The 60s: The Beatles Decade — Season 1, Episode 2: Sex, Spies and Rock and Roll 1962-1964
Documentary • 30 min • 1 season, 5 episodes
Episode synopsis
In Liverpool in 1962 the Beatles caused a sensation at the Cavern Club. They had only one single to their name. But a fateful meeting with Brian Epstein was to help them top the charts. Epstein changed their image from the American biker look and soon realised the sixties was the selling decade. Youth was all the rage and the old Tory Prime Minister Harold McMillan seemed out of step with the times. The Profumo sex scandal nailed the Tories and before long Harold Wilson's Labour government took power. The age of deference had passed and the Beatles played up their cheeky persona. As 'Beatlemania' was exported around the world, it embodied the optimism and national pride which had infected Britain. By the end of 1964 Britain had shifted into a modern age. The Beatles success was evidence that a more meritocratic society had arrived and class barriers had fallen.
About The 60s: The Beatles Decade
When people are asked to think about the 1960s, they automatically think love, peace and...The Beatles. Over the decade, the Fab Four changed from cheeky pop mop-heads to blissed-out experimentalists, and this transformation mirrored the country as a whole. This five-part documentary series looks at how the world's most famous pop group personified one of the most explosive and volatile decades of the 20th century. Although the 60s generation had it all, a changing political landscape and changing attitudes to sex and relationships were dragging Britain into a new age. By the end of the decade, The Beatles had split up, proving that the band's personalities and their music had become true symbols of an iconic decade.