BBC Announces Miniseries About the Beatles’ ‘Hamburg Days’

As if four Beatles movies weren’t enough, a new miniseries will focus on the fledgling Fab Four’s years in West Germany.

The BBC announced Tuesday that they have green-lit Hamburg Days, a six-part miniseries about the Beatles’ time in Germany, based in part on an autobiography written by Beatles associate Klaus Voormann.

“In the smoke-filled clubs of Hamburg’s St. Pauli’s red-light district, an inexperienced young rock ‘n’ roll band from Liverpool collide with two young artists, Klaus Voormann and Astrid Kirchherr,” the show’s synopsis said (via Variety). “Together, they help spark a transformation that turns a scrappy group of teenagers into the greatest music phenomenon the world has ever known: The Beatles.”

While casting has not yet been announced, the series has already procured a showrunner (The Crown director Christian Schwochow) and a director (Mat Whitecross, who previously helmed documentaries about Oasis and Coldplay). Composer David Holmes has been enlisted to provide the score.

“Hamburg Days is the fascinating story of how, in the space of two short years, a raw young band from Liverpool honed their music skills in Hamburg, before returning home to become an overnight worldwide success,” the BBC’s Sue Deeks said in a statement. “It is an incredible story, accompanied (of course) by an amazing soundtrack!” (It’s unclear if the Beatles have approved use of their own music, although the band’s sets at the time heavily featured covers).

This isn’t the first time the Beatles’ Hamburg era has been fictionalized: The 1994 film Backbeat previously revisited the young Fab Four’s years in West Germany, albeit with a focus on their original bass player Stuart Sutcliffe, who died at the age of 21 of a brain hemorrhage in Hamburg.