Take Me High

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.

The only bearable way to watch this film is to fast forward through all of the songs.So then you can watch George Cole before Minder,Hugh Griffith's overacting like mad and Richard Wattis making the most of his cameo and Anthony Andrews in his first film,before his role in Young Churchill.The brutalist architecture of Birmingham is unspeakably bad,like the film.

This is a shocker. No other word for it. Cliff has certainly grown up since his adolescent efforts of the late 1960s, but what they had by way of innocent charm and boppy numbers then has been replaced here by a ridiculous plot, some serious hamming from Hugh Griffiths, conceivably the worst song I've ever heard in a film - "Brumburger" (the story being set in Birmingham) and a banal dialogue that would test the patience of Mother Theresa. The poster claims there are twelve new songs, but they have neither the weight nor the catchiness to sustain this over-long story that shows the city at it's most architecturally brutal. The assembled cast including a debut appearance from Anthony Andrews and some mischief from veteran George Cole just make it worse. The story is all over the place, and the direction seems uncertain as to whether this is a piece of entertainment or a series of video-guides of the city's rather grim urban landscape - either way it really is quite a struggle. Sorry, but even his most ardent fans must appreciate that this is a poor film on just about every front.

This is not the best known of Cliff Richard's films, but personally I like it very much. Cliff plays an ambitious young businessman helping a girl who lives on a narrow-boat to start her own restaurant. Deborah Watling is charming as the young chef, and George Cole and Hugh Griffith provide strong comic support, with Anthony Andrews suitably suave as Cliff's rival. The songs are good, especially the title song Take Me High. The most striking thing about the film though is the Birmingham location, i don't think there are many films set in Birmingham, and I imagine very few musicals, possibly this film is unique in that respect. Birmingham is not the most picturesque of cities, but this film shows it in quite an attractive light, especially the canal scenes. Altogether this is a charming film.

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.