John Lennon

This is not the moment for ponderous blockbuster cinema: concentration spans, we are told, are plummeting in the Covid era. So if you're fretting at home, here is a film that will take your mind off things: the Beatles' super-entertaining feature from 1964, which showcased their ease and humour in front of the camera as well as director Richard Lester's gift for experimentation. A blast.

Comedy play about John Lennon coming to Liverpool

New comedy play Lennon's Banjo will premiere at Liverpool's Epstein Theatre - telling the fascinating and touching story behind the beginning of the singer's musical journey, influenced by his mother Julia.

DVD review - Morecambe and Wise: Two of a Kind

We all remember the classic Morecambe and Wise sketches and Christmas specials that they made for the BBC, but their first TV success was arguably over on commercial television, at ATV in the 1960s. This series was Two of a Kind and it spawned some of the double act's most famous routines.

Henry Winkler interview

Henry Winkler on being a Peaky Blinders fanboy, starstruck by John Lennon and wanting to be a Strictly judge.

Feature: John Lennon's 'In His Own Write'

John Lennon's short stories adapted for the stage for the first time since 1968.

Alternative histories can be dead-end vanity projects, but this reimagining of John Lennon in 1991, trudging through an unfulfilled life 30 years after leaving The Beatles, was stunningly conceived and realised, from Ian Hart's Lennon to Martin Carr's pastiche soundtrack.

What would have happened to John Lennon had he left the Beatles in 1962, on the cusp of greatness? We join Lennon (Ian Hart, uncanny in his third outing as the Beatle) in grey, 1991 Birmingham, scratching out a living in dead-end jobs, dispensing pithily sardonic observations and denying his mild resentment towards Paul McCartney.

In this universe, Macca's Lennon-less Beatles are dragging themselves around the low-rent nostalgia circuit after a middling career of melodic that saw them eclipsed by the likes of The Hollies.

Snodgrass (Lennon's tag for 'The Man') could have been a dismally self-regarding muso wank-off - and there are in-jokes aplenty for Fab Four obsessives. But it also works beautifully as simple human drama, anchored by a performance of thoughtful melancholy from Hart. The concept is neither overthought nor over-explained, the attention to detail in David Quantick's screenplay (based on Ian R MacLeod's novella) is stunning, and Ex-Boo Radley Martin Carr's soundtrack of affectionate pastiches completes this miniature masterpiece of disappointment and regret.

The Beatles: What would have happened if Lennon left?

One-off drama Snodgrass imagines a world where John Lennon walked out of the Fab Four in 1962 over 'musical differences', explains its writer David Quantick.

John Lennon spiked Jimmy Tarbuck's drink as a joke

John Lennon spiked Jimmy Tarbuck's drink with speed, the comedian has claimed.