Birmingham is What I Think With - ACE226.5

Something tossed into canal. Fisher VO says that one could live one’s whole life without ever thinking to ask if Birmingham had any rivers. Fisher says that discovering that other major cities centred on rivers was strange for him. He wasn’t aware of Birmingham actually having any, though they are there. Canal scenes. Fisher on grass ridge. His VO "The dark river mothered the Black Country". Landscapes, vegetation, streams, derelict factory, water channels, following the courses of the Tame and the Rae. Fisher carrying his door. Sound over (music and commentary [voice of Dylan Thomas]) from When We Build Again. Black and white film from 1940s and earlier. Fisher VO suggests that his thinking about cities and his experience of them is of itself a kind of poetry. Fisher stands by his door, trying to thumb a lift. His VO says he doesn’t live in a literary world or mix much with writers and critics, and has no sense of a peer group. When We Build Again. Film of girls in a playground. Jazz group. Music continues over scenes of Sikh crane-driver, scrap metal being picked up by electro-magnet. Jazz group. Night scenes in the city and on the main roads. Fisher VO "Wastes of distant darkness, and a different wind out of the pit". Credits.