Overview
- The new film Wham! 10 Days in China opens in cinemas on Tuesday, July 28 and will be broadcast on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer later this summer.
- Director Mike Christie assembled restored and previously unseen footage that highlights the tour’s deliberate diplomatic framing and the duo’s discomfort with staged press and fan moments.
- Archival clips and new interviews show concerts in Beijing and Guangzhou were tightly managed by Chinese authorities, with audiences told to stay seated and security present, which limited spontaneous reaction.
- A separate Lindsay Anderson director’s cut titled If You Were There exists in archives and was screened once at the BFI, but Andrew Ridgeley says George Michael opposed a wider release making that director’s version unlikely to appear publicly.
- The film argues the trip was a calculated career move that helped Wham! break into larger U.S. audiences and the documentary may reshape how fans and historians view the band’s role as informal cultural ambassadors.