From Emily Atack discovers letter from a teenage Paul McCartney and Beatles bandmates – Mirror Online, July 6, 2023:
Emily Atack heard some revealing and entertaining stories about Sir Paul McCartney from a relative on BBC One this evening. The Celebrity Juice star, 33, made a trip to Liverpool to explore her impressive showbiz genes during the latest installment of Who Do You Think You Are?. Her mum is comedian, actress and singer Kate Robbins and Paul is Emily’s grandmother’s cousin, making the Don’t Let Me Down crooner Emily’s first cousin twice removed.
During tonight’s episode of the BBC documentary series, Emily was astonished to read a family letter to her grandad from a teenage Paul McCartney, telling him about his new band and looking for showbiz advice. A visit to Uncle Mike, Paul’s brother, revealed even more entertaining stories about the McCartney family. […]
On the BBC programme, Emily alongside her mum looked over a letter from Sir Paul McCartney to her grandad Mike which spoke of The Beatles in their very early days.
Reading from the letter, Emily shared: “When we were at Butlin’s last year I told you about some of my friends and I wanting to work at one of the camps. We like having a good time but we don’t mind missing it if we go to Butlin’s.
“But my friends and I were wondering if we could get a job, we’ll do any kind of work they want but we’d all like the same chalet and think we’d love it. Could you please use your influence and try to get us jobs?
The letter from a teenage Sir Paul McCartney was also signed off from pals including his Beatles bandmate John Lennon.
In another part of the programme Emily catches up with another family member who explains how musical roots extend beyond her famous Beatles relative, but also back to her great grandmother and great grandfather. Seeing pictures from her family who worked their way out of poverty she discovered her great great uncle Jim who created a huge jazz band, Jim Mack’s band.
Emily opened up about her connection to Paul last year, telling comedian Rob Brydon: “Paul is my grandmother’s first cousin. At school I went around saying he was my uncle, as it sounds a bit cooler. But I grew up with him in our lives. He’s a lovely man, a family man. He was very close to our grandmother, Betty, and our grandad, Mike. They were very helpful to him growing up.”
Speaking on Rob’s podcast in April 2022, Emily added: “My grandmother taught him to play the ukulele. ‘The Nerk Twins’ – the band Paul had with John Lennon – was started in my grandad’s garage. And they started performing at the pub my grandparents owned. Paul said to them one night ‘can we play our songs in the pub?, and they said ‘Yeah’.
Everyone really liked them and then my grandad said ‘You’ve got something there’.”
