There will probably be a lot of attention given to this year's 50th anniversary marking the release of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club,” which to many is still the most important rock album ever made. But it’s unlikely anybody will do it better than the BBC.
 
So it’s good news that the stations where several documentaries will be appearing are all streamed over the web, without the need for a VPN to listen to them. The main one will centre on the making of the album itself, as noted in the U.K.’s Radio Today:
 
“Over two programmes, broadcast on 24 May and 31 May, Martin Freeman presents Sgt. Pepper Forever, which will reveal the revolutionary studio techniques used during the sessions dating from November 1966 to April 1967 and also examine the album’s impact on the history of music. They will feature ‘work-in-progress’ versions of Sgt. Pepper tracks – and the songs on the double A-side single Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane, which were also recorded during the sessions – to illustrate the techniques used by The Beatles and George Martin.
 
This two-part documentary special, written and produced by Kevin Howlett of Howlett Media Productions, features interviews with Paul, George, Ringo and George Martin, and in a new interview composer Howard Goodall talks about, and illustrates on piano, the musical innovations of the album’s songs.”
 
That one will be on BBC 2, which is available here. There are other shows on other BBC stations, too, including an entire special dedicated to the people who appeared on the LP’s iconic cover.
 
More details here.