Hitmakers

OUTLINE Hitmakers follows the story of the key pop managers of the Sixties – Brian Epstein, Andrew Loog Oldham, Kit Lambert and Allen Klein – as they invent the modern music business. Beginning in 1963, when Epstein is turning the Beatles into the biggest stars the world has ever seen, the series tracks the untold behind-the-scenes story of Sixties pop up to 1967, when the dream begins to fall apart and commerce overtakes art. CHARACTERS Andrew Loog Oldham (19), Beatles publicist and then manager of the Rolling Stones. A flash, mouthy trouble-maker desperate to emulate Brian Epstein’s success. His bid to create the anti-Beatles turns him from Epstein wannabe to out-of-control anarchist. His is the legend that’s never been told on screen, the story at the heart of Hitmakers. Brian Epstein (28), the manager of the Beatles. A man striving to create with the Beatles the success he never achieved in entertainment himself (as either actor or fashion designer). Driven by a naive, egotistical sense of destiny, in the process he basically invents what we think of as the modern pop manager. Sheila Klein (17), aspiring artist and Andrew’s girlfriend, later wife. The epitome of London cool with no precedent, she defines the times as much as reacts to them. Her role evolves from equal partner to competitor for Andrew’s affections against Mick Jagger. Linda Keith (18) Vogue model, Sheila’s best friend, and later girlfriend to Keith Richards and discoverer of Jimi Hendrix. She embodies the rise of female empowerment in the Sixties, playing the men at their own game, taking the rock’n’roll lifestyle further than even the Stones. Alongside Anita Pallenberg and Marianne Faithfull she will be revealed to be a vital part of Sixties pop mythology. Kit Lambert (28), co-manager of the Who. With the shadow of a famous father (classical composer Constant) hanging over him, posh, gay, flamboyant Kit Lambert is the least likely person you’d imagine managing snotty noisemakers the Who. But like Epstein, he has a vision – to turn Pete Townshend’s riotous rock’n’roll into subversive art. Allen Klein (34), American svengali, manager of the Stones after Oldham, and briefly manager of the Beatles after Epstein. Pugnacious, ruthless, a business genius – Klein represents the shift in the pop world, away from music as art and entertainment, towards music as a business, where managers are moneymen and everyone’s on the take.