Wingspan

Wingspan is a 2001 made-for-television documentary film about Paul McCartney's musical career, after The Beatles disbanded, with his second band, Wings. Produced by the McCartneys' MPL Communications, it was broadcast around the world to accompany the contemporary release of a two-disc retrospective collection from McCartney's solo career, titled Wingspan: Hits and History. An accompanying book, also titled Wingspan, based upon the documentary's script as edited by Beatles' historian Mark Lewisohn, was published in 2002. Summary Formed around an interview between Paul McCartney and his daughter Mary McCartney (who co-produced it with her then-husband Alistair Donald, its director), it uses the McCartneys' film and photographic archive to tell the story of Paul and Linda's founding of the band Wings in the aftermath of The Beatles' split and of its gradual evolution during the 1970s, through several line-ups. From an initial atmosphere of critical disdain and personal derision for both McCartneys the film charts the band's progress to its commercial peaks of international success and acclaim before it suffers its own disintegration at the beginning of the 1980s. The story takes up with the late-1960s meeting of Paul McCartney and photographer Linda Eastman against the background of the gradual disintegration of relationships in The Beatles. As the pair get married and withdraw from the situation of McCartney's public resignation from and legal action against The Beatles partnership, the story moves to his depressed retreat from public life in the aftermath of The Beatles' split, his initial solo albums and his gradual return to recording and playing live with a new band, Wings, formed by the pair with drummer Denny Seiwell and guitarists Denny Laine and Henry McCullough.