-It is so great to see you. Welcome to the show.
-It's surreal actually being on this side of it.
It's so fabulous. I love it. -Oh, yeah. Were we Zooming?
-I'm a fan. I just watch it all the time.
-Oh, stop.
Well, we've talked about your show,
"Mary McCartney Serves It Up."
It was nominated for an Emmy, by the way.
Congratulations. -Yes, thank you.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-You do that. You host.
You're an amazing photographer, by the way.
-This documentary, "If These Walls Could Sing,"
was nominated for a Critics' Choice Award.
-Oh, my gosh. -Yeah. That was surreal.
-Well, look at you, who's getting --
You're just getting nominated left and right.
-Do you know what won? Do you know what beat me?
-No. -"Get Back."
-Oh, my gosh. Hilarious. So your dad's documentary?
-I was happy with that. -Yeah, exactly. I guess so.
Yeah. But when they offer you this documentary and --
or it comes to -- I don't know if you thought of the idea,
or do you go like, "It's 90 years of Abbey Road Studios."
-No. It was brought to me.
The producer, John Battsek, who's, like,
an Oscar-winning documentary director --
he texted me and he was like,
"Have you thought of directing documentaries?"
And as a photographer, it's kind of a natural progression
to go into directing, so I was like, "Yeah."
He said he was doing a documentary about Abbey Road,
"90 years of Abbey Road."
I had no idea that Abbey Road was 90 years old.
-Yeah.
-The reason I really wanted to do it was
a funny reason, as well, was there's a picture
that I saw in a book in Abbey Road
of my mom leading a pony across the zebra crossing in the '70s.
Oh, you -- Yeah. -I have this.
-It's in the documentary.
This picture is -- It was sort of like,
"Well, I'm destined to do this documentary,
really, aren't I, if that's --"
-How did they get a pony -- Why is a pony going across --
-That's just like my mom.
She loved horses and animals and she was going to work
and she's like, "Let's take --" The pony's called Jet.
She was like, "Let's take Jet to work."
-So you're just gonna take a pony to work. Why not?
-And as dad says in the documentary --
I kind of bring this in.
This is in the beginning.
He says, "I don't think he disgraced himself either."
-Yeah. No, he is fantastic.
And, also, it's like Pink Floyd, "Dark Side of the Moon"
was recorded there, all of the -- Like, all of the --
John Williams I interview.
All of, like, "Indiana Jones."
Because Studio One is the big classical space.
And that was in danger of closing down
because all of the main classical recordings
had done, and business was drying up.
So, they were using it as, like, a badminton court.
Like, it was empty and vast. -Is that right?
And they were looking at making it into a car park.
And then the manager, Ken Townsend,
found out that a studio was closing.
A film studio in Denham had lost its lease.
He brought in the contract
and quickly put a projector in and a screen.
And one of the first people there was
George Lucas and John Williams doing "Indiana Jones."
-Is that right? -Absolutely.
-So, the movie kind of saved it.
The movie industry saved Abbey Road.
-See, I'm such an expert now.
-Yeah, now it -- Now you can tell me anything about it.
Yeah. Well, everyone just called it as like,
oh, that was the nickname of the studio?
-It was called it EMI Studios 'cause it's part of EMI.
And then everyone called it Abbey Road
because it's on Abbey Road.
And then the album made it famous.
And then, Ken Townsend -- It didn't change the name
until 1976.
-After the album. -Yeah.
-And you actually brought us a sketch that your dad made of --
This is pretty awesome.
-So, in the documentary, I interviewed Ringo,
and he was like, "Oh, you know, we were thinking of going --"
Because the engineer had
a packet of cigarettes called Everest.
So they were like, "Oh, should we go to
the top of Everest and do a photo shoot, call it 'Everest,'
or should we go to, you know, Hawaii --"
-Yes, the final -- It's The Beatles' album.
"Everest" is the last album. -Yeah.
And then they were like, "No,
let's just go onto the zebra crossing."
And dad drew this, sketched out this picture,
which is kind of very close to pretty much what it did.
This one up here, I think. -Yeah.
-Yeah. -I mean, yeah.
It ended up being the most fun. -Yeah.
-I mean, that's basically -- That's the sketch.
-It's a great picture. [ Cheers and applause ]
-That's the sketch. -Yeah. I know.
It's good, right? -That's unbelievable, yeah.
-Yeah.
-And you obviously got to interview your dad for this.
-Mm-hmm. -Was that awkward for you?
-They all -- Dad included, they all kind of came --
A lot of them I interviewed in Abbey Road, in the studio,
so they felt the feeling.
It's, like, this feeling of warmth and inspiration
when you go in there.
So, they all brought their game.
But there was a cute moment when I was sitting with dad,
and I was, like, talking.
I was really well-researched and being really professional,
and he kind of glazed over and he was like,
"Oh, that's my daughter.
You're like a female director directing me."
And I was like, "Get back to work."
-Yeah, yeah. "Let's go to the studio." Yeah.
It's really fascinating. I want to show everyone a clip.
This is "If These Walls Could Sing."
Take a look at this.
-I remember playing on a Barron Knights session here,
and "Hey Jude" had just come out.
So, I was standing with Bernie, and your dad came in the door
and said "hello" to The Barron Knights.
And that was the first time
I'd ever seen anyone that famous in my life.
And I kind of froze, and Bernie did, too.
And The Barron Knights asked Paul to play
"Hey Jude" on the piano, and he did.
And Bernie and I have never forgotten it.
It's like, "Oh, my God.
We saw Paul play 'Hey Jude' at time the record came out."
-Come on. That's what I'm talking about.
[ Cheers and applause ] Mary McCartney.
"If These Walls Could Sing"
premieres December 16th on Disney+.
We'll be right back with a performance from
Adam Blackstone.