The Beatles Re-Release The Anthology Documentary

Beatles to Re-Release Anthology Documentary With New Episode, Unreleased Demo Tracks
The documentary will hit Disney+ on Nov. 26, while the musical collection comes out Nov. 21.
Variety.com
August 21, 2025 10:07am

he Beatles' famed Anthology documentary is getting a new edition this fall for its 30th anniversary, as the band is set to re-release the eight-part project in November with a special ninth episode, along with a remastered musical collection and a special edition of the Anthology's book.

The Beatles' Apple Corps has restored the original Anthology doc with Peter Jackson's Wingnut Films and Park Road Post teams, continuing Jackson's collaboration with the group since his lauded Get Back documentary from 2021. The new ninth episode includes footage of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison coming back together to work on the 1995 documentary. The project will stream on Disney+ starting Nov. 26.

The Anthology Collection, a compilation record originally curated by longtime Beatles producer George Martin, is getting a restoration as well courtesy of Martin's son Giles Martin. The collection will be a 12-LP, eight-CD set and includes a new Anthology 4 overseen by Giles Martin. Per a news release, Anthology 4 includes "13 previously unreleased demos and session recordings," and the project also included new mixes of the Anthology Collection tracks "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love," which were produced by Jeff Lynne. Those tracks feature "de-mixed John Lennon vocals," per the release. The collection will release Nov. 21.

Giles Martin recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about his work remastering iconic Beatles tracks, after he was nominated for an Emmy for his work on the Beatles' 64 documentary earlier this year.

"If I'm playing you a mix I've done, the last thing I want you to think about is what my mix was like, that it sounds like me -- that's how you know it wasn't done right," Martin said. "I want you to just think about how the song makes you feel.

Lastly, the Beatles will release a special 25th-anniversary edition of The Beatles Anthology book on Oct. 14. The book, which is available for pre-order, features all four of the Beatles giving their insight on the history of the iconic rock band. The book is 368 pages and features more than 1,300 photos and documents of the band, as well as recollections from those who were close with the group, including Neil Aspinall, George Martin and Derek Taylor, among others.

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Giles Martin on giving new life to The Beatles' 'Anthology': "It reveals how human they were"
The producer and Fab Four collaborator tells NME about the new 'Anthology' album and TV series, how much is left in the vault and what's still to be done, the magic of AI, and Sam Mendes' four Beatles biopics
By Andrew Trendell
New Musical Express
21st November 2025

Giles Martin has spoken to NME about giving new life to The Beatles' iconic 'Anthology', ahead of the new episode of the TV series and extra disc of music on the compilation.

The original TV series, Anthology 1, arrived in November 1995, around the same time as an eight-part documentary, and some of the first new music from the band since the death of John Lennon, with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr working with Jeff Lynne on 'Real Love' and 'Free As A Bird'.

It was followed up by two more albums, aptly named 'Anthology 2' and 'Anthology 3', which both arrived in 1996. Now, this month sees the release of a new instalment, with the documentary series restored, remastered and set to include a brand new Episode Nine. The re-released series has been remastered and restored by Apple Corps' production team, along with technicians at Peter Jackson's Park Road Post in Wellington, New Zealand.

'The Anthology Music Collection' - originally curated by the late and legendary George Martin - has also been re-released as three double albums today (Friday November 21), remastered by his son and longtime Beatles collaborator Giles Martin. This will include a new 'Anthology 4', with 13 previously-unreleased demos and session recordings, as well as new mixes of 'Free As A Bird' and 'Real Love'.

Asked what to expect from the restored episodes, Martin told NME that the audio-visual quality has vastly improved, and you get a real sense of togetherness from The Beatles.

"The episodes first came out in the '90s in the days of things being shot on video," explained. "Peter Jackson's team can restore everything. It's amazing with the benefit of hindsight. In the years before 'Anthology' first came out, no one was talking about The Beatles in that whole chasm of time. Since then, that triggered a plethora of stuff.

"My dad brought me in on it, but even he was telling me back then that he hadn't worked on anything to do with The Beatles since 1970."

