Birmingham City Council scored a blooming success this week, winning gold at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show's Great Pavilion Awards.

Birmingham presented a floral tribute based on iconic city features such as the bull outside the Bullring shopping centre and its Longbridge-based car industry – represented at the flower show by an iconic Mini. Sir Michael Caine, star of legendary 1960s crime caper The Italian Job, is said to have sought out the display after seeing it on TV. Not a lot of people know that…