The Belgravia resident who rocketed The Beatles to fame

Who is the greatest Beatle of all time? It’s a question that, for more than 60 years, has worked pundits and pupils of the band into a frenzy. And it’s a riddle contorted even further when you insert the “Midas Man” and “fifth Beatle” Brian Epstein into the mix. Epstein was a contradictory character who cloaked vulnerability in determination and saw what others missed – plucking performers from obscurity before rocketing them to fame.

In his own life, Epstein’s character swung from cautious, old-fashioned and melancholic to gregarious, suave and accomplished. All of which cruelly ended when the manager of the Fab Four died aged just 32 – found by his housekeeper at home at 24 Chapel Street in Belgravia in 1967.

“I met Brian Epstein in 1966 when I did my first videos with The Beatles, Paperback Writer and Rain,” says Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the British-American director who captured the band’s final album sessions for the original 1970 documentary Let It Be, establishing himself as a pioneer in music film-making.

“I’d met The Beatles only a couple of weeks before. There were no videos really in those days. Only The Beatles and The Rolling Stones had enough clout to say to the TV stations: ‘If you want us, the video is what you’ll get.’ Partly this was because sending out a video meant they didn’t have to travel a lot to plug a single, and, in The Beatles’ case, travel and local TV appearances were a real headache in terms of security.”

Epstein had his own plans for life from a young age, swapping his family’s Merseyside furniture store for dreams of Hollywood. He was accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before determining it wasn’t a fit. It was music (the family also owned a music store) that drove him.

“He was known as the ‘fifth Beatle’ and the closeness and depth of their relationship was clear, the history and the strength of it undeniable,” says Lindsay-Hogg. “He’d changed their lives, and they had changed his.”

Epstein also knew what he wanted for the band. “I’d had an idea for Paperback Writer, which was to do a ‘story’ video – which was pretty ahead of its time, since there were hardly any other videos,” Lindsay-Hogg says. In the concept he dreamed up, The Beatles would all be working in a large newspaper office, “typing away, while [Paul] McCartney would be scribbling his novel on a pad. The Beatles liked the idea, since they liked any idea that seemed somehow different.”

But that’s where it ended. “A few days later, I got a call from the Epstein office saying Brian didn’t want anything unusual, just a video of the boys performing. I got the message,” says Lindsay-Hogg. “The video was broadcasting all over the world, and what Brian thought the world wanted was just close-ups of the four of them, preferably singing.”

The first day was filmed in a studio. “Pretty straight stuff,” says Lindsay-Hogg. On day two, they ventured out to Chiswick Gardens, looking to capture “a slightly different look”. That’s when Lindsay-Hogg first met Epstein.

“He’d have been about 32, just six years older than me. Slim, medium height, conservatively dressed, but with a bright tie on a Turnbull & Asser shirt. Soft speaking voice, polite, seemingly a little shy. He wished to give off the vibe of an observant, intelligent businessman, which he was, but a very tough one protecting The Beatles.”

Breaking from filming, they had a picnic lunch, all sitting cross-legged on the grass that day. The Beatles and Brian talked about their upcoming American tour. If the characters in this story hadn’t been who they were, it was just like any jovial work outing.

“Brian and I walked to the first location together, chatting about the weather, how lucky [it was that] we got a sunny English day, how good the songs were, how he thought at the stage The Beatles were at that simple was best for their presentation and maybe a story video would work in the future,” says Lindsay-Hogg. “He was easy to talk to and wished to be seen as friendly, laughing if I made a joke.”

Now, as Apple announces a new four-part Beatles series, directed by Sam Mendes with James Norton portraying Epstein, we are leaning harder into the star power of the Fab Four than ever before.