Flatpack

 

Cert: U

 

We’ve already highlighted the role played by local boy Charlie Hall in the work of Laurel and Hardy, but the boys also visited the city themselves a number of times, performing in Birmingham at the height of their fame in 1932 and then later on when their film careers had begun to wane. After a gig at the Aston Hippodrome it was the Bartons Arms where they bedded down for the night – an opulent Victorian boozer which also welcomed Caruso and Chaplin over the years – so it’s only fitting that we return there today. John Ullah, Grand Sheik of the Sons of the Desert’s Birmingham ‘tent’ and author of a new book on Charlie Hall, will be giving a talk and we’ll also have a medley of the duo’s finest two-reel moments.