Continuing the good work of Telly Savalas (who famously made an iconic 1981 promo video for Birmingham, despite never actually setting foot in the place), comedian Joe Lycett’s latest mission is to evangelise about his hometown, aka the UK’s second biggest city. It turns out there are 17 Birminghams in America plus one in Canada, so the camp activist/prankster-turned-painter sets off on a month-long road trip to try and visit them all, driven around in a big tour bus by a man called Randy (of course he is). 

The city’s actual lord mayor endorses the expedition, even supplying a faux-serious NATO-style agreement for all the Birminghams to sign. ‘I feel just like Condoleezza Rice!’ squeals Lycett as he packs his suitcase. Laden with pork scratchings, Ryvita, police whistles and Barbara Cartland novels (all made in Birmingham, apparently), Lycett meets bat handlers, bacon enthusiasts and LARPers en route.

Cue jokes about Ozzy Osbourne and that bat-biting incident, weapon trivia (Birmingham has a long history of gun manufacturing, did you know), and innuendo about a town called Intercourse. As Lycett cavorts around the country, napping on his Cat Deeley cushion and blasting Duran Duran as he goes, we spot Amish residents travelling by horse and carriage, discover exactly why Margaret Thatcher once autographed a hotdog bun in one of the American Birminghams, and learn about ‘Birminghamsters’: that’s Michigan speak for a Brummie. 

The project brings to mind Dave Gorman’s ambitious America Unchained, with shades of Louis Theroux’s boyish questioning style, only more mischievous and smutty. Lycett slides in some socio-economic commentary among the seaside humour, striving to find American commonalities with Birmingham’s underdog, industrial character. The first couple of episodes veer toward the absurd and entertaining rather than hard-hitting political insight, Lycett playing it more as innocent bystander rather than probing investigator; for example, when he visits a gun shop and listens sagely as the shopkeeper talks about an 80-year-old woman from his bible-study group that was a recent customer. 

It’s certainly fun watching Lycett prat around in colourful Irregular Sleep Pattern shirts and tie dye two-pieces, hearing him ask folks in a diner if they have heard of Alison Hammond, or spread the fake news that Richard Hammond is her brother. Joe Lycett is uniting the States of Birmingham, one Cadbury’s chocolate bar at a time.

Joe Lycett’s United States Of Birmingham starts on Sky Max, Tuesday 22 April.