#chriswalter

They then went out and sat on the lawn with tea for a photo call to accompany the interview. George and I were sitting on the grass in the grounds of our hotel over cups of tea. The only place where I get good tea is at home!" he commented as he poured. A few fans who had been standing at a respectful distance slightly over-awed at the sight of a Beatle sitting on the grass enjoying the sun were asked, by George, to join us...

"It's sad really because some of our staunchest fans are the ones who never get to know us, just because of the way they act. We are obviously not going to hang around when they are screaming, shouting and trying to pull our clothes off! It's the quiet and shy ones who we get a chance to chat to" he explained as he signed autographs and ordered and poured yet more cups of tea. This act of kindness trying to make the fans feel comfortable was typical of George and the others.

[Miranda Ward, December 2001]

Despite being in the middle of filming Magical Mystery Tour, George found time to give BBC reporter, Miranda Ward a quick interview for BBC radio programme Scene & Heard. Previously when she’d requested an interview, she’d been told the Beatles were booked solidly until Easter the following year. The coup of an interview with George gave her the biggest break of her career. Read her whole story here, it’s great. 

Here she is on the grass outside the Atlantic Hotel, Newquay, Cornwall, on the 13th September 1967, with George and some of the fans he invited over for tea. 

The Beatles head out for the first full day of filming for the Magical Mystery Tour on the 12th September 1967 and promptly get stuck on a bridge. They’d stayed the previous night at the Royal Hotel in Teignmouth, Devon and left for filming in Widecombe. There was an annual fair taking place in Widecombe and to avoid the traffic, MMT bus driver, Alf Manders took a shortcut - over this narrow bridge where the bus got stuck. The bus had to be reversed for half a mile and the trip to Widecombe was abandoned.