Sunday, July 5, 2009

The Beatles perform Shakespeare


From the 1964 British TV special Around The Beatles - here are the boys performing a scene from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. (Note: the clip contains one of those annoying annotations that has become the bane of YouTube... so feel free to switch it off before playing.)

Around the Beatles
featured the band, and a handful of other acts from that era (Cilla Black and P.J. Proby) "miming" (lip-synching) to their latest hits. The Shakespeare skit appears to be the highlight.

I believe that's Trevor Peacock (Jim Trott from Vicar of Dibley - and the author of the hit song "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter") at the beginning.

And if you haven't figured it out, this clip was colorized.