Take Me High (1973)

Essentially an extended music video clip for Cliff Richards. Richards is a merchant banker who is moved to Birmingham and what follows is a montage of the brutalist concrete architecture that made Birmingham worse, and shots of flyovers before they were covered in tags and vomit.George Cole is there and there's a famous scene of shooting the television set. Later there is a 1980s direct-to-video film style plot line where Richards and his girlfriend plan to open a burger bar selling "Brumburgers". There's quite a lot of embarrassed people in the street scene, as if having to live in Birmingham wasn't punishment enough ! Product placement - BOAC airlines.

Back in the late 1960's, Birmingham's canal network was in sad decline - with more miles of canals than Venice, this undemanding story with tracks sung by Cliff had a reasonable story-line, but the REAL star is the City of Birmingham itself.Since the film was made, the canal network has been given the respect it deserved and is now a working waterway, with new developments at Gas Street Basin (behind the 'Brumburger' shop) a testament to the regeneration. Since the 70's, Birmingham is probably unrecognisable, with many of the modern buildings shown already replaced.The cast worked well, but it was often painful watching the Fox hunting scenes (now a banned activity) and seemingly added only to add some 'english quaintness' for non-native viewers.

i was introduced to 'take me high' by a friend and avid cliff fan. i was sceptical at first but soon got absorbed by the plot and songs and as i herald from Birmingham i found the scenery of 'yesteryear' Brum just hypnotic. the 'Jiggedy Jaggedy' buildings are still there today! the film has fantastic moments like the hilarious way cliff discovers gas street (by folding a map into 4 pieces)and saying...."gas street!!!" and the Clifftastic 'winning' its just a must.and the way he converts his barge into a floating mansion is superb.great cameos from George Cole and the ever-young Anthony Andrews make this film a must see. Cliffs least known work but surely his best as his great voice and zany personality shine through.i only wish there was a Brumburger in real life as it looks lovely!!Michael

This is the sort of film to watch in a crowd with a cruel sense of humour. Can you imagine a travelogue of Birmingham? With musical numbers? You don't have to, because TMH does it for you. The song that stays with me to this day is 'Brumburger!'. Really, if Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder hadn't got 'Springtime For Hitler', 'Take Me High' would have done the trick. Beyond kitsch, beyond parody, beyond belief.