Here’s another documentary by Simon Napier-Bell, though this one is likely to be rather more satisfying than last night’s as he managed Wham! at their pomp so is well-placed to tell his story. And he’s assembled a pretty impressive selection of contributors as well, including Stevie Wonder and Kenny Goss. If you’ve watched the Wham doc on Netflix some of this might be a bit familiar, but over the course of two hours it’ll be exploring his solo career as well. For a while his solo work seemed to come across as a continued attempt to be considered a serious performer, George’s perfectionism seemingly meaning he was rarely satisfied with what he’d done, to the extent he disowned much of his Wham stuff even though it was among the greatest pure pop music ever recorded. So there’s plenty of introspection and sadness here, but that’s leavened with wonderful stories about his kindness and generosity, famously making secret donations to good causes and ordinary people, just because he could.
