The Beatles: Get Back (2021), a documentary series directed and produced by Peter Jackson

Down with Covid, and having heard that the documentary The Beatles: Get Back was a “must see even if no Beatles fan”, I took the plunge. I was completely transfixed during all three parts lasting over eight hours altogether. Originally made in 1969 for the album and film Let It Be, the director Peter Jackson (of Lord of the Rings fame) has re-visioned and re-edited more than sixty hours of film footage for this fascinating documentary.

Having grown up in London in the sixties, the film immediately transported me back to an era of no mobiles or internet, endless cigarette smoking, cups of tea, white-bread toast, and the wacky and colourful fashion—as adorned by the “fab four”. I was reminded of my first introduction to them in the playground aged six, when asked: “who do you like best, the Beatles or the Monkees?” Utterly perplexed I responded “monkeys”. I soon understood the significance of this question. The Beatles' music and fame are synonymous with the swinging sixties in post-war Britain. Considered by many as the first “boy-band”, their trajectory reflected a sense of hope, freedom, and liberation in contrast to the conservatism of the 1950s and the Second World War.

What transforms something so seemingly mundane as thirty days of band rehearsals into such a powerful documentary? Three things spring to mind: first, it is the film's look—modern-day technology brings a brightness and sharpness that provides a particularly intimate experience. Jackson makes us feel like a “fly on the wall”, partaking in the band's (often chaotic) creative process. Second, it is the experience of actually witnessing brilliant and pioneering musicians in the process of creating music and song-making. You forget that they are world famous; they simply feel like young men messing about with their instruments—except that when you hear their songs, such as

“Let it be” (with its almost hymn-like status) in the making, you are qu