Beatle folklore tells us that the original Let It Be film was mainly Paul’s vehicle – he was the driving force, dragging a divided group toppermost, towards their famous, final rooftop concert. The movie’s cannily cut last fifteen minutes only add to that myth. It starts with McCartney’s one-sided attempt to convince a blank-faced John Lennon that the Beatles should go back on the road. The next scenes are the staged, studio-bound performances of Two Of Us and Long and Winding Road – occasionally focusing on a diffident George Harrison, head buried throughout, while Paul stares confidently straight into the lens; John is barely on camera. Cut to the grey skies of London and Paul emerges first onto the Apple Building rooftop, bouncing energetically on the makeshift scaffolding stage. Happy to be on the boards again. But in a key discussion recorded the day before, the Beatles openly debated the merits of a Rooftop Concert and those production tapes tell a different story. John and Ringo were actually keen. George’s view was ‘whatever will finish this – I’ll do it’. But surprisingly, the lone dissenting voice was Paul’s. He just didn’t rate the ‘roof’ as a strong enough climax to the film. But with ever-limited options, and Ringo soon to start filming the Magic Christian, Paul came round. ‘Let’s do the show right here!’. And they did – brilliantly. The Peter Jackson edit of Let It Be in the new film ‘The Beatles: Get Back’ is set to be released in Sept 2020.

[Edit: The release of Peter Jackson’s film Get Back: The Beatles was delayed due to Coronavirus]