Forty five years later Beatlemania, psychedelia and mop tops are back – for one day only. David Jones reports.

The Fab Four were riding high in the autumn of 1967. Their groundbreaking LP, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, had taken the pop world by storm.

But Paul McCartney wanted to take the Beatles still further down the psychedelic road with a new project, a quirky film with an accompanying soundtrack to be released as an EP.

The result was the Magical Mystery Tour, much of it filmed in the West Malling area, with John, George, Paul and Ringo popping into a travel agents in the town’s High Street to “book” their Mystery Tour tickets.

But, now 45 years later, the Fab Four and Magical Mystery tour are back, this time in full colour. They can be seen at Showcase Bluewater on Tuesday, October 2.

McCartney’s idea was to create a film in which various ordinary people go on a coach journey during which they find themselves caught up in magical adventures.

The plot sounds cheesy now, but then the Beatles could do no wrong. Critics rubbished the film, but Beatles fans couldn’t have cared less – they watched it anyway. And they bought the EP, which was far better received by the critics than the film. It was No.1 in the US album charts for eight weeks.

Magical Mystery Tour follows the band and a bus load of eccentric characters on a surreal coach tour from London to the Cornish seaside. The Beatles based it around a loose unscripted narrative, interrupted with musical interludes to accompany their bizarre ideas and imaginations. Let’s say it reflected the experimental culture of the 1960s.

The film has been painstakingly restored in high definition with 5.1 surround sound, and now features previously unseen footage and new interviews with Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

The film features a supporting cast including Ivor Cutler, comedy actors Victor Spinetti, Jessie Robins, Nat Jackley, Derek Royle and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. It was originally shown in black and white on the BBC on Boxing Day, 1967.

Tickets are available now from the box office, online at www.showcasecinemas.co.uk or via the 24 hour ticket hotline on 0871 220 1000. General tickets are priced at £10, with students and Insider members priced at £7.