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John Lennon pop-up TV channel to mark 80th birthday
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 6 October 2020
Universal Music has announced that it will mark what would have been John Lennon’s 80th birthday by launching a TV channel dedicated to him. The pop-up station will be available to UK television owners for one week, starting on the big day, 9 Oct.
In a first for the major label, the Lennon80 TV channel will pull together all sorts of archive interviews, documentaries and performances, as well as new programmes knocked together just for this. Programmes include the classic ‘Bed Peace’ documentary, Lennon’s rediscovered and restored 1971 Parkinson interview, his 1975 ‘Old Grey Whistle Test’ special, and more.
COO of Universal Music’s TV division, Simon Sadler – who has coordinated the project alongside Lennon archivist Simon Hilton – says: “There are not many artists worthy of a channel dedicated to just one name – but John Lennon is certainly one of them”.
“To mark his 80th birthday”, he goes on, “we’re THRILLED to have brought together many classic moments of John’s life – from his life at home, on the chat shows and the peace protests – as well bringing John’s solo music together with the songs he wrote for the Beatles for a rare outing on TV”.
Viewers will be able to tune in to Lennon80 on Sky channel 371 and Virgin 346 across the UK, and on Freeview channel 83 in some parts of the country. Good luck remembering how to tune in to live TV everyone!