Martin explained how using the new technology in making the epic 2021 docu-series Get Back, he'd been able to restore and remix a wealth of Beatles live material.

"It sounds great," he said. "The difference with Shea Stadium and the Washington concert is incredible. People heard a bit of that in The Beatles '64, that Scorsese film I did. I was doing mixes, but I wasn't sure what they were for. Now it's certainly listenable. It's funny how if you listen to Shea Stadium, what was released was really rough. There were no drums, and now we can restore that.

"I always believe that you can bring people back to the place they were, or the place they never were. You can get people close to the action using technology, and that's the whole point. All of what we do is about revealing the humanity."

Check out our full interview with Martin below, where he also told NME about recreating the feeling of being in the room with the Fab Four, the true power and limits of AI, his work on Sam Mendes' hotly-anticipated Beatles biopics, and how much is really left in the vault.

NME: Hello Giles. What can you tell us about what we learn about The Beatles from this new run at 'Anthology'?

Giles Martin: "I was just listening to the 'Anthology' takes before this interview to do some revision. What's great about this whole process - the album, the TV series, the music - is that it reveals how human it was and they were. It was four mates. More so now, you realise in this world of process that we live in with marketing, TikTok, re-imagination, teams of songwriters and the music industry being this behemoth of mediocre repetition of things to try and burst through this waterfall that was once a stream - The Beatles just basically came up with stuff, sang it, recorded it and released it. There was so much scale around it, but that's all it was essentially.

"The stuff I curated and mixed made me realise that: it's just four of them in a room. That's what the 'Anthology' is all about."

The new Episode Nine features a lot of unseen footage from the surviving members getting back together to record in the '90s. What struck you about it when you first saw it?

"What's changed is the editorial viewpoint of The Beatles since then. I noticed this with my dad. When I was growing up, 'Beatles' was like a really rude word in our house. It was what he did then, not now, and he didn't want to talk about it a lot. Of course, when he got older, he obviously did talk about it a lot.

"With Paul and Ringo and the estates, they do realise it's probably the best thing they've ever done in their lives. Paul McCartney, the most ambitious man and probably one of the most talented men I've ever met - well, one of the most talented men on the planet - even he would admit that the best songs he's written were with The Beatles, and the best band he was ever in was The Beatles. In those days [the '90s], they perhaps weren't at that stage yet.

"I think George would have got there. Now, all of this unseen footage has come out through the difference of opinion. It's always fascinating for Beatles fans to see unseen footage."

What comes across in Episode Nine more than the others?

"You'd have to talk to Peter Jackson, but it just rounds things up. In working on this project, I've seen different Beatles to the ones I know now - especially with Paul and Ringo. They're very nervous to talk about things, but 'Anthology 9' is warmer in that respect. They were so competitive, and they're so much more generous now. You get more of a glimpse of what it was really like to be in The Beatles in the late '90s."

Does it maintain that strange sense of brotherhood, that they're all still together?

"Of course, because all of the families are involved. Sean [Ono Lennon, producer] is really bright and does a really good job without being too biased. My dad used to say, 'When you look at a wedding photograph, the first person you look for is yourself'. It's true, we all do that and you have to be aware of that. It's harder with John and George because they're not around. But at the same time, now Paul and Ringo are more eloquent in speaking about them than they used to be. It's more representative.

"Even doing the string arrangement for 'Now And Then', I remember being in LA and Paul was like, 'Can we hear more of George's guitar part because this is the kind of thing he wanted?' It's changed, and what really comes across in 'Anthology 9' is that they just really miss their mates. There's a lot more heart."

And to the new disc of music, 'Anthology 4'. What holds these 13 tracks together and what drew you to them?

"I'm not really a 'Beatles nut' - I try and look at it more as a music fan. What I try and do provide people with a sense of what it would have been like to be there on the day, to be in the sessions. Personally, I like hearing the conversations and going between that and singing. That's really important to see the process and raw talent. The closer we get to that talent, the more we appreciate it.

