Black Country

Come on now.

We're in the black country, guys.

We're in them.

Let's set our sights for something a little bit better.

I fucking love you, black country.

But let's set our sights for something better.

OK, something bigger and something bigger and better is going to come on the other end of all my reflections that I am dealing with right now.

You know, and I think it also growing up in it as a kid, it gives you a confidence boost.

So I was born in the black country and kind of raised between the black country and Birmingham, which are like twin cities, basically.

You know, it takes about 20 minutes to get from one city to the next.

And, you know, it's quite a small working class kind of place, really, in comparison to, you know, it's not like New York City.

know? I noticed Christine Perfect, otherwise known as Christine McVie, her first band Chicken Shack was out of Birmingham, which I had no idea where that was from.

Yeah, Stan Webb.

A couple of members of ELO, you know, Roy Wood, Black Country, Slade.

I don't know if we mentioned them, one of my favorite bands.

However, it would not be Wolverhampton Wanderers without our most famous and notorious A, Albion, comma, West Bromwich.

And obviously when we meant to record this episode, we were off the back of a very dazzling 1-0 victory in the Black Country Derby.

That now feels like a beloved childhood memory.

However, what a win for the Wolves it was, Luke.

I did like...

We'll go off irony and back onto topic.

What I really enjoyed is Sean Neve came on for like five minutes in the Black Country Derby.

Sean Neve did nothing, right, apart from I just saw him in the corner wrestling one of the Albion players to the ground.

The latest statistics published by the Office for National Statistics last week cover the 12 months from July 2025 to June 2026 and reveal a mixed picture of crime across the region.

West Midlands Police, which covers Solihull, Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country, has reported reductions in several serious categories of offending.

According to the force, serious youth violence involving knives fell by more than 11% to 264 recorded offences while residential burglaries decreased by almost 8% to 8,672.

Robbery fell by just under 1% to 6,600 offences while vehicle crime decreased by 0.5% to 23,750 offences.

It's all about you.

Black Country Extra.

This

is the Flossel Club with Norman Bartlam and Bob Downing.

And we speak to former players and supporters about their memories of our marvellous club.

I think it is marvellous anyway.

But as usual, I'm in the studio of Black Country Radio Extra at Maryhill.

And I'm not alone, because sitting alongside me, as always, is the man who, according to the Sports Argus anyway, his form rate was always excellent.

And I learned very early on from the writer and director of these pantomimes.

So basically what they did was that it was a company that would tour around sort of the West Midlands, Birmingham, Black Country area.

But they would go to, say, the really small sect communities, you know, places like Smallheath, Cradley, uh bilston wolverhampton and and go to say like the working men's clubs or the social clubs you know the miners clubs miners welfare all those kind of places and it was a way of bringing theater to maybe an audience that can't afford the big tickets that say like the big number one venues like the Birmingham Hippodrome or you know down here in Southampton the Mayflower you know the theatre tickets have always been expensive but for a family to go see something like a pantomime it costs a fortune and so we were trying to bring theatre to communities and this was something where the establishments like the pubs the clubs they would pay for it and then they decided whether they wanted to ticket it or they wanted to just let the bar pay for it and it made me understand and realize the impact that doing something like performing live theater no matter the scale no the knock-on effect it can have on the people that are watching and predominantly it was families it was it was children And it was being able to give them that opportunity of entertainment and escapism.

But we don't have to spend a ridiculous amount of money in order to find that escapism.

Yes.

And I have, have, have, have, have and am from the Black Country, so have a very different accent to you.

So can I do an impression of your accent? Is that right? No? Have I just lost everyone?

And you've just offended every person on the

I'm just a woman

from the black country.

Just a woman.

Do you have a...

I don't know what one is, but do you have a typical black country sense of humour? Because I've been looking up popular...

There was a comedian called Dolly Allen who was very, very famous from the black country.

She was sort of like the first lady of black country humour until you came along, obviously, because she died a long time ago.

But what is a typical black country sense of humour?