The Beatles Anthology (Season 1)

The Beatles Anthology (1995) is the definitive documentary series you can watch online on iFILM — the whole story of the twentieth century's greatest band, told by the people who lived it. Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr narrate it themselves, while John Lennon speaks through archival tapes.

It runs from the Liverpool clubs and the grimy Hamburg cellars through Beatlemania, the stadium years, India, and the Abbey Road sessions. The series is built from footage few had ever seen: home movies, rehearsals, concerts, interviews, half-formed songs caught mid-creation. Producer George Martin and original drummer Pete Best fill in details no biography carries. There's no all-knowing narrator dropped over the top — just four musicians and the people closest to them, with the arguments, exhaustion and breakup left in.

Directors Geoff Wonfor and Bob Smeaton shaped a mountain of material into eight parts that became the primary source for everything Beatles. It works for lifelong fans and for anyone who knows three songs and wants to grasp how four kids from a port city remade popular music. Stream The Beatles Anthology online on iFILM.