Lennon’s last day

From BBC Radio 2: On 8th December 1980, one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century was shot dead in New York City. This single voice, dramatic monologue sits between drama and documentary and is an utterly compelling story of John Lennon’s last day.

The Beatles star would have turned 75 on 9th October 2015, but his life was cut tragically short. This docu-drama, written by Stephen Kennedy, charts the events of that infamous day. The story is told by Liverpool actor Ian Hart (Boardwalk Empire, Harry Potter as Professor Quirinus Quirrell), who has played Lennon on three separate occasions. He guides listeners through the events of that fateful day in forensic detail and his narration is combined with the voice of Lennon himself – both from archive recordings and from the music that made him a legend.

Ian Hart says: “There will always be interest and intrigue into every part of his life, and now we take a sensitive look at the incomprehensible day when he was tragically taken from this world too soon.”

Stephen Kennedy says: “I’m delighted to have my first radio drama commissioned by BBC Radio 2 and ecstatic to have Ian Hart performing in it. In my opinion, no actor has ever captured John Lennon’s character better than Ian did in the film Backbeat. He has extraordinary talent.”

The radio play will be transmitten on Thursday October 8, between 10.00pm-11.00pm. It’s likely to be available for a month following that, through the BBC iPlayer.

Stephen Kennedy is also director of the Dublin Beatles Festival.

Even though we at WogBlog are very supportive of everything that promotes or portrays The Beatles and the individual Beatles in media, we are not altogether happy with all those documentaries which focus on that fateful day in Beatles history. The senseless murder of John Lennon was a very traumatic time for those of us who were Beatles fans at the time, and one can only imagine how hard it was for those who were close to Lennon. We could have done with a more uplifting way of celebrating 75 years since the birth of John Lennon.