The career of Birmingham’s film knight, Sir Michael Balcon, is being celebrated on Saturday in Birmingham City University’s new Media Centre called Parkside. This free event is called Into The Light and highlights his connections to his home city.

The Ealing films produced by Sir Michael are admired the world over, but which one would you choose as a favourite? Here are selections from a few well-known fans.

* Jim Crace, Birmingham novelist who is shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize for Harvest, chooses The Ladykillers directed by Alexander Mackendrick in 1955. He says: “There wasn’t a dud among the Ealing comedies, the films of my childhood.

“I’d happily sit through every one of them again but if you twisted my arm to name my favourite, I’d go for the crime capers.”

* Janice Connolly, alias Mrs Barbara Nice, Birmingham housewife and comedienne, and shortly to appear in the Birmingham Rep’s version of Tartuffe, selects Dance Hall, directed by Charles Crichton in 1950.

She says: “Lovely frocks and shoes. Bit of a daft story about factory girls Diana Dors and Petula Clarke getting away from it all at the local palais de danse. It really catches the atmosphere of a good Friday night out ‘up the palais’!”

* Jonathan Coe, Birmingham novelist who is speaking at the Birmingham Literature Festival this week about his new novel, Expo 58, plumps for Dead of Night, from 1945 directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, Robert Hamer, Charles Crichton and Basil Dearden.

He says: “This is a compilation of horror stories, filmed by some of the finest British directors of the 1940s. It culminates in the famous sequence in which Michael Redgrave excels as a ventriloquist taken over by his demonic dummy.”

* Brian Travers, UB40 saxophonist, arranger and lyricist, opts for Whisky Galore! from 1949 directed by Alexander Mackendrick.

He says: “Whisky Galore! is pure cinematic magic.”

* Robin Valk, music writer and broadcaster, has a special reason for the film he has chosen.

He says: “Dead Of Night still manages to deliver a little frisson at the right moments. My father Frederick Valk played the psychiatrist Dr Van Straaten, who was called on to explain away each of the eerie episodes that house guests recounted during their fateful weekend.’’

* For information on the Balcon event go to https://intothelight2013.eventbrite.co.uk/

Professor Roger Shannon