Created in Birmingham

In January this year we introduced and thanked the first few CiB Supporters.

Congratulations were given to Raphael Selbourne for winning the 2009 Costa First Novel Award and we came across The Music Quarter, a new music blog.

Hustle made the move to the Midlands, we had a giggle with Kipple and the Emerging Festivals Fund was announced, with some of the fruits of that being revealed towards the middle part of the year. Leftfoot started their 10th birthday celebrations and our most popular post of the year was published.

Ian joined the CiB team, we got the first glimpse of WeVee and plans were announced for the CiB shop

We also waved hello to Jane Anderson, Mark Wilkinson, Lucy Pryor, Phill Blake, Helen Flanagan, Sarah Lynch, Jade Sukiya, Jodi Ann Bickley, Leon Sparkes and Luke Halliley.

We also said farewell to Neil Farrington.

Merry Christmas from one and all at Created in Birmingham!

To be honest, I’d be surprised if anyone is reading this (and to be even more honest, I wrote this a few days back anyway) but, in case it’s timely, here are a few things on TV that you might be interested in today:

• Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Cinderella, BBC2 at 3pm
• Best of European Opera 2010 (ft Birmingham Opera Company’s Othello), BBC4 at 7pm

Screen WM have done a round-up of the festive stuff they’ve been involved in, including The Brothers McLeod’s The Moon Bird (Christmas Day, 12.40am on Channel 4 – oh, bit late for that, sorry), the new series of Upstairs Downstairs (Boxing Day, 9pm on BBC 1), Toast (30 December, 9pm on BBC 1) and, later on in January, the return of Hustle.

If you’ve got some vouchers burning a hole in your pocket then Soulboy and Nativity are out on DVD.

On the radio side of things, Robin Valk’s Handsworth Evolution will be played on 30 December on BBC WM.

There was a film crew at the bottom of my road the other morning. I’m not sure what they were filming (it was Doctors last time) but there are a few crews filming in the city at the moment. Hustle‘s back and Helena Bonham Carter Carter keeps being spotted in Kings Heath minding her own business/filming Toast.

However, it’s the no-budget Turbulence that’s swamped my Twitter stream over the past couple of weeks:

TURBULENCE is a Musical Romantic Comedy. The project is a collaboration between the actors David Alwyn, Adrian Banks, Emma Devereaux, Connor Mills, Shay O’Driscoll and Sophie Waller (all recent graduates of Birmingham School of Acting) and BAFTA award winning producer/director team Natasha Carlish and Michael B Clifford. Other exciting collaborators in the project are Adam Regan and the Hare & Hounds, The Scholars and Katy Pryce

There’s no particular budget for the film but it’s great to see how many people have pitched in to get the thing filmed.

Things are being documented diligently on their blog, so have a browse through. There’s likely to be scope for getting involved if you fancy it – a Twitter search for #turbulencefilm should keep you up to date on that.

There’s been a spate of Birmingham sightings on primetime TV recently. Partly this is due to some efforts by Screen WM (and others, I imagine) to get some more filming done up here, partly it’s due to the fact that there are some darn fine restaurants in the city these days.

The new series of Hustle started on Monday and featured a bunch of local sights from around the Colmore BID – Metro, Hotel du Vin and One Victoria Square (according to the BPo).

Next week the same area will be sporting a slightly different look for the new series of Survivors.

Over on Channel 4, Lasan is doing rather well having reached the final of Gordon Ramsey’s The F Word. Unfortunately the consensus on Twitter last night seemed to be that their chef was a bit of a pillock. Incidentally, Warwick Uni have a Lasan cookbook featuring healthy versions of various South Asian dishes which you can download for free.

The latest episode of Hustle is on the iPlayer here for the next few days and is on every Tues for the next little while. Survivors is on BBC 1 on 12 January and the big final of the F Word is on Channel 4 on Thurs at 9pm.

Following a recent announcement that BBC’s drama ‘Survivors’ will relocate to the West Midlands, Screen WM has announced today that  they are investing  in the next series of Kudos Film and Television’s major international TV drama, Hustle.

The investment means that Hustle will relocate to Birmingham, and the city will provide a new backdrop for the drama which is broadcast across the world. This is a major coup for the city and forms part of a wider strategy by Screen WM to secure and create a more sustainable screen media sector in the West Midlands. The series will bring an estimated £1.2 million into the regional economy and will provide jobs for local crew.

The Hustle team are due to move to Birmingham and will be living in the city for the duration of the filming. In addition to financial investment, Screen WM have played a significant role in attracting the new series of Hustle to the West Midlands, working closely with Film Birmingham, providing locations and crew support. The producers were attracted to the West Midlands on the basis of the region’s diverse locations, excellent facilities and experienced crew.

Simon Crawford Collins, Joint Managing Director of Kudos said: “We are hugely excited about Hustle’s move to Birmingham.  It’s a transformed city whose cool new locations have rarely been used for TV dramas and we will hope it will become a hub for Kudos’s output for many years to come.”