The Beatles Anthology 2025 Review – 'Extensive and exhaustive'

A remastered edition of the classic documentary series about the legendary rock band — with an additional episode included.

“It’s almost impossible to get the definitive story of the Beatles,” says Paul McCartney in The Beatles Anthology. That hasn’t stopped people trying. The craze for filmed fodder about the Fab Four has barely relented since the band split up in 1970; in the last five years alone, we’ve had films ranging from excellent (Peter Jackson’s Get Back) to perfectly fine (Martin Scorsese-produced Beatles ‘64) to niche (the Cirque du Soleil/Beatles collab All Together Now). Not to mention the four major biopics on each member, from Sam Mendes, arriving in 2027.

Now we have the return of the account that arguably comes closest to “definitive”. The Beatles Anthology was a landmark project when it was released in the early ‘90s, consisting of an 8-part television series (broadcast on ITV in the UK and ABC in the US), a collection of albums, and a book. Made with full participation of the band’s surviving members (McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr), it aimed to tell the exhaustive story of the band “more popular than Jesus”.

The Anthology now makes its debut on streaming with a bit of lick and polish from Jackson’s Wingnut Films, who apply the same magic they used on Get Back to turn the grainy footage higher resolution, the music higher fidelity. While it certainly feels sharper, a lot of material here might feel familiar: footage of policemen holding back screaming girls as the mop-topped men grin cheekily has over time become its own cliché.

To see the three of them hanging out and jamming together is a joy.

And yet. The extended running time of this series allows for deeper cuts. It is still remarkable to watch a minutes-long uninterrupted shot of the band giggling in a limo while fans claw at the windows like zombies, or play to Shea Stadium, treated like gods, bodies willingly flung at the stage. Despite their eternal cultural dominance, the facts of the Beatles remain extraordinary. “By the time I was 23, we’d done Sgt Pepper,” notes Harrison casually at one point.

Source: John Nugent/empireonline.com

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