"Even when they're bad, they're good - they're laughing about it. You hear the relationships and the fragility. I just listened to take one of 'In My Life' and it's so beautiful. There's something about the immediacy of a demo or a live performance. I don't try to mix it too posh - I just want it to sound as immediate as possible."

Is there anything you'd like to see done with The Beatles' catalogue that hasn't been done yet?

"I always get requests to mix 'Rubber Soul'. People always want to get closer and closer to things that they can't get close to. I try to get people as close as I can. I'm always very wary of just dishing stuff out. I listened to 'Anthology 4' and I really enjoyed it. I'm not a salesperson, I'm an artist. I thought 'Now And Then' was very poignant. I played the video to my sister and she started crying. That's the point. How much heart can you put into it, rather than just making ashtrays out of The Beatles?

"There are things people want. People want all 27 minutes of 'Helter Skelter'. I remember looking at mixing the Hollywood Bowl performance when my dad was still alive and he said, 'My god, why would you do that?'"

Speaking of 'Now And Then', it seems as if the role of AI in bringing that song to the surface was greatly misunderstood

"That's because Paul said, 'We've done an AI Beatles track'. No we didn't! We laughed about it afterwards. In the case of that, I did a video of me eating a piece of cake to demonstrate the difference between restorative AI and constructive AI. Get Back and 'Revolver' used the same process. It was purely about removing elements and cleaning up others. I'm not mis-synthesizing anything, but I'm amazed what we can do. There are times when at first you can hardly hear Ringo's drums, then I can get a kick drum out of it. It sounds more like someone banging on a wall next door, but you're just raking the surface soil over to find what's underneath.

"You have to be careful with stuff like this. All that digital restoration stuff that happened in the '80s and '90s sounded terrible to me. Hiss is good, noise is good."

Is there anything else from The Beatles' past you'd like to unlock with AI?

"It's weird when things get found by people. There will be experiences in the future where you take their live performances and make them multidimensional. I'm not talking about doing an ABBA [Voyage, hologram] show, but you could take things on tape and make them sound 'in your face'. That's what I was trying to do in the Ron Howard film, but I didn't have the technology. Ultimately, I would like to know what it was like to be at a Beatles concert - but of course a Beatles concert probably would have sounded terrible anyway.

"When I was doing 'Anthology' and the Washington Coliseum, I can isolate his voice. That's weird, because no one could solo his voice. I think that's quite clear.

"Yoko once said to me, 'The thing about John is he's just a voice now'. I remember when my dad died and then he was just a voice. If you can get people to live through that, that's what they would have wanted - to be able to touch people."

Beyond this, is there much left in the vault for fans?

"Very little. I think we've done most of it; that's the answer. Reissuing 'Anthology' is probably a good sign. It's been 50-60 years, and yet still people want more. I tell them, 'Go and listen to the albums'."

And to Sam Mendes' upcoming Beatles biopics. Having studied the band in as much depth as you have, what advice would you give to the actors to help capture their true essence?

"I'm working with the actors and they're doing a really good job, that's all I can say. The scripts are really good and brave, as opposed to being anodyne. I'm on day two of shooting right now. They're all really good actors so I wouldn't advise them, but I give them nuances and share things I've heard."

We asked Zak Starkey the same question about Barry Keoghan playing his dad Ringo. He told him to buy a big rubber nose

"That sounds like a Starkey comment! A snarcy Starkey."

'The Anthology Music Collection' 2025 edition is out now. The new cut of The Anthology TV series with the extra episode will be available to stream exclusively on Disney+ from Wednesday November 26.

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The Beatles Anthology's 'new' episode proves familiar, but achingly poignant
The seminal documentary series returns looking better than ever, and now marking George Harrison's last stand as a Beatle
By Neil McCormick, Chief Music Critic
The Telegraph
26 November 2025 6:00am GMT

The Beatles Anthology documentary series returns to TV this week, subtly polished up by Disney + and with an extra episode. Originally released 30 years ago, in November 1995, the series is (as it always was) an absolute joy, the intimate inside story of the still astounding rise, triumphant reign and bittersweet dissolution of the greatest and most influential musical force of our times.

