Careless whispers: what really happened between George Michael and Lindsay Anderson? The Wham! movie producer reveals all

I t was the evening of 3 April 1985 in a hotel in Hong Kong. Lindsay Anderson, who I’d engaged to direct the theatrical documentary I’d instigated of Wham!’s historic trip to China, had called a meeting of the film crew. He wanted to give a pep talk the night before we flew to Beijing. The 30-strong team my production company had recruited for this adventure duly assembled. Lindsay gave a speech in the stentorian tones of an elder statesman addressing the House of Commons and rooted in Henry V’s St Crispin’s Day oration. And typical Lindsay, he mixed shrewd observation with sardonic wit. “Tomorrow we embark on a great adventure,” he said. “We travel into communist China with George and Andrew – ‘Apostles of the New Materialism.’” Six months later, after the first cut of the film he made was screened for George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, Lindsay was suddenly and summarily dismissed from the project. His stately, 80-minute work-in-progress If You Were There ... was denounced, and Lindsay was purged. His insightful film showing China on the verge of modernisation was condemned, and with the exception of a screening in a BFI series marking his centennial, it has become an “un-film.” This was quite the media storm in the Wham! teacup of the mid-80s. But it rapidly became forgotten. A shrewd observer ... Lindsay Anderson in 1968. A frothy one-hour reel titled Foreign Skies was confected from our film by a duo of music video operators and it premiered in June 1986 on big screens in Wembley Stadium at Wham! The Final. It was squeezed in as a support act between Elton John (costumed as Ronald McDonald) and Gary Glitter. When I told Lindsay of this auspicious positioning of the bowdlerised derivative of our film, he responded with a withering: “Quite!” Now comes a well-constructed new film sanctioned by the George Michael estate, Wham! 10 Days in China, whose bragging rights include drawing on the vast archive of magnificent unseen footage shot by Lindsay and our team of cinematographers, rescued from the vaults. Its remit is to look at the overall China excursion and its impact. But the story behind the trashing of a film by one of our finest directors is not a focus. In February 1985, I was based in New York and nine years into a producing career that started with multiple shows, albums, and films of the Secret Policeman’s Ball series I’d co-created with John Cleese to raise funds for Amnesty International. I’d just produced the music videos created to launch the career of Julian Lennon, for which I’d recruited Sam Peckinpah as director. I was a lover of the documentary artform and the work of Frederick Wiseman, Richard Leacock, the Maysles brothers, and DA Pennebaker. As a publicist and marketing strategist, I understood how film could be harnessed to shape consumer perceptions of musical artists. Out of the blue, I got a phone call from an old pal from the London music business of the 1970s who’d just arrived in Manhattan. It was Jazz Summers, one half of the management duo behind Wham!. Jazz took me to see Wham! perform, and I was impressed. Afterwards, Jazz, George, Andrew, and I had supper, and Jazz told me Simon Napier-Bell, the flamboyant 1960s impresario, was finalising a stunt to have Wham! be the first pop group to play China—a media stunt inspired by Elton John’s 1979 visit to Russia. I instinctively said, “That’s a great film!” Jazz said, “Wanna make it?” I said, “Yes!” I told him we could make a standard-issue travelogue tailored to MTV sensibilities, but that a serious documentary about the visit—showing Wham! as cultural ambassadors—would elevate them into broader media. Jazz bought it, and I was given the green light to find and hire a director. Having just worked with Peckinpah, I decided to recruit Lindsay Anderson, known for his films like If You Were There. But the problems began because Jazz and Simon did not see themselves as collaborators with Wham! as Brian Epstein had been with the Beatles. They treated George and Andrew like puppet-masters, pushing for a fluff-piece rather than a serious documentary. George and Andrew were unprepared for Lindsay’s sophisticated film, which they found culturally jarring. When Jazz and Simon saw the first cut, they staged a showdown: George and Andrew were shown Lindsay’s film to express displeasure, then dismissed him. I refused to fire Lindsay, resigning instead. Lindsay was fired shortly after, and we retained our titles. After six months of work, Foreign Skies—a derivative film—premiered. Despite this, Lindsay and I remained friends until his death in 1994. George and I retained our rapport, and he appreciated my support during his arrest in Beverly Hills. The new documentary Wham! 10 Days in China, based on Lindsay’s footage, is now in cinemas, focusing on the China excursion and its impact rather than the film’s dismissal.