Is Birmingham having a moment? Let’s try and forget about the bin strike for a moment and be positive. Aston Villa made it to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. The film Becoming Led Zeppelin and this year’s Black Sabbath farewell tour are reminding the world about the city’s considerable musical heritage. From bossing the Bake Off tent to popping up in a fridge in the hit gameshow Last One Laughing on Amazon, Alison Hammond is everywhere. As anyone who has been to a city centre pub or football match in the past few years will testify, so is the Peaky Blinders look.
And now there’s Sky’s Joe Lycett’s United States of Birmingham; an apparently frivolous and yet weirdly edifying and gently revealing series in which the Brummie comic journeys around America (and very briefly Canada) in a campervan. Lycett, perhaps in search of an alternative to being papped in the streets of his hometown with his partner and new baby, is seeking out a formal confirmation of friendship with the 18 other Birminghams in the world.
