A radio programme documenting John Lennon’s two-month stay in Bermuda in 1980 has aired across the entire UK.

The half-hour feature was accompanied by an extensive article about the musician’s time on the Island, which was written by well-known journalist John McCarthy for the British national broadsheet newspaper The Daily Telegraph.

Mr McCarthy was in Bermuda during September interviewing people who had either met the late Beatle when he was here, or who have been involved in subsequent projects to celebrate Mr Lennon’s Bermuda connection.

Among those featured on the radio programme were estate agent Donna Bennett, who found a home rental for the pop star when he arrived, Lisa Dawn Johnston, Director of Parks, who spoke about the importance to the Island of recognising and celebrating the connection, and Graham Foster, who created the Double Fantasy sculpture in the Botanical Gardens.

Mr Lennon titled the last album he released ‘Double Fantasy’ after coming across the name of a freesia flower in the Botanical Gardens during his regular visits to the park. The album, a collaboration with his wife Yoko Ono, featured many of the songs he either worked on or refined during his Island stay. ‘Double Fantasy’ was released in November 1980, three weeks before Mr Lennon was shot and killed outside his Manhattan apartment.

Mr McCarthy also spoke to Bermudian Andy Newmark, who played drums on ‘Double Fantasy’, and Christian Luthi who, as a teenager, met Mr Lennon when he rented his parents’ home in Fairylands, Pembroke.

Mr McCarthy and radio programme producer John Sugar travelled to the US to meet Hank Halsted and Tyler Coneys, crew members on the Megan Jaye sloop that Mr Lennon helped sail from Rhode Island to Bermuda in June 1980.

The radio programme featured snippets of this year’s Lennon Bermuda Peace Day Concert in the Botanical Gardens, and was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Monday. It is due to be broadcast on the BBC World Service later this month.