What a big-hearted winter warmer Wham: Last Christmas Unwrapped turns out to be. This hour-long special promises an in-depth look at one of the most successful Christmas songs of all time, though curiously, it wasn’t until 39 years after its initial release, in 1984, that it finally became Britain’s festive number one. Much like the podcast Song Exploder, this documentary pulls the song and the video apart, discussing how they were written and made, before analysing their cultural impact. All fascinating, particularly to fans, but even fans might be surprised at how intimate and lovely the conversations about George Michael are here.
You can tell this is going to be joyful from the off. While Last Christmas is the angel on top of the tree, this acts as a potted history of Wham! too, beginning in 1984, the year everything went right for them. Michael tells his side of the story, his contributions taken from old archive interviews, while Andrew Ridgeley, Shirlie Kemp and Pepsie Demacque-Crockett talk through everything from meeting as kids, to filming that famous snowy video, to the devastation caused by the death of the man they all call Yog at Christmas, at the age of 53.
Wham!’s early days were a testament to dancing, friendship and youth. The story of how Ridgeley and Michael met is oft-told, but still nice to hear. Kemp recalls bumping into Ridgeley in the street when she was 17 or so, and being dragged up to Michael’s bedroom to talk about music, surrounded by posters on the wall. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship, as well as an astonishingly successful pop band. The extent of Wham!-mania, seen in footage from their 1985 US tour, is a reminder of just how massive these school friends went on to become.
But Wham!’s origins have been well-documented and really, what this sweet film has, at its heart, is friendship. The original cast of the Last Christmas video, with one obvious, poignant exception, return to Saas-Fe in Switzerland, where it was made. They are there to unveil a statue to the town’s most famous export, but also to retrace their steps, and reminisce about what Kemp calls the “fun times”, before everyone got older and life got more serious. And there were plenty of fun times. Kemp’s husband Martin, of Spandau Ballet fame, fondly remembers desperately trying to get rid of Michael, whom his now wife had brought along on an early date as a wingman.
The reason the video looks as if it’s just a bunch of friends spending Christmas together is because that’s what it was. The only professional actor was Kathy Hill, a model who speaks affectionately of her experience as “the girl who broke George Michael’s heart”. She is wearing the scarf from the video, and says she will never give it away. She joins the group in Saas-Fe, as does Cheryl Harrison, who was once asked to be a member of Wham! She laughs as she recalls turning them down because she was doing her hairdressing apprenticeship, and it was important. The old friends get together now to talk about how drunk they got, how much fun they had, and crucially, how much they all loved “Yog”.
Elsewhere, the song becomes the star of the show. Ridgeley remembers how the melody came into Michael’s head, so he disappeared off to record it, coming back an hour later with a sense of certainty that it was something special. The track’s engineer, Chris Porter, isolates each instrument and vocal part, noting that the final verse sounds exactly like the end of a party. Among everything else, the documentary notes the multi-generational appeal of Last Christmas, so that observation is particularly interesting, given that Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan’s recent cover version of it is set in the aftermath of a messy, drunken house party.
This is comprehensive, also roping in Wham! manager Simon Napier-Bell and Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant, speaking here with his former Smash Hits editor hat on. Famous fans Sam Smith and Mary J Blige explain why one of the saddest Christmas songs ever written has remained so appealing, for such a long time. But it all rides on the charisma of George Michael. Early on, Kemp makes a brief and heartbreaking slip of the tongue as she talks about how much he valued friendship. “George is – was – the more, the merrier,” she says, remembering his legendary Christmas Eve parties. Ridgeley, too, opens up about the loss of the man he calls “my other half. I never conceived of a future without him,” he says. This is a gorgeous and warm testament to him and to his genius.
Wham: Last Christmas Unwrapped aired on BBC Two and is on iPlayer now.
