Wimbledon Common, London
John had latterly made the acquaintance of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore; he had also appeared alongside Norman Rossington in A Hard Day's Night. So for the first edition of a new Light Entertainment series for BBC Television, in which Moore was set to star and Cook and Rossington to guest, there was a fair chance that John may be involved, too. On November 4th, Rossington and the new series' producer, Joe McGrath, visited John backstage at the Ritz Cinema in Luton and invited him to participate. At this time Moore's series was still untitled, nearer the broadcast it was named Not Only....But Also, Cook eventually assumed a co-starring role, and the two continued to make excellent programmes under this title until 1970. This first edition, with John, went out on BBC2 on Saturday, January 9, 1965, 9:20-10:00 pm.
John's involvement was two-fold. On this day, November 20th, he, Moore and Rossington shot a surrealistic film sequence to accompany the reading of his In His Own Write piece, "Deaf Ted, Danoota, (and me)". The shoot location was Wimbledon Common, in south-west London; precise times of arrival/departure are not known, but they worked early and had completed the work before mid-morning. The remainder of his contribution was taped on Sunday, November 29th.
The Complete Beatles Chronicle - Mark Lewiston
