Following two days at Twickenham Film Studios, work on A Hard Day’s Night moved to Gatwick Airport.
The Beatles arrived at 10am. The first scene to be shot was the one which closes the film, in which the group run to board a helicopter and reams of signed promotional photographs are scattered as they ascend.
In the afternoon The Beatles were filmed fooling around on a helipad. A helicopter was flown overhead, with an airborne cameraman filming their antics. The footage was later incorporated into one of the film’s two ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ scenes.
Page last updated: 25 January 2023
Hi Beatles Bible, the location for the second image above is actually Thornbury Playing Fields, Isleworth and not Gatwick.
They did do some filming on a ‘helipad’ at Gatwick but it must have been decided that it was not enough so they made a replica and did more filming as you can see in the image above. They intermixed the footage assuming noone would notice. The real helipad was much larger than this one.
Yes I agree. I was lucky enough to be there that day and that picture is not at The Beehive. They did however sing and dance on a railway bridge watched by me and my mum! They sang ‘ Glad All Over’..not one of their songs and stamped their feet in the bit where there should be clapping.