Balsall Heath on Film

In 1973 writer Tara Prem spent a few weeks in Balsall Heath researching possible stories, and after visiting the cinema she was inspired to write a script about a young film-fan who gets to meet the fictional star Shalini.

This became the half-hour drama A Touch of Eastern Promise, partly filmed at the Imperial on Moseley Road and broadcast on the BBC in 1973. Jaswant Sidhu ran the cinema at the time, and his son Amarjit helped to arrange locations and made a brief cameo appearance. Today he’ll be revisiting the film and talking about his memories of the Imperial.

This event will also include a first opportunity to see a more recent portrait of B12. Spirit of Balsall Heath was commissioned by the National Trust as part of ongoing work by a coalition of organisations working to secure the long term future of Moseley Road Baths and made by locally based filmmaker Rachel Gillies.