Beatles Early Years Drama 'Hamburg Days' Begins Filming in Germany

A new TV drama chronicling The Beatles' early years has begun production in Germany and Liverpool.

Hamburg Days follows the band's time in the German port city, where they played more than 250 gigs between 1960 and 1962. The project draws from the memoirs of artist Klaus Voormann, who played bass on some Beatles records and designed the cover for their 1966 Revolver album.

British and German companies produced and financed the series, which will also shoot in Merseyside and Munich. The six-part drama airs on BBC One.

Producers said it depicts the band, then featuring bassist Stuart Sutcliffe and drummer Pete Best, meeting Voormann and photographer Astrid Kirchherr. That encounter helped transform "a scrappy group of teenagers into the greatest music phenomenon the world has ever known."

Kirchherr, who died at age 81 in 2020, shaped the band's aesthetic style and mop-top hairstyle. She was engaged to Sutcliffe, who quit the group for an arts course in Hamburg and died of a brain hemorrhage at 21 in 1962.

Best has described his shock at being fired by manager Brian Epstein in 1962. Epstein replaced him with Ringo Starr.

Wirral native Jamie Carragher scripted the drama. He co-wrote the HBO series Succession. Christian Schwochow, who worked on The Crown, and Laura Lackmann will direct.

Rhys Mannion plays John Lennon, Ellis Murphy Paul McCartney, Harvey Brett George Harrison, Louis Landau Stuart Sutcliffe and Patrick Gilmore Pete Best.

Luna Jordan portrays Astrid Kirchherr, with Laura Tonke as her mother Nielsa and Casper von Bülow as Klaus Voormann.

Cast members attended the launch of a Hamburg exhibition of the band's letters on Saturday alongside Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram. Rotheram was on a trade mission there.

Separately, a four-part Beatles movie series directed by Sam Mendes of Skyfall fame is filming in Liverpool for 2028 release.

Merseyside has hosted more production shoots than anywhere in the UK outside London lately, including the TV dramas This City is Ours, The Cage and Peaky Blinders.