As you should know if you have seen it before (and what Beatles fan of a certain vintage hasn't?) Anthology is packed with affectionate, insightful interviews and lustrously restored, creatively edited footage that brings to vivid life the personalities and the music that changed the world.

Watching it once again put a big smile on my face, and now it comes with a poignant footnote, another lovingly and creatively compiled 50-minute episode (appropriately, for Beatles lore, "Number 9") featuring Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison reuniting in 1995 to record new songs fashioned from lo-fi cassettes left behind by their late and very lamented bandmate John Lennon.

Of course, since filming was completed, we have lost another Beatle, with Harrison's death from cancer, aged 58, in 2001. The effect is a kind of double poignancy, as the reunion is emotionally overshadowed by the absence of a crucial member (Lennon is clearly deeply missed by all), with notes of sombre foreshadowing for viewers witnessing Harrison's last stand as a Beatle.

We see the middle-aged and slightly tatty looking "Threetles" gathered in McCartney's studio, harmonising around a recording of Lennon singing "Free As A Bird" and sweetly joking that John has just popped out for tea and left them to finish the track. How strange is it to contemplate that the 30 years since those final sessions is as distant now as the recording of Rubber Soul was in 1995.

"The Beatles will go on and on," Harrison sagely notes. "On records, films, videos and books, in people's memories and minds. The Beatles has become its own thing now."

It has all become very meta. The new episode is essentially a documentary about the making of the original documentary, with various talking heads recounting how personal archives were fashioned into a coherent story that could encompass multiple perspectives. "We realised it's impossible to get the definitive story 'cos people remember it from different points of view," notes McCartney, a reference in part to a time when, he notes, "we were at war with each other".

It is heart-warming to see the older Beatles so at ease, laughing and joking and playing music together with obvious affection. The trio sit around in Harrison's garden, McCartney's studio or the mixing desk at Abbey Road, listening to out-takes and playing old rock and roll songs on acoustic guitars and ukuleles. Starr responds wondrously to the combination of McCartney and Harrison's harmonies that "it sounds just like the Beatles!"

"I think it's been nice for us and the public to forget about the Beatles for a while, let the dust settle," opines Harrison. I think it has been largely forgotten how far from the centre of pop culture the Beatles had drifted before being restored by the nostalgia of the Nineties Britpop generation. Anthology had an incredible impact when it was first shown, because there had been such a dearth of anything new by the Beatles for decades, with devoted fans hungering to hear elusive outtakes and long rumoured lost tracks, or to see old footage restored and edited with real panache. It presaged a major revival - and the beginning of a quite ruthless exploitation of the Beatles legacy.

As a consequence, I am not sure there is anything genuinely new to see here. As I pointed out in my review of the accompanying "new" Volume 4 of musical out-takes for the Anthology Collection, the source material has been squeezed very dry indeed. The Beatles' output now is about endlessly remixing and remastering previously remixed and remastered rejects. Even the new episode nine has essentially been assembled from DVD extras released in 2003.

Nevertheless, the edit is artful enough to carry real emotional weight, with judicious archival shots of Lennon offsetting his absence from the reunion. Perhaps inevitably, episode nine lacks the energy of the rest of the series, when the Beatles were setting an incredible creative pace. The mood is of warm remembrances of wild days of youth, with just occasional flashes of their old mischievousness. Ringo looks briefly startled by George's announcement that "Paul and I are going to do some stadiums next year." "Mud wrestling," says Paul. "I think we can pull it off too." "I'll be the ref," deadpans Ringo, getting in on the joke.

The three Beatles amusingly defy film-making continuity by appearing in almost every interview scene sporting different combinations of haircuts, beards and moustaches. McCartney can barely contain his almost puppyish joy at being together with his old bandmates, whilst Ringo touchingly tells them, "I like hanging out with you guys."

Harrison is the only one who seems reserved, but then, he was always "the Quiet One." Whenever his wide smile suddenly flashes at Paul or Ringo, it is both incredibly heart-warming and devastatingly sad, a reminder of what has been lost and can never be recovered. But in keeping with his image as the mystic Beatle, Harrison has his own perspective. "The Beatles exist without us," he says, with what appears to be quiet satisfaction. And so it continues to prove.

