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BBC Four remembers George Michael

By Paul Sinclair

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Update: Apologies, but BBC Four have now pulled “George Michael: A Different Life” with no explanation, other than they “hope to show Different Life at a later date”.

BBC Four in the UK have updated tonight’s schedule to remember George Michael who died on Christmas Day.

The Friday night slot is traditionally devoted to music, and tonight will start at 9pm with a one-hour documentary George Michael: A Different Life. After that comes a broader look at the past twelve months with 2016: A Year in the Life of a Year and then it’s back to George at 10.30pm with a TOTP2 Wham! Special. At 11pm George Michael Live at the Palais Garnier is repeated (this was shown on BBC 1 a few days ago).

All times are GMT and obviously you’ll need to be able to receive BBC Four to watch them, although they should be on the BBC iPlayer afterwards.

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14 Comments

14 thoughts on “BBC Four remembers George Michael”

  2. there was an official dvd on sale at the 25 live shows with a 1 hour 40 minute documentary called “a different story” which is hard to find info online about. i remember that a good few months before i got the dvd that a shorter version was shown on tv as i recorded it and there were ad’s in the paperwork for the show that i cut out and put in the box with the dvd i recorded. i notice the BBC advertised it as a repeat and had the year as 2008 which doesn’t tie up, and i don’t remember another documentary from the BBC from that date, so i’m wondering if it was the shorter version of that documentary

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0445952/

    it would be great inf the paris symphonica show got a release. it was strange he released the live album but no live dvd/bluray yet that was on the tv. also strange the upcoming tv documentary wasn’t going to be part of the reissue, which ironically included the south bank show documentary which came out on vhs and laserdisc years ago but not yet on dvd. even stranger is he inclusion of the audio of the unplugged show to promote the older album, but no dvd or even official video of the actual show (and there’s a bunch of extra tracks from the show that were broadcast on french tv years ago). i have a promo copy of the unplugged video but it should have got a dvd release with the bonus tracks a long time ago. theres also a 90 minute interview george did for the show

    there is a bootleg bluray of the paris tv broadcast but it’s really in need of an official release with the full show rather than just an hour. i’m not sure if it’s on the bluray but i went to the 2 shows called “the final two” and at the time he said to the audience that he was filming the shows and they would be released as his only official live video, and being quite stubborn at times he probably meant it. he refused to have the wham! final video released as he wasn’t happy with that and theres no official cover to cover video either. it’s such a shame theres so much great live stuff he’s done that may never get released. each tour was pretty significantly different to the previous

    it is a shame about the TOTP, but george was embarrassed about some of his old stuff. if you’ve seen some clips on youtube there are some pretty cheesy tv appearances, george couldn’t dance and he knew this and he just hated a lot of his old stuff but having a dvd filled with old wham era tv clips would be great. it’s something that would have made a nice bonus disc with reissue of the albums, adding some unreleased stuff and the original 12″s

    it’s also a shame the LWP reissue wasn’t going to have the vol 2 tracks. maybe they will revisit it but i doubt it as it would be seen as going against his wishes and plans for what it was going to become. there’s also the trojan souls sessions and a bunch of older outtakes that would make a great addition to a deluxe version of that album, but i get the impression he didn’t want stuff released in later years unless he was happy with it, so no outtakes either

    it is a shame that it takes until an artist is dead for fans to get to hear and see certain stuff that the artist wouldn’t want released themselves

  3. To be fair, George Michael’s death took everyone by surprise and the timing – over Christmas probably doesn’t help trying to put together a tribute when half the country have taken time off work. I imagine the Beeb wanted to pay tribute and the easy option is to show an existing programme.
    As much as seeing the TOTP2 footage was good, like everyone else the captions and voice over has always been the down side of TOTP2 whether it’s Steve Wright or Mark Radcliffe. Saying that, before the re-runs of TOTP seeing something is always better than seeing nothing at all.

  4. Some tribute, having bloody Radcliffe punning and talking over the music in TotP2. Bit of a damp squib in the end and not befitting of the sombre occasion.

  5. That was a bit of a letdown! No “A Different Life”, while “A Year in the Life of a Year” had nothing to do with George Michael. The TOTP2 Wham special was good though, even if it was a repeat. The Paris concert was on a few days ago.

  6. A fitting tribute and highlights how poor Bowie footage was in the immediate aftermath of his passing. Whilst the forthcoming ‘ Last Five years’ is anticipated we have had no Cracked Actor, Baal, BBC circa 2000 concert, Glastonbury 2000 all known BBC footage or MWFTE, Absolute Beginners etc nor are they planned for the 1st anniversary at least Ch5 have been showing Labryinth.

    Bowie on the Beeb, youtube more like

      1. All the listings have dropped the A Different Life documentary. This reminds me of when the Beeb planned a documentary about George Harrison to be screened the Christmas after his death in 2001. I’d spent all Christmas looking forward to it, the programme was listed right up until the planned broadcast time. But the announcer said the programme was postponed and to add insult to injury the programme was replaced with an interview with David Beckham!!!!!
        I emailed the Beeb to let them know my disappointment and to give them credit they rang me up but they couldn’t give me a reason for it not being shown. I asked they why they couldn’t have shown something more suitable and a least have some connection to music but they weren’t bothered. They also said that the programme would definitely be shown in the future. 15 years later I’m still waiting……

  9. I hope the Garnier concert is licensed for release. A package including the new LWP documentary (assuming that still goes ahead – did George get around to doing the voice over before his death?) would be a great final tribute to him for the fans.

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