Ed Sheeran is reportedly "gutted" his tribute to The Beatles was cut from a new film about the iconic band.

The British musician is a devoted fan of the legendary rockers and has grown friendly with Beatles star Paul McCartney in recent years.

As a result he jumped at the chance to appear in director Ron Howard's new film about the band, The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years.

However due to time constraints Ed's talking head segment disappeared from the final cut of the movie.

"Ed had recorded a segment for the film, but it failed to make the final cut along with a load of other talking heads by Ron who wanted to make more time for The Beatles themselves," a source tells British newspaper The Sun.

"Ron had to be ruthless, but Ed will be gutted. He's crazy about The Beatles and has grown really close to Paul over the past couple of years, even introducing him to his dad."

Stars who did make it into the movie included comedienne Whoopi Goldberg, film scribe Richard Curtis and rocker Elvis Costello.

All that remained of Ed's contribution when the film opened in cinemas last week (end18Sep16) was a small thank you message to him and other contributors in its credits.

Ed was not entirely absent from cinemas last weekend (17-18Sep16) however, as he has a cameo role in Bridget Jones's Baby, the new film following Renee Zellweger's hapless romantic, which opened on Friday (16Sep16).