Thursday 6 April 2023

Telly Savalas looks at UK Cities

In 1981 the British Film Producer Harold Baim made 3 documentry films about British Cities (Birmingham, Aberdeen and Portsmouth) all narrated by the actor Telly (Kojak) Savalas. Originally there were supposed to have been 11 of these short films, but only 3 were ever made. When asked why Telly Savalas?? Baim replied "its a marketing ploy" Baim's short films known as Quota Quickies were originally made for distribution with United Artists films/ features which enabled UA to meet the legal requirements for the minimum number of UK-made productions shown at the cinema. Being as I come from Portsmouth I do find this film quite intriguing and entertainingly quirky.  As Telly says "a time capsule of life in Toooder England" "So long Portsmouth..here's looking at you" he also said "here's looking at you" at the end of Aberdeen and Birmingham so I suspect another Telly catch phrase was in the making there. Old Telly had lots of catch phrases thanks to his character in Kojak "Who loves ya, baby?" and "Cootchie-coo!" "here's looking at you".


Telly Savalas Looks at Birmingham
https://youtu.be/EoHVO1eSMFc
Telly Savalas Looks at Aberdeen
https://youtu.be/WhIyj64TQPg

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