Airport unveils Icons Wall featuring famous Brummies
BBCOzzy Osbourne, UB40 and the Peaky Blinders will be greeting passengers travelling through Birmingham Airport as a new Icons Wall has been revealed.
The famous faces feature on the mural which also includes Peaky Blinders' writer Steven Knight, comedian Jasper Carrott, chef Glynn Purnell, Paralympian Ellie Simmonds and the late poet Benjamin Zephaniah.
Carrott said it was an unexpected but pleasant surprise to be included on the artwork, which has been created near to the airport's security check in.
"I'm in there with UB40, Steven Knight and Black Sabbath, whom so many of them are my personal friends, we've come to notoriety all together," he said.
The dedicated mural pays homage to sports, arts and culture and heritage as well as talent from the city and region.
"If people go past and they recognise you and they start talking about you, then it's good for your career, but I'm 81 now, for crying out loud," Carrott joked.
"It's wonderful being a part of the West Midlands history, particularly with all these people here who are incredibly talented," he added.
Al Titterington, operations director at Birmingham Airport, said staff always wanted to honour notable Brummies.
"After the passing of Ozzy Osbourne there was a clamour to rename the airport but we always had a sense in our heads of creating a centre piece and his passing accelerated our thinking.
He continued: "We asked our colleagues 'who do you think should be part of our Icons Wall?' and we had a plethora of nominations.
"This is what we've come up with, in terms of the faces and the icons who are on there, some which have been contributing to decades, some in more recent in times."
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