Marc Riley's Musical Time Machine - Marc Riley's Musical Time Machine - Brian Epstein

Marc Riley dips into the BBC's archives and unearths seminal and tantalizing interviews. It's funny how things can look so different many years down the line; once the dust has settled, tempers have calmed and much water has gone under the bridge. Not seeking to open old wounds or anything, Marc Riley goes back in time to the turning points in the careers of some of the biggest artists in music to check out exactly what they DID say in the heat of the moment, and to put it into today's context.... Programme 1 - Brian Epstein In our first episode we travel back to witness the year that Nelson Mandela was jailed for life, when the Sun newspaper was born and when the British and French Governments announced their commitment to build a tunnel under the English Channel. This week Marc transports us back into a different era... the start of the pop revolution when Beatlemania was about to take over the world. It's March 1964 and Bill Grundy interviews the '5th Beatle', manager Brian Epstein for his regional radio programme Frankly Speaking. We revisit the BBC's archives and hear Epstein speak candidly about how and when he discovered the Beatles and what it was like seeing them perform for the first time. He reveals his role in their image change, just exactly what it is a manager does and his theories on why they'd go on to be a success in America. Plus Brian tells us how he reacted when Paul turned up late for their first meeting.