Sir Paul McCartney has denied he and fellow Beatle John Lennon did not get on.

Speaking to the Radio Times, Sir Paul put some of Lennon's outbursts down to drugs and talking "crap" he did not mean.

Download the new Independent Premium app Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

The pair enjoyed one of the best-known and most successful writing partnerships in history, but as their success grew, their relationship appeared to rupture and the band split up in 1970.

He denied Lennon's complaints in interviews that he sabotaged songs in the studio by not committing his full creative energy to them.

Sir Paul said: "Oh, he was on drugs, wasn't he? This is the trouble with history, with journalism.

"John said so much crap that he later said he hadn't meant. It's bulls***.

"We were there. We all enjoyed it. I never really criticised John.

"I'm not that critical. It's a question of personalities.

"John's was more abrasive than mine and that was good for his corner of the square that made up the Beatles.

"If we'd had two people like that - forget it - I don't think it would have worked."

Sir Paul told the magazine: "The image of John is seriously flawed because he was not the hard, mad man that people think he was.

"He was a very soft-centred guy and we had a lot more in common than people think.

"His favourite song when we were kids was Little White Lies, which was very sentimental. It was a smoochy old standard that his mum liked.

"Whatever bad things John said about me, he would also slip his glasses down to the end of his nose and say, 'I love you'. That's really what I hold on to. That's what I believe. The rest is showing off."

Speaking about how the creative bond between the pair developed, Sir Paul said: "The actual reason John and I started writing in earnest was because we'd be at a gig and the bands on before us would play songs we were about to do."

He added: "Once they'd done four or five of them we'd go: 'S***, there goes our set list!'

"I remember saying, 'We've got to write our own, because then they won't be able to access them'."