'I learned my trade in the Black Country and love it' - Birmingham comedy legend Jasper Carrott reflects on the area that made him after turning 80

However, speak to the man and he’ll tell you that his formative years as a comic were not actually spent in Birmingham, but in an area on the outskirts of the city.

Jasper Carrott has been reflecting a lot on his career and his life as he has turned 80, a career which has seen him performing as a comedian for 56 years across stage and screen, be the star of The Detectives with Robert Powell and be behind the company which produced Who wants to be a Millionaire, as well as helping launch the career of a certain Peaky Blinder.

He's currently on a national tour with impressionist Alistair McGowan, which included a sold-out show at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, and is still working and entertaining.

He said that when he started out as a comedian, his stomping grounds were in Liverpool, as well as all over the Black Country and into Wolverhampton, something he says really helped influence his comedy.

He said: “Funnily enough, I was talking to somebody in an interview about this the other day and said that I didn’t really work Birmingham very much at all in the first five or six years of my career.

“My humour comes from two sources: Liverpool, particularly the Mersey as I used to do a lot of work up there, and the Black Country, both areas where I learned and did my trade.

“My formative years were in clubs in places like Smethwick and Oldbury, Tettenhall and Codsall and Kingswinford and Lower Gornal and the area was massive for me as I was always up there doing folk clubs as the people loved the humour.”

Jasper said he would be the first person to defend the region if people made disparaging comments about it and said that while he took the mickey out of places like Wolverhampton, it was out of a great fondness for the place and for the people in and around the Black Country.

He also said that being from the West Midlands, which had been such a fertile ground for talent, including Sir Lenny Henry, Jeff Lynne and Ozzy Osbourne, helped to promote an area he felt was sometimes afraid to show itself off.

He said: “If I said that I was really influenced by somewhere like Smethwick, people would be asking me which country it was from.

“Birmingham and the Black Country has always been the subject of jokes, which is fair enough, particularly the accent, but unfortunately, someone once asked me what disturbs me about Birmingham and I just said it’s the lack of confidence in Brummies.

“With them, and people in the Black Country, I think they’re just a bit wary that people find their accent funny and they come from this sort of grimy industrial background, something which people still associate the Midlands with, which is totally opposite to what is happening.

“Birmingham is a thriving community, with 72 per cent of the workforce being 27 and under and it’s a very intelligent workforce which is much admired by people in London and whenever HS2 is built, it’ll see Birmingham be seen as a suburb of London as you’ll only take 45 minutes to get there.

“The future is very rosy, but trying to get that through to people in Birmingham and the Black Country is very difficult.”

That passion for Birmingham and the Black Country for Jasper has come from years of performing and being an advocate for the area, particularly as a Birmingham City supporter and director, and having his own star on the Birmingham walk of fame, something he admitted was pretty cool to have, as well as a West Midlands Metro tram named after him.

His own life has been one filled with moments over his 56 years as a comic, from performing on stage to having a Top 10 hit with “Funky Moped”, and having hit TV shows like Canned Carrott and the Detectives, where he appeared as bungling DC Bob Louis.