The Beatles documentary Let It Be will be widely available again for the first time in decades after Disney+ announced it would screen the 1970 film.
The film, made by director Michael Lindsay-Hogg as the band made some of their final recordings, was first released in 1970 shortly after they fell apart.
Parts of the film were used in Peter Jackson’s award-winning series The Beatles: Get Back but generations of fans have never seen the full film.
It includes footage of the band in the recording studio and their legendary final ever gig on the roof of the Apple building in Savile Row.
Linday-Hogg said: “Let It Be was ready to go in October/November 1969, but it didn’t come out until April 1970.
“One month before its release, The Beatles officially broke up. And so the people went to see Let It Be with sadness in their hearts, thinking, ‘I’ll never see The Beatles together again. I will never have that joy again,’ and it very much darkened the perception of the film.
“But, in fact, how often do you get to see artists of this stature working together to make what they hear in their heads into songs. And then you get to the roof and you see their excitement, camaraderie and sheer joy in playing together again as a group and know, as we do now, that it was the final time, and we view it with full understanding of who they were and still are and a little poignancy.”
Jackson said he was “absolutely thrilled” the film has been restored and re-released.
He said: “Michael Lindsay-Hogg was unfailingly helpful and gracious while I made Get Back and it’s only right that his original movie has the last word...looking and sounding far better than it did in 1970.”
:: Let It Be will debut on Disney+ on May 8.
