Filming for the British Broadcasting Corporation's new television drama series Hamburg Days has begun in Liverpool city centre, with cast members spotted on set on Sunday for the first time.
The six-part drama tells the story of the Beatles in their formative years, tracing their transformation from Liverpool teenagers into the biggest band in the world.
Rising actors Patrick Gilmore, Harvey Brett, Rhys Mannion, Louis Landau, and Ellis Murphy have stepped into the roles of the band members for the project.
Mannion plays John Lennon, Murphy portrays Paul McCartney, and Brett depicts George Harrison, while Landau plays bassist Stuart Sutcliffe and Gilmore takes on the role of drummer Pete Best.
The production highlights the early period starting in 1960 when the group began playing together in Liverpool, the historic port city in North West England, and Hamburg, the German port city where the young musicians honed their live performances before achieving worldwide fame. Best served as the main drummer during this initial phase.
Cast and Early Band Line-up
Actor Ryan Sampson also features in the cast as the late Allan Williams. Williams worked as the Beatles' original booking agent and served as their first manager, helping arrange their early club gigs in Liverpool and their initial engagements in Germany.
The series documents the early line-up when Sutcliffe and Best were active members of the group, following the young musicians as they performed across music venues in England and Germany.
In 1962, Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison asked Best to leave the group due to concerns over his drumming style and overall fit with the band.
The band subsequently recruited drummer Ringo Starr to replace Best. Starr's arrival finalized the iconic four-man line-up that went on to achieve global stardom and trigger the fan frenzy known as Beatlemania throughout the 1960s.
Klaus Voormann Memoirs and Historical Figures
The storyline for Hamburg Days is inspired by the memoirs of Klaus Voormann, a German artist and musician who first met the band members as a young art student in Hamburg.
Voormann maintained a long creative relationship with the group, eventually designing the line-drawing artwork for their landmark 1966 studio album Revolver. He later performed as a bassist on solo albums recorded by Lennon, Harrison, and Starr following the group's eventual breakup.
Producers confirmed that the six-part series will showcase the moment the band, including Sutcliffe and Best, met Voormann alongside German photographer Astrid Kirchherr.
Darci Shaw plays Cynthia Lennon, the first wife of John Lennon. Cynthia met Lennon while both were studying at the Liverpool College of Art and experienced the early rise of the Beatles firsthand.
Lea Drinda plays Astrid Kirchherr in the series. Kirchherr was a German photographer and artist known for capturing iconic early black-and-white portraits of the band members during their time in Hamburg.
Actor Rhys Mannion was photographed in costume getting into character as John Lennon during the recent outdoor scenes filmed on location in Liverpool city centre.
Production Team and Broadcast Details
The series script was written by Wirral-born screenwriter Jamie Carragher. Carragher previously served as one of the writers behind Succession, the critically acclaimed HBO comedy-drama series produced by the American cable network.
Hamburg Days will air on public television channel BBC One and will be released for digital streaming on BBC iPlayer, the UK broadcaster's online video platform. An official release date for the series has not yet been announced.
Rival Feature Film Project in London
As camera crews began work on the BBC television drama in Liverpool, production also got underway in London on a rival feature film project centered on the Beatles.
Director Sam Mendes is heading the feature film project, officially titled The Beatles: A Four-Film Cinematic Event, which was first announced last year. Mendes is an Academy Award-winning British film and theatre director.
The ambitious cinematic project consists of four separate feature films, with each individual movie told from the personal perspective of one of the four band members.
Actors Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan, Joseph Quinn, and Harris Dickinson lead the film ensemble as the four musicians, following their evolution from unknown teenagers in Liverpool in the early 1960s to becoming the biggest band in the world and their eventual breakup in 1970.
The feature project represents the first time that surviving band members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, together with the estates of the late John Lennon and George Harrison, have granted full life story and music rights for a theatrical feature film project.
Promoters have described the four-part anthology as the first bingeable theatrical experience in cinema history.
The film cast features Aimee Lou Wood, 32, portraying Harrison's model wife Pattie Boyd. Boyd was an English fashion model who married Harrison in the 1960s. Actress Anna Sawai, 34, plays Japanese multimedia artist Yoko Ono, who married Lennon.
Actor James Norton, 41, portrays Brian Epstein, the Liverpool music store manager who became the band's famous manager. Mia McKenna-Bruce, 29, appears as Maureen Starkey, Ringo Starr's first wife.
Actor Harry Lloyd, 42, plays record producer George Martin. Martin earned international acclaim as the fifth Beatle for his work producing and arranging almost all of the band's original studio recordings.
All four feature films in Mendes' project are scheduled to be released simultaneously in cinemas in 2028.
