New BFI book on A Hard Day’s Night book echoes real-life incident from when The Beatles played Harrogate
“The Beatles were naturally comedic in a way that very few rock bands were” said Samira Ahmed, author of a new BFI Film Classics book on A Hard Day’s Night
A forthcoming visit to Harrogate this weekend by the author of a new book about A Hard Day’s Night has revived memories of the day The Beatles played in the town in the 1960s.
This Saturday will see former anchor of Channel 4 News Samira Ahmed talking at Raworths Harrogate Literature Festival about her BFI Film Classics series exploration of the Fab Four’s 1964 film.
A Beatles fan herself, Samira’s book offers new insights into how the iconic film was made, the incredible charisma of John, Paul, George and Ringo and the film’s game-changing socio-cultural significance, including the role of women.
The award-winning broadcaster told the Harrogate Advertiser that even director Richard Lester was impressed by the four boys.
“The Beatles were naturally comedic in a way that very few rock bands were,” said Samira.
“At that point they were enjoying Beatlemania and were happy to undercut themselves as much as anyone else.
“Richard Lester told me he’d never people who wore their fame so lightly.
“But they knew their own minds and, unlike other 60s films, there’s nothing sexist or racist in A Hard Day’s Night.”
Appearing at Raworths Harrogate Literature Festival at the Crown Hotel on Saturday, October 24 at 12.30pm, one of the anecdotes about A Hard Day’s Night is echoed in a fan’s memory of the night in March 1963 that The Beatles performed at Harrogate’s Royal Hall.
In her book, Samira recounts Ringo saying that the scene in the film on a train where a posh older gent turns his transistor radio off was based on a real incident that had happened to the band.
Talking to the Harrogate Advertiser in 2016, Beryl Fletcher, then a young Beatles fan who went to the Harrogate gig, told me Ringo had been told to turn his transistor radio down at the hotel after the show.
Beryl said: “We sat in the car after the show waiting for The Beatles and followed them to Leeds.
“George Harrison went home to Liverpool on the midnight train so there was John, Paul and Ringo in the hotel in Leeds.
“They didn’t go to bed or anything, they just sat around talking at a table in a dining room. It was wonderful.
“I was sitting near Ringo who was lovely. John was nice, too.
"Ringo had the radio on very loud, playing it at full blast.
"An Italian waiter came across pointing his arms at them, telling them to turn it down“
Ringo just said calmly “it is Elvis you know.”
Tickets here