David Bianculli

It was shown across the globe and later released on home video.

That was in 1995, 25 years after The Beatles had broken up.

That documentary extended their legend and their impact for several more decades.

It told the story of the group via performance, film, and TV clips, and lots and lots of interviews.

John Lennon, who had been shot and killed 15 years earlier, was represented in vintage interview clips.

So were the other Beatles.

But for the 1995 documentary, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr also sat still for new interviews, separately and together.

So when it comes to the key moment when John meets Paul and invites him to join his group, the Quarrymen, the documentary recounts it by having Paul, in 1995, playing on guitar and singing the song he sang for John as a sort of audition when they met.

Then John, in an old interview, is heard picking up the story.

It's told the same way in the new The Beatles Anthology 2025 as in the original.

Peter Jackson and his team, who turned outtake footage from the 1970 Let It Be documentary into his superb multi-part Get Back Beatles miniseries for Disney+, did some of the restoration work here.

So did engineer Jeff Emmerich and music producer Giles Martin, the son of Beatles producer George Martin.

Their combined efforts make all the music sound so much better.

For the audio release of this new Beatles Anthology 2025, they've issued a brand new fourth CD set of recordings.

The remastering, on all four volumes, is a quantum leap forward.

Listen to John Lennon on Free as a Bird, and his voice no longer sounds distant and tinny.

It sounds like John Lennon, right there in the studio with the other Beatles.

Is the new TV documentary?

Absolutely.

There's something about the Beatles and the way they approach things that makes their output seem fresh no matter how many years have passed.