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This barrel-scraping Beatles cash grab should have stayed in the vaults
A shiny 'new' version of the Anthology series essentially means just remasters of rejects
By Neil McCormick, Chief Music Critic
The Telegraph
21 November 2025 8:03am GMT

Can you ever have too much of the Beatles? I suspect we are about to find out.

A revived and expanded version of the definitive 1996 Beatles Anthology TV documentary series arrives on Disney+ next week. It is preceded by remastered versions of The Anthology Collection, three double CD albums of out-takes and rarities now expanded to include a brand-new fourth volume.

The myth and magic of the supreme 1960s quartet has burnt astonishingly brightly since they broke up in 1970, fuelled by notions that they are the fountainheads of modern pop music. The prospect of previously unheard Beatles recordings remains incredibly enticing, even tempered by the deep unlikelihood that anything of genuine value could have languished in the vaults unnoticed for so long.

And so it turns out. Anthology 4 comprises 36 tracks, only 13 of which are previously unreleased, and none of which are even close to being essential listening. We are not talking about long-lost Lennon-McCartney gems of gorgeous songcraft mysteriously left mouldering in a tape box at Abbey Road Studios for six decades. These are out-takes not deemed quite interesting enough for previous archival box sets.

There's a lot of faulty takes where someone messes up a harmony and the band break down in giggles ("Tell Me Why," "Every Little Thing") and instrumental backing tracks stripped of musical context ("Nowhere Man," "The Fool on the Hill," "I Am the Walrus").

As a Beatles obsessive, I admit I was curious to hear what the strings, brass and clarinet are doing on "Walrus," but it is an academic exercise that doesn't come close to invoking the wonder and emotion that mind-blowing psychedelic masterpiece can still incur at full blast. Even John Lennon seems unconvinced by a chugging instrumental take of "Hey Bulldog," noting caustically as it falls apart that "it's veering between yer blues and yer comedy."

There is lots of "yer comedy." Lennon babbles amusingly about cocaine and cannabis during a shambolic early version of "Baby, You're Rich Man," with Paul McCartney drily noting: "We've got that tape for the high court tomorrow." When not perfectly focused on delivering an immaculate performance, their vocals tend to become more playful and boisterous. A rehearsal for the satellite broadcast of "All You Need Is Love" features McCartney giddily yelling "Ooh-aye!" in the background.

The Anthology albums essentially strip away gilded veneers to show us the Beatles working on raw versions of now-familiar masterpieces. But the track list of Anthology 4 suggests the once illustrious Apple label has long since squeezed the source material dry. The second half of the album includes seven tracks previously released on a 50th anniversary edition of The Beatles (AKA The White Album), three tracks each from special editions of Let It Be and Abbey Road, and two remixes from the original Anthology 1.

The latter are songs recorded by McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison in the mid-1990s, working from lo-fidelity cassettes recorded by their late bandmate Lennon. The wonders of AI studio technology employed on 2023's "Now and Then" (also featured) has enabled further separation of Lennon's vocals on "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love," and it genuinely does give the mixes a little lift. But questions remain about whether these sweet but rather plodding and sentimental mid-tempo anthems really deserve to be considered part of the Beatles canon.

Anthology 4 is an almost entirely extraneous addition to a previously well curated series. It includes out-takes from across the whole span of a stellar career, yet if you were to judge the progress of the Beatles by such an odd assortment, you might conclude they were a thrillingly good-humoured pop combo who degenerated into sloppy experimental rockers concocting rough instrumentals and eccentric whimsy before reuniting decades later as a trio of sentimental soft-rock balladeers.

A triumph of marketing, it's hard to escape notions that this shiny "new" version of the Anthology series essentially comprises remasters of previously remastered rejects. Is this where we've got to with the exploitation of the Beatles formidable legacy: endlessly repolishing discards from the bottom of the Apple barrel?  

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