AllMovie

The birth of the Beatles, both individually and as a group, is the focus of this first installment of The Beatles Anthology. Utilizing archival footage (some never before shown to the public), interviews produced specifically for the production, and lots of music, the viewer is treated to an explanation of the home life of each member of the Beatles as well as an explanation of the musical influences (Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly) which led them to perform. Interviews and still pictures document the day Paul McCartney joined John Lennon's band the Quarrymen, as well as the day George Harrison came aboard. Soon the band finds itself playing strip clubs in Hamburg, Germany. While there, Astrid Kirchnerr takes the famous photographs of the band that appear as a framing device throughout this episode (as people join the band they appear in the photograph and as they leave they dissolve away from it). Part one ends with the boys' triumphant return to the Cavern Club in Liverpool, and Europe just days away from being swept up by Beatlemania.