Unheard studio banter part of BBC "Beatles Week"

The Beatles are seen in this undated handout photo.

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - The BBC will air a documentary next month featuring hitherto unheard out-takes of conversation between the members of the Beatles at London's Abbey Road recording studios.

Beatles Week, to be aired on BBC2 and BBC4 from September 5, coincides with the September 9 release of the digitally remastered original Beatles catalog and "The Beatles: Rock Band" video game, the band's first big leap into the world of digital music.

"This is a chance for viewers to enjoy some rare footage and fascinating insights into the career of the greatest pop group of all time," said George Entwistle of the BBC.

The week will open with "The Beatles On Record," a history of the band in the studio featuring more than 60 songs, rare footage and photographs from the group's archives and never-before-heard fragments of chat.

It will be followed by the first TV airing of "The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit," the Maysles brothers' film charting the Fab Four's arrival in the United States in 1964 when Beatlemania first ignited there.

Among the other highlights is "Storyville: How The Beatles Rocked the Kremlin," a documentary by Leslie Woodhead about how the band profoundly affected young Russians even though it was never able to play in the Soviet Union.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)