Idris Elba meets the legendary Paul McCartney

A fortnight of festive TV is getting off to an impressive start on BBC One tonight.

Not only are they treating us to Strictly Come Dancing: The Final, but there’s also a chance to see one of Britain’s biggest pop legends chatting to one of our most popular actors in Idris Elba Meets Paul McCartney.

Idris is certainly excited about it, saying: “When I was asked if I wanted to speak to Paul McCartney, after I realised it wasn’t a joke, I immediately said yes…. who wouldn’t?! I am a massive fan of Paul’s!”

His excitement is understandable. Many musicians would be happy to just have one timeless classic to their name, but Paul has written loads of them.

As a Beatle, then as a solo artist and member of Wings, he can confidently claim to be one of the most successful and influential songwriters in pop history.

In numbers, he’s sold over 100 million solo singles and over 700 million albums, generating over 1 billion worldwide record sales whilst winning more 70 major global awards – including 18 Grammys and 8 BRIT Awards.

In 1990, Paul set the World Record for largest concert attendance ever in Brazil with 184,000 people and has played almost 500 concerts around the world in the last 20 years alone.

He’s not resting on his laurels either. At the age of 78, he’s just released McCartney III, the third in a series of albums which finds him playing every instrument as well as writing every song. The trilogy began with his debut solo album, McCartney, which was released in 1970 and included the gorgeous Maybe I’m Amazed.

McCartney II followed a decade later and found its composer experimenting with synths and electronic music. It featured the bouncy hit single Coming Up as well as the very catchy and endearingly odd Temporary Secretary. Now, as fans absorb the latest instalment in the McCartney trilogy, he’ll be chatting to Idris (in an interview that was of course filmed following the government guidelines around Covid-19) about his songwriting process, from the first tune he penned at the age of 14 up the present day, and why he’s still driven to create and innovate.

If that whets your appetite for more McCartney, there’s also a treat in store on Christmas Day when BBC1 brings us Paul McCartney at The Cavern Club, which was filmed in July 2018, when he played a secret gig at the legendary venue, performing a 28-song set to 250 lucky gig-goers. That’s followed on BBC4 by Paul McCartney at the Electric Proms, which dates from 2007.

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