one of Benjamin Britten's operas.) Magazines such as The Sketch and Tatler and Bystander vied to commission McBean's new series of surreal portraits. In 1952 he photographed Pamela Green as Botticelli's Venus, with David Ball his boyfriend as Zephyrus. Despite the decline in demand for theatre and production art during the 1950s, McBean's creative and striking ideas provided him with work in the emergent record cover business with companies such as EMI, when he was commissioned to create Cliff Richard's first four album sleeves. McBean's later works included being the photographer for the cover of The Beatles' first album Please Please Me, as well as commissions by a number of other performers. In 1969 he returned with the Beatles to the same location to shoot the cover for their album Get Back. This later came out as Let It Be with a different cover, but McBean's photo was used (together with an outtake from the Please Please Me cover shoot) for the cover of the Beatles' 1962–1966 and 1967–1970 compilations in 1973. In his later years he became more selective of the work he undertook, and continued to explore surrealism whilst taking portrait photographs of individuals such as Agatha Christie, Audrey Hepburn, Laurence Olivier and Noël Coward. Both periods of his work (pre and post war) are now eagerly sought by collectors and his work sits in many major collections around the world. Christmas cards Evidence of his innovative photographic techniques and surrealist themes can be found in the many Christmas cards he created. For these images he constructed elaborate sets along with detailed props and miniatures, often taking weeks to produce the desired effect. End of career and death He was an influence on the young John Shand Kydd. In the 1960s, he bought Flemings Hall in Bedingfield, Suffolk and undertook a major restoration. He lived there until his death. Despite reducing the number of commissions he undertook in his later years, McBean continued to work selectively on projects such as French magazine L'Officiel and French Vogue (1983). In 1984 McBean appeared, credited as "special guest", in the music video for "Red Guitar", the debut solo single by British musician-composer David Sylvian. According to his website, Sylvian had developed a strong interest in McBean's work and he and director Anton Corbijn invited McBean to appear in the video, which was an homage to McBean, and was directly inspired by