ONE person whose mind might be scrolling back a quarter of a century today is York actor Stephen MacKenna.

As reflected elsewhere in the paper, John Lennon was murdered 25 years ago today. Stephen played the iconic musician in a film which was screened on the BBC just over three weeks later.

When news broke of Lennon's death, Stephen told the Evening Press how he had hoped to meet the singer in New York "but couldn't get through to him. That was when he was doing his hermit thing.

"I spoke to his wife, Yoko, and she maintained we were trying to hurt him and his memory by doing the film."

He had also starred as Lennon in the play John, Paul, George, Ringo And Bert. "I just don't know how the film will be accepted now," he told the Evening Press on December 9, 1980. "Some of his fans may think it is horrible, or it could become a cult film."

The tragic news certainly gave the Birth Of The Beatles unique status: it was the only biopic made while Lennon was still alive.

As for its legacy, the Radio Times gives the film only one star. But a reviewer on the Internet Movie Database, DL Lewis, of Sydney, Australia, is kinder. "This is a rather overlooked film, though one with many good points," DL writes. "Unlike the later Backbeat, which, though a good film, was flawed by its 'arthouse' approach, Birth Of The Beatles tells the story fairly straightly.

"I'd imagine that casual fans would be more interested in this than die-hard fans. But check it out anyway - the performances (particularly that of John Lennon) are very good."

YORK Ghostfinder General Rachel Lacy emails after our piece about the haunted Yorkshire book.

"Regarding Geoff Monroe, the Canadian airman who committed suicide in 1945 and supposedly stopped haunting the Golden Fleece several years ago," she begins.

"The ghost allegedly followed home a Californian family who stayed in the pub some years ago, according to the late Jack Currie, author of the ghost book Echoes In The Air. While he was writing about that specific ghost his word processor crashed, leaving the sentence 'Quincy, North California. He's making my life a misery' on the screen.

"Jack rang the then landlady of the pub, who said the family, the Keenans, had just been in touch to say the ghost had 'walked into the light'."

All details which failed to trouble the author of the new book.

Updated: 11:13 Thursday, December 08, 2005