It Was Twenty Years Ago Today (also known as Sgt. Pepper: It Was Twenty Years Ago Today) is a 1987 British-made television documentary film about the 1967 Summer of Love. It premiered on 1 June 1987, twenty years after the official release date of the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and presents the album as the central factor behind the events and scenes that led to the full emergence of the 1960s counterculture. The film was directed by John Sheppard for Granada Television. In addition to archive footage, it features interviews with key figures from the period, including Derek Taylor (who also served as consultant on the production), George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Allen Ginsberg, Abbie Hoffman and Timothy Leary. Its release was accompanied by the book It Was Twenty Years Ago Today, written by Taylor. After the documentary's initial broadcast on the ITV network in the UK, it was shown by PBS in the US on 11 November 1987. (en)