Cat No DVDDC10008

At art college in Liverpool in 1959, Stuart Sutcliffe met John Lennon and they soon became close - with Lennon persuading Sutcliffe to sell a painting to buy a bass guitar and join his band. Soon, along with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and drummer Pete Best they were in Hamburg playing sleazy clubs. The Beatles began to feel the first reaches of fame, and they immersed themselves in the seedy Reeperbahn area of the city, amidst the casual sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll of the era.

While the band on the brink of success, Sutcliffe left the group to concentrate on his first love, art, and his new love, German photographer Astrid Kirchherr. But Stuart's health and sanity declined. On the 10th April 1962, Stuart suffered a seizure and slipped into a coma. He died of a cerebral haemorrhage with his head in Astrid's hands. As this programme testifies, this tragic illness cut short the life of one of Britain's most promising artists.

Interviewees include esteemed American art historian and writer Donald Kuspit, Stuart's fiancée and Beatles stylist/photographer Astrid Kirchherr, early Beatles manager Allan Williams, Stuart's sister, Pauline Sutcliffe, and Liverpool flatmate to Sutcliffe and Lennon, Rod Murray.