Remember When: John Lennon Starred in the 1967 Black Comedy ‘How I Won the War’ and Ended Up Writing “Strawberry Fields Forever”

On September 5, 1966, John Lennon headed to Almería, Spain to star in Richard Lester’s 1967 British black comedy How I Won the War, marking his first non-musical acting role.

Based on Patrick Ryan’s 1963 book of the same name, the docu-drama-style film followed the mishap pence of a troop of soldiers, the 4th Musketeers during WWII. Fitted in glasses, which would become his signature look, Lennon stars as Gripweed, alongside Michael Crawford (Lieutenant Goobody), Roy Kinnear (Clapper), and Lee Montague as the corporal.

During the six weeks of filming, Lennon woke up at 6 am every morning and was driven to the set in his black Rolls-Royce. Siting during filming breaks, Lennon also had free time to write and penned a Beatles classic.

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“Strawberry Fields Forever”

“Dick Lester offered me the part in this movie, which gave me time to think without going home,” said Lennon in David Sheff’s 1980 book All We Are Saying. “We were in Almería, and it took me six weeks to write the song. I was writing it all the time I was making the film. And as anybody knows about film work, there’s a lot of hanging around.”

Though Lester’s film “never got seen much,” according to Lennon, it was a break he needed from the rigors of recording with the Beatles and offered him the needed solace to write in between filming. “Well, it did me a lot of good to get away, and it was a withdrawal,” said Lennon. “I wrote “Strawberry Fields [Forever]” there. I was there for six weeks and it gave me time to think and to be separate from the others but still be working and not be left in the house alone. And I used to be there and think, like a lot of people do, ‘Well, what can I do if I don’t do that?’”

Lennon added, “I have an original tape of it [‘Strawberry Fields Forever’] somewhere, of how it sounded before it became the sort of psychedelic-sounding song it became on record.”

Once filming concluded on November 6, 1966, Lennon went back to London and presented “Strawberry Fields Forever” to the band. “There was a moment of stunned silence, broken by Paul,” recalled engineer Geoff Emerick, “who in a quiet, respectful tone said simply, ‘That is absolutely brilliant,’”

Released by the Beatles in 1967 as a double A-side to “Penny Lane,” “Strawberry Fields Forever” was inspired by Lennon’s childhood and sneaking off to play in the gardens of the girl’s orphanage, which was run by the Salvation Army and called Strawberry Field, near where he grew up on Menlove Avenue in the Woolton section of Liverpool.

“Strawberry Fields is just anywhere you want to go,” said Lennon of the song in 1968 and his connection to the orphans since being distanced from his father and his mother’s death, after being struck by a drunk driver when he was 17. “There was something wrong with me, I thought,” added Lennon, “because I seemed to see things other people didn’t see.”

Photo: Roy Kinnear (bottom) and John Lennon in ‘How I Won The War,’ 1967 (United Artists/Kobal/Shutterstock)