Jeff Young - When Elvis Met The Beatles

JEFF YOUNG - WHEN ELVIS MET THE BEATLES (320kbs-m4a/128mb/56mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 30th May 2023

One night in 1965, Elvis Presley invited the young pretenders of pop, The Beatles, to visit him at his Los Angeles mansion.

Jeff Young's drama is inspired by that secret meeting in Bel Air on 27th August. That night is probably the most seismic meeting in music. No cameras, no recording equipment - and only those who were there really know what happened.

This imagined recreation is centred around music which breaks the ice between them – with listeners invited to be a fly on the wall.

Discover what songs were played on Elvis' Jukebox and who sang what in a mythical jam session. This wasn't just the meeting of the two biggest music names in history - it was passing of the baton from the King of Rock 'n' Roll to the upstarts from Liverpool.

Starring Tom Hughes as John Lennon and Kevin Mains as Elvis Presley.

Jeff Young says: "I was a big Beatles fan when I was younger, but for this project, initially, I knew very little about the Elvis and Beatles meeting. Then as I began researching the story, the strangeness of the meeting and the psychological dimensions, the dramatic opportunities became obvious. The larger than life characters involved, including Brian Epstein and Colonel Tom Parker, all set against a backdrop of corrupt American politics and the disastrous war in Vietnam, made for a strange and compelling narrative.

"The piece that has emerged is a kind of fake documentary. Elvis's life was an American Tragedy and the seeds of it are sown here in this meeting between the King and the pretenders to the throne. The Beatles were so young, bewildered and overwhelmed by their rapid rise to fame. In writing this drama I went back my old Beatles records and I became a Beatles fan, all over again."

Written by Jeff Young

John Lennon .... Tom Hughes
Elvis Presley .... Kevin Mains
Ringo Starr .... Tom Dunlea
Paul McCartney .... Shaun Mason
George Harrison .... Michael Hawkins
Brian Epstein .... Daniel Lapaine
Colonel Tom Parker .... Colin Stinton

Producers: Dan Cocker & Polly Thomas

A Something Else production for BBC Radio 2, first broadcast in August 2015.

*** Broadcast as part of 4 Extra's Fab 4 season marking the 60th anniversary of the Beatles first universal chart number 1, From Me To You, in May 1963.