Telly Savalas’ Seldom Seen British Travelogs from the 1980s
In the 1980s, Hollywood legend and Kojak star, Telly Savalas voiced a series of promotional films made to boost the fortunes of three very different British cities – Aberdeen, Birmingham and Portsmouth.
Each of these cities was undergoing major changes and it was hoped the films would promote each one as “a city of the future.” Telly Savalas Looks at Aberdeen captured the “Texas of the North” during its oil boom, while Telly Savalas Looks at Birmingham looked at life in the post-industrial “workshop of the world,” and Telly Savalas Looks at Portsmouth examined the great sea-faring port.
The films were produced by Harold Baim, king of the quota quickies – short features originally intended to help stimulate the flagging British film industry – which ran as B-movies in local cinemas.
Each of these shorts captures a delightful period charm, even, if Savalas was enthusing about a world of oil rigs, concrete shopping malls, tower blocks and newly built freeways.
Bonus clip – Telly Savalas sings…kind of…