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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Chris Tryhorn

Dead dogs, capitalist critique and only four songs: when Wham! squashed Lindsay Anderson’s China film

Great Wham!’s George Michael (left) and Andrew Ridgeley visiting the Great Wall of China in 1985
Wham!’s George Michael (left) and Andrew Ridgeley visiting the Great Wall of China in 1985. Photograph: Peter Charlesworth/LightRocket/Getty Images

It’s hard to imagine a stranger pairing: Lindsay Anderson, the pioneering director acclaimed for his provocative leftwing critiques of postwar Britain, and Wham!, the young pop duo behind Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and Last Christmas.

Yet the two parties came together in 1985, when Anderson, then 61, was hired to direct a documentary about George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley’s groundbreaking tour of China, which made the 21- and 22-year-olds the first western pop act to play in the country.

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