George Michael was so vehemently against a director’s cut of the historic Wham! tour of China in 1985 that it is unlikely fans will ever see it, his former bandmate Andrew Ridgeley has said.

A new documentary titled Wham! 10 Days in China uses original footage from the doomed project and will dive into the British pop duo’s landmark tour, when they became the first western act to perform in the country following its cultural revolution.

The original film was directed by Lindsay Anderson, the pioneer of kitchen-sink realism behind the Mick Travis trilogy and the 1963 drama film This Sporting Life, whose career by this point was on the wane.

He and Wham! disliked one another from the beginning. “I thought it was bloody ludicrous,” Ridgeley told The Guardian in a new interview.

“Someone like him, with his provenance and cinematic pedigree in the genre that he worked in, was just not the right fit for Wham! He only did it for the money – his letters on the subject make it very clear. He didn’t like us at all – he didn’t like Wham!, he didn’t like the idea of Wham!”

In a feature for The Independent marking the 40th anniversary of the tour, critic Mark Beaumont noted that Anderson didn’t endear himself to the band when he requested the house lights were turned on for crowd shots in Beijing.

There, the audience was under strict instruction to remain seated; turning the house lights on made them even more fearful of retribution from China’s secret police, who were in attendance, if they showed enthusiasm. At the time, authorities feared losing control of large gatherings; live entertainment events banned dancing, cheering and screaming.

That was one of the most difficult shows of Wham!’s career: “The first feeling was of failure,” Michael told Rolling Stone in 1986. “There was no way we could communicate.” When the band eventually learned of the strict concert rules, he was “just furious”.

Ridgeley said he was appalled when he saw Anderson’s cut, calling it “dull as dishwater”, while Michael refused to let it be shown to the public. A taped copy of the rejected cut, titled If You Were There, could be viewed by researchers on appointment at the University of Stirling.

It was shown on a one-off occasion as part of the BFI’s 2024 Anderson season, with the blessing of Ridgeley and Michael’s estate. However, Ridgeley said a wider official release was unlikely: “It won’t happen because George was very much against it ever seeing the light of day… If it was down to me, I don’t think I would have any particular problem with it.”

Using raw footage that sat in storage for decades, Wham! 10 Days in China promises to uncover the “whys, hows and legacy” of their groundbreaking performances in Beijing and Guangzhou, offering “a fresh perspective on China at a moment of transformation, told through the band’s journey and the voices of fans experiencing pop culture in a new way”.

Ridgeley said in a statement earlier this month: “This film finally reveals the unknown legacy of Wham!’s groundbreaking venture, and lays bare, in all their human contradictions, the individual perspectives behind what was a bold and risky, high-stakes gamble.”

Wham! 10 Days in China is released in cinemas worldwide on 28 July. It will be broadcast on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer later this summer.