Mystery surrounds the discovery of a forgotten interview with the Beatles, which was unearthed in the garage of a Wandsworth family home.

To ensure fans of the Fab Four do not descend on the house, film buff Richard Jeffs is reluctant to divulge details of exactly where he found the footage, revealing only that it was in a Putney street.

Mystery surrounds the discovery of a forgotten interview with the Beatles, which was unearthed in the garage of a Wandsworth family home.

To ensure fans of the Fab Four do not descend on the house, film buff Richard Jeffs is reluctant to divulge details of exactly where he found the footage, revealing only that it was in a Putney street.

"Someone I used to work with in Central Television said they had heard of these cans in this house, and the people were thinking of moving and didn't know what to do with them," Mr Jeffs said.

"I turned up and put them in safe storage."

The film - a nine-minute interview from 1964 - was found stacked among 64 unmarked cans.

It was thought to have been recorded on a tele-cine machine in London, and stored in a can which rusted as the years progressed.

Mr Jeffs transferred the film to Digibeta, and then used clues to work out who owned it.

He painstakingly deciphered the scribbled, faded handwriting on the can's label, and established the names of the presenters - Paul Young and Morag Hood from Roundup, an hour-long children's current affairs programme on Scottish television network STV.

The piece is said to be the earliest surviving long-form British interview with the band.

It is a rare gem that portrays the group in their laid back, unguarded days - an attitude that more recent, recorded interviews with the band tend not to have captured.

When asked about the Lennon and McCartney songwriting partnership, for example, the pair are surprisingly candid.

"Sometimes we write them on old pianos or anything that's lying around, guitars and things. Normally we sit down and try and bash one out," explains McCartney in the interview.

"Then again, there's no formula. He Lennon can come up with one completely finished, but we still say we both wrote it though."

Howard Shannon, who produced a Radio 4 programme about the forgotten interview, said its discovery has changed pop history.

"Most of these interviews were never kept or recorded. You'd only know about from word of mouth that the Beatles used to be more relaxed and honest.

"Many listeners to Radio 4 feel very sad that a lot of history never survived, so they were excited when something turned up from the 1960s. The fact that it survived is a miracle."

Listen to the Lost Beatles Interview on bbc.co.uk/radio4/.