Bee Gees documentary director shares how Noel Gallagher helped shape the film (exclusive)

Watch: How Noel Gallagher influenced the Bee Gees documentary

Frank Marshall, the director of new documentary The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, has revealed a surprise influence behind the film.

The doc, which traces the legendary group’s career includes interviews with some of the music world’s biggest names, including Eric Clapton and Justin Timberlake. But, as Marshall explained to Yahoo Movies UK, it was Noel Gallagher who summed up the film in just seven words.

The Oasis star commented that making music with your family is ‘your greatest strength and your greatest weakness’, a phrase which Marshall became ‘the theme of the film’.

He and producer Nigel Sinclair wanted to interview ‘as many members of brother bands as we could, but I think Noel was particularly articulate about what the experience can be like.’

Sinclair also explained how the relationship between Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb was a crucial element of the film.

Read more: Bee Gees documentary 'lucky' to wrap days before pandemic took hold

“The Bee Gees were brothers and that sounds like a piece of information, but we wanted to make it a reality for the audience. Noel also said that having a family member with you when you first have that moment of fame is an incredibly powerful experience.

“When people become famous, they always want to thank their mother on television – that’s what that’s about. It’s somebody who was there before you became this person who can’t walk down the street any more.

“Within the Bee Gees there was always this levelling thing: they were always in the family, so that when they fought – at least at the beginning – they still had to go to Christmas dinner together, probably with their parents saying ‘behave yourself!’”

The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart is the first feature length documentary about the group.

Read more: Quiz! How many Oasis hits can you name in 5 minutes?

It traces the career of Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb from their early success in the late 60s, through the 1970s disco era and the giddy heights of Saturday Night Fever to their evolution into equally successful songwriters, collaborating with top names like Barbra Streisand and Dionne Warwick.

In their time together, The Bee Gees wrote over 1,000 songs and created twenty number one hits.

Watch a clip from How Can You Mend A Broken Heart

Director and producer Frank Marshall is a five time Oscar nominee for films including Raiders Of The Lost Ark and The Sixth Sense. He’s also the producer of Jurassic World: Dominion, which finished filming last month, and is slated to produce the latest instalment of the Indiana Jones franchise.

Nigel Sinclair has produced a wide variety of films, including Rush and The Ides Of March, as well as documentaries on such top musical names as The Beatles, Pavarotti and The Who.

The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart is on Sky Documentaries from 13 December and on DVD and digital download from 14 December.