Athlone actor to star in major new Beatles drama

Athlone actor Rhys Mannion has been cast in one of the lead roles of a major new drama series about the Beatles.

The Kiltoom native will play John Lennon in the six-part series Hamburg Days, which will explore the band's pre-fame period when the Beatles became a fixture in small clubs in the German city.

The BBC has acquired the highly-anticipated series for BBC One and BBC iPlayer, and filming is currently underway in Hamburg, Munich and Liverpool.

Rhys' casting in Hamburg Days represents a significant step forward in the career of the talented 23-year-old, who previously appeared in the films It Is In Us All and Freud's Last Session.

He has also appeared on BBC television previously, as a member of the cast in Titanic Sinks Tonight, a four-part documentary and drama series about the Titanic which aired on BBC One last December.

A former Athlone Community College student, Rhys will be well-suited for the musical scenes in Hamburg Days.

In 2020, at the age of just 17, he wrote and directed a Famine-era musical, Dawn na Dorcha, which was performed in Dublin's Smock Alley Theatre.

More recently, he has been performing in Dublin as part of an indie/rock band called Happy Daze.

Rhys is a son of Mary Mannion, originally from Minnesota in the United States, and Athlone man Ciaran Mannion.

Hamburg Days is being produced by W&B Television and Turbine Studios, and co-financed by AGC Television and German broadcaster ZDF.

It's inspired by the autobiography of German artist Klaus Voormann, whose association with the Beatles dates back to their time living in Hamburg.

The series also stars Ellis Murphy as Paul McCartney, Harvey Brett as George Harrison, Louis Landau as Stu Sutcliffe, Patrick Gilmore as Pete Best, Luna Jordan as Astrid Kirchherr, Casper von Bülow as Klaus Voormann, and Laura Tonke as Nielsa Kirchherr.

A promotional release issued by the BBC for the series says: "Hamburg Days is set in the 1960s, in the smoke-filled clubs of Hamburg’s St Pauli red-light district, where an inexperienced young rock ‘n’ roll band from Liverpool collide with two young artists, Klaus Voormann and Astrid Kirchherr.

"Together they help spark a transformation that turns a scrappy group of teenagers into the greatest music phenomenon the world has ever known: The Beatles."

The music for the series is being curated by BAFTA-winning producer David Holmes, while Klaus Voormann is serving as an exclusive consultant.

AGC International will handle worldwide sales of the series outside the UK and Germany.