Skip to content

Star's 'amazing' time on Yesterday movie with Ed Sheeran and Danny Boyle

Himesh Patel: Yesterday film star discusses acting roots

The star of the new film Yesterday has spoken of his "amazing" time working with the director Danny Boyle and singer Ed Sheeran.

Ex-EastEnders actor Himesh Patel, from Cambridgeshire, plays a singer-songwriter who is the only person who can remember The Beatles.

He said it was a "privilege" to work with Boyle and writer Richard Curtis.

"It's an amazing part of the job to get to work with such incredible film makers," he said.

Yesterday/Working Title Films/Danny Boyle Crowds at Gorleston beachYesterday/Working Title Films/Danny Boyle
More than 6,000 extras gathered on Gorleston beach last year

The Beatles-inspired movie, filmed in Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, included a scene with 6,000 extras in Gorleston-on-Sea.

Patel, who is from Huntingdon, appears opposite Downton Abbey actress Lily James, and the movie has cameos from Sheeran and James Corden.

The film imagines a world without the Beatles in which Patel's character claims the Fab Four's hits are his own.

Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis
Danny Boyle (left) was taken along the east coast by Richard Curtis, who lives in Suffolk, in search of the right locations for their forthcoming film Yesterday

Patel said his involvement with the Key Youth Theatre in Peterborough and the Actors Theatre Company in Cambridge helped him secure his part in EastEnders.

He said he enjoyed meeting Framlingham singer-songwriter Sheeran: "He was great, very generous with a great sense of humour.

"He was really inquisitive about what we do and he was very relaxed as a performer."

The movie, which is officially released on 28 June, saw filming in Clacton, at the Latitude Festival near Southwold and at Ormiston Denes Academy in Lowestoft.