Privilege

First feature by maverick director Peter Watkins, including a range of distinctive local locations

Dir: Peter Watkins UK 1967, 103 mins Cert: PG

This chilling music business satire was the first feature by maverick director Peter Watkins, who had made his name in television with drama-docs The War Game and Culloden, and it stars Paul Jones (of Manfred Mann fame) as Birmingham-boy-turned-pop-messiah Steven Shorter. The film features a range of distinctive local locations, from a memorable opening sequence of fan hysteria in the Town Hall, via a parade down New Street to a bizarre finale in the Birmingham City ground which led to a near-riot during filming.

Fifty years on this one-off screening is a unique chance to see Privilege in Town Hall itself, and will be preceded by appropriately psychedelic DJs and an introduction by author Stephen Glynn (The British Pop Music Film). For a bit of back-story on the film's troubled shoot, check out this Brumpic article.