On Friday 29 September 1967, John Lennon and George Harrison appeared as guests on The Frost Programme, whose host David Frost had just interviewed Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, with whom the Beatles were then prominently associated in the press. They discussed their newfound practice of transcendental meditation and the public were interested enough that the two appeared again, five days later, on Wednesday 4 October to continue the discussion, this time in front of a questioning audience of academics and doctors.

We discuss first how remarkable it is that pop stars were given a platform like this to debate theology, and how different the environment was compared to today's discussion programmes, in that everyone was given time to make their points without interruption, and the two Beatles weren't condescended to or shouted down. It's interesting too to note the group dynamic: George is the much-more serious leader here and John takes a back seat, adding humour but not undermining their points.

• Watch the Friday 29 September 1967 broadcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpYg2H34piw
• The Wednesday 4 October 1967 broadcast (note the YouTube video is mislabelled as 29 September): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUGkbNu06-k
• Dr John Allison's paper, Respiratory Changes During Transcendental Meditation, published in The Lancet on 18 April 1970: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S014067367092427X
• Details of the BBC Third Programme broadcast of King Lear from 29 September, which the Beatles mixed live into I Am The Walrus: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/shakespeare/search/index.php/title/av68007

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.

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First question about this new documentary from Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwards: is there anything new in it? It's a resounding yes: we discuss the framing device the film uses to evoke the chaos and political turmoil of Nixon-era early 1970s America. One big selling point for the film is also the archive of recorded phone calls between John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Allen Klein, May Pang, and other assistants, and we look at what this reveals about them. And it's interesting to note that this seems remarkably free of airbrushing: there are editorial decisions made here that don't flatter John or Yoko, and we talk about what this means for the creative direction of the Lennon estate.

• As of mid-April 2025, the film is out in UK cinemas. See where it's showing near you: https://shorturl.at/eFZyD
• Watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/oxagfYjeMV4
• Details of the live box set to be released in 2025: https://www.noise11.com/news/john-lennon-reissue-for-2025-will-be-9-disc-live-box-set-20250407

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
• X https://x.com/beatlesfilmpod
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/304654901827622

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.