This hour-long made-for-television film starring The Beatles first aired on BBC1 on 26 December 1967.
Upon its initial showing, the public and critics attacked the movie the very next day, which kept it from being screened on American television (although it later appeared in selected cinemas in the US).
It was conceived and executed in haste, without any realisation of the work that goes into even a short movie.
The idea was to load up a bus with several characters and travel around the countryside of England (mainly Cornwall) for four days in September 1967, and film whatever ended up happening. Nothing much did.
Not even the songs – I Am The Walrus and Fool On The Hill among them – could save it.
Paul McCartney defended the 1967 Boxing Day screening on British TV of the critically mauled film by saying “The Queen’s speech was hardly a gasser”.
John Lennon
Himself
Paul McCartney
Himself
George Harrison
Himself
Ringo Starr
Himself
Army Sergeant
Victor Spinetti
Ringo’s Aunt
Jessie Robins
Hostess Wendy Winters
Mandy Weet (Miranda Forbes)
Jolly Jimmy Johnson
Derek Royle
Buster Bloodvessel
Ivor Cutler
Little Girl
Nichola
Photographer
George Claydon
Starlet
Maggie Wright
Stripper
Jan Carson
Accordionist
Shirley Evans
Rubber Man
Nat Jackley
Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band
Themselves
