The Rest Is History podcast has unveiled the trailer for its upcoming two-part special on the life and times of the Beatles, with co-host Tom Holland and Beatles uberfan Conan O’Brien.
Created in collaboration with Apple and Disney+, the two-part series led by the pair, is timed to coincide with the newly restored and remastered Beatles Anthology documentary series. With rare access to Beatles music and archive material from the Anthology project, Holland and O’Brien tell the story of one of the world’s greatest bands through the lens of the popular history podcast.
The Rest Is History – Beatles Special with Conan O’Brien launches Wednesday, December 3 on YouTube and all podcast platforms.
“I’d argue they’re historically significant because they act as lightning rods for everything that made the 1960s such a revolutionary decade,” said Holland. “In many ways, we in the 21st century are still living in the aftermath of the ’60s – just as people in the 16th century lived in the wake of the 1520s. The cultural and ethical transformation is on that scale, and the Beatles were not only symbols of it, but active drivers of it.”
Added O’Brien: “The Beatles were a complete break from everything that came before. They were singer-songwriters who wrote their own music, and in so many ways they broke the mold. Most groups at the time had a clear frontman — Dion and the Belmonts, for example — and there was real pressure on them to follow that model. For a moment they were even Johnny and the Moondogs. But they always knew they were a group; the power was in the synergy between them, which was unusual then. They were a departure from almost everything that preceded them and remain as relevant today as they were in 1964.”
The collaboration follows Holland and The Rest is History co-host Dominic Sandbrook’s appearance last month on Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, with O’Brien being a longtime fan of The Rest Is History and a self-confessed Beatles obsessive. Holland and Sandbrook recently collaborated with Disney CEO Bob Iger on a series of episodes exploring the life and times of Walt Disney and the creation of Disneyland.
Watch the trailer below.
