The drummer reckons people were presented with an image that the four youthful pals had turned on each other. He has long been unhappy that fans felt the band were at each other’s throats recording their final album, as portrayed in the Let It Be film 51 years ago. Ringo is overjoyed Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson has recut a new version, this time serving up more of “the joy and laughter” between members. Director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s Let It Be 1970 documentary film is famed for a confrontation between Paul McCartney and George Harrison, with other tensions between members.

That has incensed Ringo for decades, and he is glad the original 80 minutes’ “dark portrayal” will be eclipsed by Mr Jackson, whose six-hour version will “rewrite history”.

Ringo said: “The point I am trying to make was from day one, 30 days later, no matter what happened we had an album, we did the show on the roof and did all this video.

“There is no doubt of the record and we did have a few ups and downs, but that is what life is all about.

“First of all I never liked the film that came out. It was always [centred] around four seconds of a month. I thought there was no joy and no laughter, and I was telling Peter Jackson this.”

He added: “We found 56 hours of unused footage.”

Ringo is delighted with the new version, which will air on Apple TV over three nights in the US across the Thanksgiving break in November.

He said: “Peter started putting it together then he’d fly into LA and show me pieces of it.

“We were laughing, we were lads. But to get back to the original one, there was a discussion and there were four guys in a room for a month, that had up days, down days, music days.

“But the music never, ever once got lost in what we were doing.

“It was the first time we went in the studio, especially George and I, and John did not have any songs and Paul didn’t have any songs.

“Usually they had two or three, so we could start. So there was a whole discussion. But when you look at it, it’s a six-hour documentary and it is like the ocean, the waves of joy and ‘Oh what is that going on?’

“Laughter and playing great. We never stopped loving each other. Once we heard the count in… whatever was going on, everybody did their best.”

Ringo spoke of his emotions about the upcoming release while launching his four-track EP, Change The World.

He revealed how the finale of the film with the band’s final concert on Apple’s roof was a matter of convenience.

Ringo said: “The Beatles on the roof – India was pushed forward or maybe somewhere in Rome, on Everest, or Egypt in a mummy’s tomb. Paul said, ‘let’s just walk across the road’.

“And now it has become the biggest icon known to man.”

Recently Ringo revealed fans will finally be able to see their entire farewell concert. Mr Lindsay-Hogg has defended his original film’s ­narrative, which charted the last studio sessions together before the band split up.

He told Entertainment Weekly: “I was aware that they were beginning to get on each other’s nerves.”

The director sensed the tension building and positioned his cameras so the drama could unfold naturally.

He added: “I didn’t want them to feel the cameras were intrusive.

“I put one camera up in the gantry shooting down, so they didn’t see it. I moved the other back to the end of the studio.

“So they didn’t really know the cameras were there, which gave them the opportunity to get it off their chest.”

Ringo is releasing a lead single Let’s Change The World, written by Toto bandmates Joseph Williams and Steve Lukather.

● Change The World is released through uMusic on September 24