Long-lost Beatles performance to be screened for the first time in 50 years

The Beatles at the Top Of The Pops studio in 1966 (Image credit: Getty)

A long-lost clip of the Beatles performing Paperback Writer on Top Of The Pops in 1966 is to be screened this weekend at the Birmingham City University.

Only 11 seconds of the appearance was believed to exist previously, with the full 92 second clip set to be shown on Saturday (June 1).

It was unearthed as part of a drive by the British Film Institute and Kaleidoscope, who launched a campaign in April last year to find the top 100 lost TV shows. 

No. 2 on the list was Top Of The Pops, and more than 200 lost performances have since been donated, including the Beatles clip from music fan David Chandler.

This weekend’s screening will feature talks from professionals and will showcase the unseen performances to an audience of industry experts and music and TV enthusiasts. 

Along with the footage of the Beatles, other performances to be screened from 1966 include Troggs’ Anyway That You Want Me, The Hollies’ Bus Stop, Small Faces’ My Mind’s Eye and a promo film of A Love Like Yours by Ike and Tina Turner.

The event will run at university’s Parkside Building between 10am and 6pm, while tickets can now be booked (opens in new tab).

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers and magazines as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. After initially joining our news desk in the summer of 2014, he moved to the e-commerce team full-time in 2020. He maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott grew up listening to rock and prog, cutting his teeth on bands such as Marillion and Magnum before his focus shifted to alternative and post-punk in the late 80s. His favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Drab Majesty, but he also still has a deep love of Rush.