Richard Lester donates first draft of Beatles films

Richard Lester has donated more than 60 boxes of letters, scripts, notes and photographs documenting his 40 year career, to the BFI National Archive. The donation includes the first drafts of the Beatles films A Hard Day's Night and Help!. Lester’s collection also includes letters from Audrey Hepburn, Charlton Heston, Raquel Welch and Spike Milligan.

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MUP published a full analysis of Richard Lester’s career earlier this year. Indelibly associated with the Beatles, the ‘swinging sixties’ and his joyous sex comedy The Knack, Lester has tended to be categorised as a modish director whose heyday passed when that decade’s optimism slid into disillusionment and violence. This book presents an alternative view of his work.

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