CREDITS A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, 1964 dir: Richard Lester John Lennon Paul McCartney George Harrison Ringo Starr Wilfred Brambell Victor Spinetti

‘Don't take that tone with me young man. I fought the war for your sort.”
ëI bet you're sorry you won.”

It's amazing that, well into its forties, this film still comes over as fresh and funny when many more recent movies are creaking with age.

Richard Lester, who started out making films with the Goons (The Running, Jumping, Standing Still Film), set the style for pop movies for decades to come with his freewheeling, machine-gun edited, surreal day-in-the-life musical.

A Hard Day's Night location: The Beatles arrive at the (unnamed) station, to travel to London... :Marylebone Station, London

The opening scenes of teen hysteria, presumably meant to be in Liverpool, as fans pursue the boys onto the railway station, were filmed at London’s Marylebone Station.

A Hard Day's Night location: ...they evade the fans to catch the train to... : Still Marylebone Station, London

The rail journey itself shunts between Paddington Station, Minehead, Taunton and Newton Abbot in the West Country. The scene where the boys run alongside the train to annoy a grumpy commuter, is Crowcombe, north Somerset.

And the final destination? Possibly the shortest journey in the cinema. Why, it’s Marylebone Station, London.

A Hard Day's Night location: ...arriving in the capital: Marylebone Station – erm – London

The Beatles are driven to the Scala Theatre, which used to stand at 21 Tottenham Street, just off Tottenham Court Road. It was demolished in 1969. A block of flats, Scala House, now occupies the site.

Wilfred Brambell, as Paul’s grandad, excuses himself to go gambling at Les Ambassadeurs nightclub, Hamilton Place, behind the Hilton Hotel. Another great British icon also debuted on screen at Les Ambassadeurs. although the gaming room was recreated in the studio. The is where James Bond (Sean Connery) first spoke the line “The name’s Bond... James Bond.” at the chemin-de-fer table in 1962's Dr No.

A Hard Day's Night location: dancing the night away: Les Ambassadeurs, Hamilton Place, Mayfair

The club’s Garrison Room served as the nightclub where the group demonstrate those great sixties dances.

The TV studio, where the band rehearse and perform the climactic concert, is the Scala again, but when the four escape down the fire escape for a moment of pixilated fun, it’s the iron staircase behind the London Apollo Hammersmith, Queen Caroline Street (tel: 0870.606.3400), when it was the Hammersmith Odeon, a legendary music venue. They hurry down the steps, only to land on the helicopter pad at Gatwick Airport, where their scamperings about are matched up with extra footage filmed on the Thornbury Road Playing Fields, south of the Great West Road, A4 (tube: Osterley).

Ringo takes off for a respite from the frenzy. With his camera, he ambles through Notting Hill Gate taking arty shots of milkbottles on Lancaster Road. Spotted by a brace of squealing teen fans, he ducks into a junk shop to buy a disguise of peaked cap and old raincoat. The shop, at last look, a ladies' lingerie shop, is 20 All Saints Road, on the northeast corner of Lancaster Road.

A Hard Day's Night location: Ringo goes walkabout: Turk's Head pub, Twickenham

He meanders along the Putney Towpath, the south bank of the Thames just west of Kew Bridge, before sampling pub sandwiches in the Turk’s Head, Winchester Road at the corner of St Margaret’s Grove, St Margaret’s, Twickenham, conveniently close to the film studios.

The chase sequence is around Notting Hill Gate, with the since-demolished St John’s Secondary School, 83 Clarendon Road, used as the police station.

A Hard Day's Night location: The Beatles arrive in the nick of time: Charlotte Mews, Fitzrovia

It's back to the Scala for climax. Although the theatre is long-gone, you can still see unchanged, opposite its old entrance, Charlotte Mews, the alleyway from which the Fab Four finally emerge for the frenzied TV concert.