Stuart Sutcliffe - The Lost Beatle
60 minute documentary for BBC4 – 2005

‘[a] captivating memoir of the gifted painter and forgotten Beatle’ The Times 12/12/05

‘ a touching insight into the abreact painter and one-time Beatle’ The Daily Telegraph, 12/12/05

Stuart Sutcliffe was a shadow that lurked behind the world's greatest pop group. Before the screaming teenage girls, the international fame, and before Ringo, the Beatles were five. For a period of four years, Stuart Sutcliffe was the 'magnetically handcuffed' best friend and, briefly, lover of John Lennon. His death from a cerebral haemorrhage has been linked to a brutal beating he received from Lennon, but he has become a footnote in the official history of The Beatles. Though Stuart designed the collarless jacket which was soon taken up by the rest of the band and his girlfriend, Astrid Kircherr, styled his hair in what is now recognised as the group's mop-top haircut, over the years The Beatles 'machine' has been at work, playing down the early involvement in drugs, violence, casual sex and denying Stuart's influence. Stuart Sutcliffe always saw himself as an artist first and foremost. Only his paintings remain as testimony to his remarkable talent.

An unknown group called The Beatles arrived in Germany in August 1960. With its volatile mix of sailors and artists, sex and existentialism, Hamburg was an eye-opener in many ways for the young Liverpudlians and their bass player, the 19 year-old Stuart Sutcliffe, quickly earned the nickname 'The James Dean of Hamburg'. After four months playing their rock and roll covers, the talent of The Beatles began to shine through. By May 1961, the Beatles’ gruelling schedule had paid off and they were starting to make a real impact. Despite this, Stuart made the decision to leave the group to pursue his two new loves: German photographer Astrid Kircherr, and her existentialist friends in the Hamburg art scene, and his burgeoning career as an artist.

As the popularity of the band grew, Stuart's health and sanity declined. On the 10th April 1962, Stuart suffered a seizure and slipped into a coma. He died with his head in Astrid's hands. Three years later a photograph of Stuart Sutcliffe appeared on the Sergeant Pepper album cover; a tiny figure at the back of the crowd, almost lost in one corner, included only at John Lennon's insistence.

For the first time, in the words of the two women who knew him best, his sister Pauline and the love of his life, Astrid, we tell the full story of Stuart Sutcliffe. Reconstructing moments from the life of the young artist, along with interviews, location filming, archive footage, Astrid's remarkable stills and through Sutcliffe's paintings, drawings, letters and poetry, this programme paints its own portrait of the moment when art, music and romance clashed in one individual with tragic and far-reaching consequences.