Episode #25 – ‘Help! – The Beatles’ Seminal Pop/Pot Movie’

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The Fab Four’s second film, shot in vivid colour, captured a very different group demeanor to that in A Hard Day’s Night. For that first effort they’d been pumped up on pills; this time around, they were laid back on the “herbal jazz cigarettes”. And director Dick Lester, together with cinematographer David Watkin, conveyed the blissed-out vibe via stunning photography, innovative graphics and offbeat comedy.

The result, at the time widely regarded as inferior to its predecessor, is now acclaimed as a pop-art gem that, very much of its time, also helped to define its era while serving as a wide-ranging source of influence and inspiration.

Towering above all, of course, were those personalities and their music…

• ‘Help!’
• ‘The Night Before’
• ‘You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away’
• ‘I Need You’
• ‘Another Girl’
• ‘You’re Going to Lose That Girl’
• ‘Ticket to Ride’
• Selections from Ken Thorne’s orchestral score