Danny Boyle has spoken of his relief that his film using the music of the Beatles has received their approval.
Yesterday follows a young man, played by former EastEnders star Himesh Patel, who wakes up from an accident to discover he is the only person who remembers the Fab Four.
Arriving at the film’s UK premiere, Boyle said he has received messages from both Ringo Starr and Olivia Harrison, the widow of George Harrison.
He told the Press Association: “It was lovely, they were lovely.
“They are very personal messages so I can’t really talk about them but they were lovely.”
He added: “They left us alone just like they did with their own band, they gave us total creative freedom.
“So they gave us permission to use their songs and then we made our film and built it around the songs.”
Asked if he thought we would still be living in Brexit Britian if the Beatles had not existed, he said: “It’s almost impossible to work out because such was their impact on society, Britain, Europe and America and then really the rest of the world that it’s almost impossible to unravel what their influence was.
“They shifted the world on its axis and they created a world of pop culture as a creative pleasure and form of expression for people and as an economy, so they couldn’t just be accused of being hippie layabouts who didn’t want to work.
“The world’s economy, a large part of it, is now based on pop culture, and our economy in this country has benefited enormously not least, most recently from Ed Sheeran of course, who is a huge money earner for this country.”
Richard Curtis, who penned the film, which features a cameo from Sheeran and also star Lily James and Kate McKinnon, added: “I don’t know but if you want to go back to believing in Britain the thing you should do is listen to Sgt Pepper, which is the greatest album about England that there has ever been.”
Yesterday is released in UK cinemas on June 28.