Remember that TV drama set in Birmingham, where supernatural energy lines met under Spaghetti Junction?

Nobody does. Because when writers Robin French and Kieron Quirke pitched it to the BBC, they were told to relocate it to Wales.

It was never made in the end, but it was just one example of the anti-Midlands sentiment experienced by the writing duo.

But now they hope the tide is turning, after getting a sitcom on air based in Lichfield.

The town is frequently mentioned during the hit BBC3 series Cuckoo, as is Aston Villa Football Club and Birmingham bands such as Dexys Midnight Runners.

And many of the cast, including Greg Davies and Helen Baxendale, are Midlanders.

It has taken 12 years for Robin and Kieron to achieve their ambition of promoting their home city on TV.

The pair first wrote together for the school newspaper at King Edward’s School in Edgbaston – “we ruined it by writing articles in the style of The Day Today” says Robin – and continued professionally after university.

“We really noticed that Birmingham had hardly anything on TV set here,” muses Robin, 34. “It was being missed out.

“So we have always tried to set our sitcoms in the city. But we’d pitch them to producers who would tell us to move them.

“The weirdest moment was when they suggested we move one sitcom to Newport. They thought it would be more likely to get financed by BBC Wales.

“We found that really shocking.

“But I think, with sitcoms like Citizen Khan, that Birmingham is coming back into fashion. When we said we wanted to set Cuckoo in the Midlands, we heard approving noises. I think the tectonic plates are shifting.

“We chose Lichfield after we cast Helen Baxendale and she mentioned that’s where she grew up.”

In Cuckoo, Helen plays Lorna, married to Ken (Greg Davies, from Shrewsbury). They are eagerly awaiting the return of their daughter Rachel (Tamla Kari, from Coventry) from a gap year spent travelling abroad.

She surprises them by bringing back a husband, a hippy called Cuckoo (Andy Samberg). He is every parent’s nightmare – he has no job and a habit of meditating in the nude.

“The idea came about from meeting infuriating people like Cuckoo at parties,” laughs Robin.

“We were very lucky with our cast. Greg is absolutely hilarious and has the best gallery of angry faces.

“We’re delighted with the reception Cuckoo received. It got a record-breaking opening for a comedy on BBC3. I watched the comments on Twitter – it was half an hour of absolute joy, with teenagers saying they were ‘in stitches’.”

Some of Cuckoo’s funniest moments have been musical ones. We were first introduced to Ken and Lorna driving in a car while singing Push It by Salt n Pepa. Then Ken accidentally took an ecstasy tablet and dressed up as Kevin Rowland, complete with dungarees and beret, to dance around to Dexys Midnight Runners.

It has taken three years for Cuckoo to arrive on air. “It’s almost impossible to get anything on screen,” says Robin. “It’s the tiniest gate in the world and so many people want to get through it.”

Robin and Kieron work by coming up with ideas together, then they hand the script to each other like a baton, working alone to add more lines before finishing it together.

But they found themselves adapting to a very different style of writing when their sitcom was bought by an American TV studio.

They worked in Los Angeles for a year on Roommates, screened by ABC in 2009.

“We wrote it for the BBC but it didn’t get over the final hurdle,” remembers Robin. “Then eight years later we got a call from Hollywood saying ‘We love the script, come to LA’.

“I was actually just about to go on stage at Bestival with the band Mr Hudson and The Library. We went to school with him and I played bass. It was the best fun, we made an album, played Glastonbury and toured with Amy Winehouse, but I didn’t earn much so LA seemed the better option.

“We grew up loving Friends, so we wanted to do something like that but based in Britain. Then it got made by US TV and they set it in New York. So what was an attempt to make a British Friends really just became another Friends, only not quite as successful.

“It was a fascinating process, working in Hollywood. They write as teams, so there are 14 writers round a table suggesting jokes.”

Kieron adds: “In many ways it’s easier because it’s not all down to you to come up with the big idea. But the pace is much faster, writing 13 episodes in 16 weeks. It was very useful training.”

Kieron, from Sutton Coldfield, could well be returning to LA as CBS has commissioned a sitcom from him.

“You need to express your own voice from time to time,” he says. “Robin and I get on very well, but there comes a point when you go ‘it would be nice to leave that joke in because I like it’.

“We’ve never fallen out, but it’s a constant process of negotiation.”

Robin, meanwhile, also writes for the theatre. His play Bear Hug was performed at the Royal Court in 2004 and he is currently working on a piece for Birmingham Rep.

Heather Gardener is his Birmingham-set version of Hedda Gabler, replacing 19th century Norway with 1960s Edgbaston.

And he has just won a short film competition held by the British Film Institute for his 15 minute script Crocodile.

“It’s a similar subject to Cuckoo but a very different tone,” explains Robin. “It’s about a headmaster whose daughter goes away on her gap year and is killed by a crocodile. It’s about grief, really.”