# When Wham! Went To China To Conquer America: Unearthed Rushes In BBC Feature Doc Give New Perspectives On A Pop History Moment

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/when-wham-went-to-china-to-conquer-america-unearthed-rushes-in-bbc-feature-doc-give-new-perspectives-on-a-pop-history-moment/
- Published: 2026-07-28T12:00:00+00:00
- Original publisher: Deadline
- Original article: https://deadline.com/2026/07/wham-10-days-china-america-george-michael-global-breakout-1237004516/
- Topics: Art, Asia, Culture, Entertainment, Film, TV, World

## Key points

- BBC film revisits Wham!'s landmark 1985 concerts in China
- Restored footage from director Lindsay Anderson reveals set tensions
- One-day global cinema release across around 1,000 screens

## Summary

A newly restored BBC feature documentary, "Wham! 10 Days in China," revisits the pop duo's historic 1985 trip to Beijing and Guangzhou, when George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley became the first Western pop act to perform in communist China. The venture was originally intended as a publicity springboard to help Wham! break into the American market, and it was filmed at the time by Oscar-winning director Lindsay Anderson, though his footage was long shelved and largely forgotten. The documentary matters now because it recovers previously unseen "rushes" that offer fresh insight into a pivotal, under-examined moment in pop history.

Directed by Mike Christie and produced by Zinc Media's Supercollider alongside Sony Music, the film draws on footage that took seven months to restore after sitting largely unexamined in storage. Access to the original rushes came only once Ridgeley and the George Michael Estate backed the project, revealing tensions on set, including a notably awkward moment where Michael appears to snub Anderson. The documentary receives a rare one-day theatrical release across roughly 1,000 cinemas worldwide, including in the UK, US and Australia, distributed by Sony Music Vision and White Light.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.