The BBC TV series Hamburg Days, about The Beatles’ pre-fame origins playing nightclub gigs in 1960s Germany, has cast its Fab Four.

Rhys Mannion has been tapped to play John Lennon, Ellis Murphy is Paul McCartney, newcomer Harvey Brett will play George Harrison and Louis Landau is Stu Sutcliffe, the drummer in the upstart band who walked away before replacement Ringo Starr took up the drumsticks. The legendary band went on to dominate the music industry for an entire decade from 1960.

The six-part drama from W&B Television and Turbine Studios has also cast Patrick Gilmore as Pete Best, Luna Jordan as Astrid Kirchherr, Casper von Bulow as Klaus Voorman, Laura Tonke as Nielsa Kirchherr, along with Trystan Pütter and Max von der Groeben.

The Beatles broke up in 1970 after a period of wild popularity. They are the bestselling music act of all time, with an estimated 600 million units sold around the world. In December 1980, Lennon was shot and killed outside his apartment in New York City.

The Hamburg Days series financed by AGC Television and German broadcaster coincides with Sony producing Sam Mendes’ four-film Beatles event movies series, as each installment focuses on a different Beatles member. The theatrical version will star Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn is George Harrison and Barry Keoghan will be Ringo Starr.

Hamburg Days, now shooting in Hamburg, Munich and Liverpool, is inspired by Klaus Voorman’s autobiography, and is showrun by Christian Schwochow and has Jamie Carragher (Succession) as the head writer. The series is set in smoke-filled clubs of in Hamburg’s red-light district where the young Liverpool lads meet young artists Klaus Voormann and Astrid Kirchherr.

Benjamin Benedict developed Hamburg Days, which Schwochow and Laura Lackmann will direct. The executive producer credits are shared by Benedict, Quirin Berg, Max Wiedemann, Andrew Eaton, Justin Thomson, Stuart Ford, Lourdes Diaz and Miguel A. Palos Jr. Isabel Haug and Katharina Haase are producing. 

AGC International is handling worldwide sales outside the U.K. and Germany.