Recollections by surviving Beatles and second wife Olivia cast new light on the emotional intensity that drove his music

Previously unseen private letters, home movie footage and intimate personal recollections of George Harrison are set to radically correct public perceptions of "the quiet Beatle" in a new documentary by Martin Scorsese.

Revelations include the fact that Harrison's widow, Olivia, struggled to keep the relationship with her wayward husband on track. In the film Eric Clapton also talks about how he felt consumed with envy as he fell in love with Pattie Boyd, Harrison's first wife.

Scorsese, who has focused his camera in recent years on musical subjects, from his history of the blues to a concert film of the Rolling Stones and an acclaimed study of Bob Dylan, No Direction Home, now sheds light on the self-confessed "dark horse" Harrison. Living in the Material World shows a man who – as...