Imagine: Athlone actor is playing John Lennon

Athlone actor Rhys Mannion said it was the biggest thrill of his career to date when he was cast in one of the lead roles of a major new series about the Beatles.

Filming is currently underway on the series Hamburg Days, which will be shown on BBC television. The lengthy audition process for it reminded Rhys of his time in sixth year at Athlone Community College.

"The last time I had felt that kind of persistent anxiety was when I was doing the Leaving Cert," he said of the open casting auditions which continued for four months, after starting in late November.

Towards the end of March, the series producers decided to give Rhys a chance. They told the 23-year-old he would be playing the role of John Lennon.

"I felt like I could finally die and go to heaven!" said the Kiltoom native. "Hearing that it was finally done, and that I'd gotten the job, was definitely the best feeling I've had to date when it comes to getting any role."

Hamburg Days will consist of six hour-long episodes exploring the band's pre-fame period, when the Beatles became a fixture in small clubs in the German city.

Filming is taking place in Hamburg, Munich and Liverpool, with the BBC last year acquiring the rights to broadcast the highly anticipated production on BBC One.

Speaking to the Westmeath Independent from Hamburg this week, Rhys said he has been having an "incredible" time on set so far.

The series also stars Ellis Murphy as Paul McCartney, Harvey Brett as George Harrison, Patrick Gilmore as the Beatles' original drummer Pete Best, and Louis Landau as 'the fifth Beatle', Stu Sutcliffe.

Rhys and the others have been based in Hamburg for the past month.

"I think we're going to be here in Germany for another almost two months," he said. "Then we'll be in Liverpool for about two weeks after that. It's been flat out, but it's been great.

"This is the first time in Hamburg for all five of us that are playing the Beatles, so it felt very parallel to a lot of the things that they would have seen."

Rhys revealed that when he first began auditioning for the series it was with the aim of playing Paul McCartney, and he initially required some persuasion to audition for John's part.

"It was only in the last two stages (of the auditions) that I saw myself in the shoes of John. Prior to that I had been a real 'Macca' head," he explained.

"Even though it took me a while to see myself in John's shoes, I now couldn't see myself playing any other role. His mindset is really fun - he's such an interesting character."

So how does one begin to prepare for playing such a legendary figure in a major television series?

"Yeah, it's very hard to find material on John Lennon," Rhys joked. "He's kind of an underground artist that nobody really talks about!

"I just started reading - just reading, reading, reading. There are some great books about him. The one that his ex-wife, Cynthia Lennon, wrote is my favourite because it's close to John.

"I think she really did understand him in a beautiful way, and it's also written with no resentment, just pure love and respect for him, and sadness about the way things turned out. That (book) takes you from the start of their romance in '58 to when John passed away, so that was like a Bible for me.

"There have been some interesting physical challenges with John. I've watched Get Back, the nine-hour Beatles documentary by Peter Jackson, I don't know how many times.

"And I've just been obsessing over every video. (The Beatles concert at) Shea stadium is a great one to watch if you want to (study) their physical personas.

"Ellis Murphy, who's playing Paul, is right-handed, and he had to switch to a left-handed guitar. I'm left-handed, and I had to switch to a right-handed guitar. So we're the 'reverse Beatles' - that's what we'll have to call ourselves if we ever want to go on the road!"

The songs in the series will be sung by the actors themselves, meaning Rhys will be drawing on his own musical talent and experience. 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.

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

He noted that the Beatles' formative performances - which were largely based on early American rock 'n' roll and rhythm and blues - featured fewer traces of the Liverpool accent than their later recordings

"When I'm talking (in the series) I'm doing a John Lennon accent, but when I'm singing I'm doing a 'John Lennon doing an Elvis Presley or Tony Sheridan' accent," he said.

"All of that stuff I find very interesting when I hear their renditions of 'Rock and Roll Music', 'Too Much Monkey Business', or all those really cool older songs.

"The days (on set) when we have to sing on stage are the days we have to come switched-on. They're always the most rewarding days," he said.

The feeling Rhys has during the filming is one of "calculated freedom", he said.

"The people working on it are so experienced, so smart, and so great at what they do that it makes you feel like you can do anything and they'll make it work. They can find a camera on you anywhere.

"It's always really fun to ride on the coattails of other people's experience and talent," he said modestly.

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."

Rhys said he doesn't yet know when the series is likely to be ready for broadcast on the BBC.

"I'm assuming it will be in early to mid-2027 - but that's just an assumption and definitely not a concrete answer," he said.

Being cast in Hamburg Days represents a significant step forward for the talented local actor, 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 which aired on BBC One last December.

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