an overnight global success,” the BBC’s Sue Deeks said in a statement. “It’s an incredible story, accompanied by a great soundtrack (of course)!” (It is unclear whether the Beatles approved the use of their own music, although the band’s performances at the time were heavily influenced by covers.)
This is not the first time that the Beatles’ Hamburg era has been fictionalized: the 1994 film Backbeat previously highlighted the Fab Four’s early years in West Germany, but with a focus on their original bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, who died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Hamburg at the age of 21.