by Dave Massey @brumhour
Last September, I was invited* by Mark Wilson, in association with Film Birmingham to join a tour of TV and Film Locations in central Birmingham. It was the day of the Birmingham Independent Food Fair, and I had two and a half hours to join the tour before heading to the Food Fair down at Millennium Point.
We met at Snow Hill railway station, and our group was presented with some great photos of the buildings around us transformed into fictionalised buildings. Who knew that the entrance next to Little Waitrose had doubled as a Police Station?
Our walk then took us through Pigeon Park, and down into the Colmore Business District to discover locations for Hustle, and midlands ATV icon and current Big Centre TV gem Crossroads! Yes Crossroads! Even I’m shocked I made it three paragraphs without saying Crossroads! Seeing photos from the 1970s of Birmingham Cathedral being used as a TV wedding filming location was great while we were stood right there!
Along our route through the business district, we saw the locations used in BBC America’s The Game. Roz Laws from the Birmingham Mail wrote about The Game’s locations here. Episode one of the Game is on BBC Two April 30th at 9pm
Victoria Square was our next big location, after a short walk down the back of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, we walked across to Alpha Tower and headed into the Birmingham Municipal Bank.
Birmingham Municipal Bank was my favourite location on the tour, and it was sad that I had to cut short my tour experience but we got to see the main banking hall and the vault!!
This was great as it was like something out of a film set anyway!!
The next tour takes place on Saturday May 23rd at 11am Book your ticket here: eventbrite.co.uk/e/birmingham-tv-film-location-walking-tours-2015-tickets-16758216276 and look out for more over the summer of 2015
Follow Mark Wilson on twitter at twitter.com/Sparks68
Check out his blog at btvfloc.wordpress.com
*I’ve not been paid for this article and I was invited on the tour in exchange for giving my honest view. My only negative was that I wish I’d allocated more time! I held back writing my review until now as I was invited on the final tour of 2014. Thanks Mark for the invite.
