Paul McCartney: Beatles and beyond

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 31 August 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs celebrates the life and legacy of Sir Paul McCartney, from his Liverpool roots to Beatlemania and beyond. It is a journey that moves from the late 1950s spanning McCartney’s skiffle start with John Lennon in The Quarrymen, through to his long solo career, taking in Mersey Beat; the rise of the Fab Four to 1960s icons; and Wings’ 1970s success. Susanna learns how The Beatles could only have come from Liverpool, and how a visit to McCartney’s old grammar school led to a significant legacy: the formation of the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA). Joining Susanna are author of recent biography Fly Away Paul, Lesley-Ann Jones; veteran songwriter and member of 10cc, Graham Gouldman; LIPA founding principal and chief executive, Sir Mark Featherstone-Witty; Beatles historian and author, David Bedford; lifelong Beatles enthusiast Jean Catharell; BBC Radio Merseyside broadcaster Paul Beesley; Universal Music Group chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge; plus two LIPA alumni - award winning composer Hannah Peel, and singer, songwriter and guitarist Natalie McCool. Giving the narrative an intimately familial contribution is McCartney’s younger brother, Mike McCartney.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Susanna Hoffs. Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.
0:07.1	You're I'm Paul and I play the bass.
0:09.8	Introducing himself to a BBC radio audience in 1963.
0:15.0	That's 21-year-old Paul McCartney.
0:17.7	At the time, she loves you was the UK's number one single, while the Beatles debut
0:23.0	LP, Please Please Me, topped the album charts. A year later, the Beatles would storm the U.S. charts as well.
0:31.3	My name's Susanna Hoffs, and I'm a singer, songwriter, and co-founder of the Bengals. The Beatles music made a huge impression on me as a child.
0:41.2	Now, I'm celebrating the legend and legacy of a cultural icon.
0:46.8	Welcome to Paul McCartney, Beatles and Beyond.
0:52.0	My whole family were Beatles fans when I was growing up. My mom had a best friend who
0:56.4	worked for Capitol Records. How lucky were we? She'd bring home early copies of Beatles' discs
1:02.1	fresh off the press. That music has inspired my whole career, and while my brothers followed
1:08.3	John and Ringo, it was always Paul for me. Elsewhere in this tribute,
1:14.4	we'll bring his story right up to date, seeing how Sir Paul McCartney is giving back to the city of
1:20.6	his birth. By the way, that's the only time I'll be using his full title, Sir Paul. He's always been Paul to me,
1:30.1	although Mike McCartney might call him something else. From all of you around the world,
1:35.9	because this is the BBC World Service, if I ever say, our kid again, it doesn't mean my baby
1:43.6	or my little child. It's Liverpool slang,
1:47.7	Liverpool vernacular for my brother. So now you know, that's Paul's younger brother, Mike McCartney,
1:54.9	also known as Mike McGeer of Liverpool Trio, The Scaffled. More from him in a moment. Right now, time to focus on Paul's
2:04.1	upbringing. So let's visit the McCartney family home. To set the scene literally, join me going down to
2:11.9	Liverpool in the company of our guide, BBC Radio's Paul Beasley. Well, here we are in Forthlin Road. What about five miles south of
	...

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