Eras

The Beatles: 5. Reincarnation

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Episode notes

If you’re in the biggest band there ever was, how do you cope when it all comes crashing down? That’s the question John, Paul, George and Ringo were asking themselves in the spring of 1970, when it was announced that The Beatles were breaking up for good.

In part five, Martin Freeman arrives at the end of an era - and the start of four more. In the aftermath of the split, bitter recriminations give way to new beginnings, and each individual Beatle embarks on a successful solo career. Rumours of a reunion swirl, before a senseless act of violence seems to draw a line under their story as a unit.

But a band like The Beatles never goes away - it lives forever in the people who love it... and this is a story that never really ends.