"KOMMT zusammen für die magische Tour".

(That's "roll up for the mystery tour" to English speakers.)

Thirty Beatles fans from Germany are recreating the group’s famous coach trip around southern England from 50 years ago.

But they are adding Bournemouth and Poole to the itinerary because of the area’s special connections with the Beatles.

The party is led by Simon Mitchell, a British-born resident of Hannover, who appeared in the film as a child and owns what he believes is the original coach used by the Beatles.

The Magical Mystery Tour film contained Beatles classics such as the title track, The Fool on the Hill, Your Mother Should Know and I Am the Walrus.

It capped a momentous year for the Beatles, in which they had released their seminal album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

But the film mystified viewers when it was shown on TV that Christmas.

“It was an idea that Paul came up with,” said Simon.

“All they knew was that they wanted a bright coloured bus and they were going to take off around the country and film whatever happened.

“Unfortunately on Boxing Day 1967, it was broadcast in black and white, when it was made in colour. That was a big drawback because the film had to be seen in colour – although most people didn’t have colour television.”

Three years ago, Simon bought a 53-seater Bedford VAL coach on eBay which was sold as a replica of the Magical Mystery Tour bus. Its identification numbers were stolen before he owned it, but after close examination of damage and paintwork, he believes it is the real thing.

The coach is not in good enough condition to bring to the UK, but he intends it to be the centrepiece of a museum which will raise money for children with cancer.

The tourists – including Alfred Ebeling, founder member, Beatles Fan Club Hannover – will follow the original Beatles tour, taking in Sevenoaks, Virgina Water, Ascot, Basingstoke and Teignmouth.

But they will also arrive in Dorset today to see the site in Panorama Road, Sandbanks, where John Lennon bought his aunt Mimi Smith a house. They will stay in Bournemouth – the town where the Beatles played the most concerts outside Liverpool and London.

When planning the tour, they consulted former Echo journalist Nick Churchill, author of Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Beatles and Bournemouth.

Simon, 57, and his late sister Angela appeared in Magical Mystery Tour, thanks to his father being stationed at West Malling, whose air base was a location. They are in a tug-of-war sequence and in at a Beatles performance filmed in an aircraft hangar.

“They did a little concert afterwards. They allowed requests and I remember requesting Yellow Submarine and they played it,” he said.