Professor Carl Chinn hosts a double bill of Birmingham on screen, past and present,  followed by a Q&A with Joe Lycett

First, it’s back to the 80s with a rare showing of newly restored cult classic, ‘Telly Savalas Looks at Birmingham’ (1981).

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Between the 1940s and 1980s, prolific filmmaker Harold Baim made short features or ‘quota quickies’ to be shown before the main feature. Although the nearest Telly got to Brum was a voice over booth in London, this early celebrity travelogue offers a nostalgic glimpse of Birmingham nearly 45 years ago. 

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The main feature is the first episode of ‘Joe Lycett’s United States of Birmingham’ broadcast on Sky earlier this year. In this heart-warming and hilarious love-letter to his hometown, Joe goes one better than Telly and looks at Birminghams, in fact the 18 other Birminghams of North America. Not content with merely visiting our namesakes, Joe creates an official Treaty of Friendship, forming the United States of Birmingham.

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This flagship event for the International Day of Birmingham, which marks the historic alliance of the world’s Birminghams, will culminate in a Q&A with President of the USB Joe Lycett, director Nicola Silk and historian Randell H Spackman from Birmingham, Chester County Pennsylvania.