Previously lost Beatles footage from 1964 has been found

Published Aug. 13, 2018

Twelve minutes of Beatles footage from the UK television show “Thank Your Lucky Stars” thought to have been missing was recently rediscovered, according to Chris Perry of Kaleidoscope Productions. The British firm specializes in programs exploring the heritage of British television programs and which announced the find last week.

“The footage found in the studio taping session for The Beatles appearance on the Nov. 21, 1964 episode of 'Thank Your Lucky Stars'; which was renamed 'Lucky Stars Special' for this special episode that featured The Beatles,” Perry told AXS.com Aug. 13. “This taping session includes Brian Matthew, the host clowning with The Beatles for two introductory segments, and then The Beatles mime to four songs – 'She’s A Woman,' 'I Feel Fine,' 'I’m A Loser,' and 'Rock And Roll Music.'” (Note: The music video above is not the found footage.)

Perry posted on Kaleidoscope's Facebook page, “So Kaleidoscope has always assumed that the music is all that exists. Apple has never revealed if more existed but some years ago there was a brief moment of Brian shown introducing Sounds Incorporated which suggested that more of the show might exist. Enquiries within Apple recently revealed that they thought more footage existed as well but they didn’t know exactly how much. Kaleidoscope was very surprised, therefore, to recently run a DVC Pro tape sent from the USA and discover it contained the studio recording for this 1964 TYLS show. There are the ABC time-clocks for separate studio sessions and the Beatles are fooling around in the studio with Brian.”

According to The Beatles Film & TV Chronicle by Jőrg Piper and Volker Path, a short excerpt from the show was included in The Beatles Anthology TV series. Perry says the segments were shot on videotape and the quality of the footage was “very good.”

Kaleidoscope has uncovered other lost Beatles appearances as well, he said. “Our previous finds regarding The Beatles include the audio from their BBC-TV appearance on 'Pops and Lenny' from May 16, 1963, as well as complete shows from the 'Pop Go the Beatles' radio series, including the very first episode. The 'Pops and Lenny' is most interesting as it contains a unique 70-second-long live performance of 'Please Please Me.'"

Another recent Kaleidoscope find was a 1963 TV appearance by the comedy group Morecombe & Wise, who also appeared with the Beatles on the comic duo's own TV show in 1963 and “The Ed Sullivan Show” on Feb. 23, 1964. This clip, however, didn't feature The Beatles. Perry described the Morecombe & Wise footage as “a public information film from 1963 regarding drunk driving, and is not from a television appearance.”

In 2016, Kaleidoscope reported over 100 discoveries of lost footage, including a complete 1961 episode of The Avengers TV series titled Tunnel of Fear with Patrick Macnee and Ian Hendry. The episode was made before either Honor Blackman and Diana Rigg joined the show.