BBC Two is to air a new programme called Wham!: Last Christmas Unwrapped to celebrate the “special” song’s 40th anniversary. The hour-long film, which will air in December, will bring together artists, producers and music experts to give the story of Last Christmas’s creation and its enduring appeal. It will see Wham! member Andrew Ridgeley return to Saas-Fee in Switzerland, where the song’s video was shot, visiting the ski lift and alpine chalet which feature in it.
During the show celebrity fans Mary J Blige, Sir Bob Geldof, Neil Tennant and Sam Smith will give their views on the song’s themes of unrequited love and loss. Interviewees will also include Pepsi DeMacque-Crockett and Shirlie Kemp, who were the band’s backing singers and went on to become an act in their own right called Pepsi and Shirlie. Viewers will also hear from George Michael, who died on Christmas Day in 2016, through archive radio and television footage.
Speaking of the new feature, Ridgeley said: “It’s a privilege, 40 years on, to be able to have this opportunity to celebrate Wham!’s wonderful and enduring musical homage to Christmas and I’m absolutely thrilled that Wham! in partnership with the BBC will present this joyful and touching tribute to the nation this Christmas. “Christmas was a special time of year for George and Christmas songs were a special type of song for him too and that was why he considered writing a Christmas classic one of the great achievements of his care.