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My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding
Big Fat Gypsy Weddings
2010 · TV series · documentary · 60 min episodes · 2 seasons
Big Fat Gypsy Weddings is a British documentary series broadcast on Channel 4, that explores the lives and traditions of several Irish Traveller families as they prepare to unite one of their number in marriage. The series also featured Romanichal in several episodes, and has been criticised for not accurately representing England’s Romani and Travelling community. It was first broadcast in February 2010 as a one-off documentary called My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, filmed as part of the Cutting Edge series and voted Most Groundbreaking Show in the Cultural Diversity Awards 2010. A series of 5 episodes were later commissioned, and the series first aired in January 2011. A second series began airing in February 2012. A third series was not made, rather the show ended with six stand-alone specials.
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2 comments on Hacker News
Many comments here are along the lines of: "we have ... gypsies ... here too and they are called ...".
I recently visited a museum in (Kingston upon) Hull - 'ull. The Streetlife one. A wall board managed to describe most of the wandering tribes hereabouts (UK and Éire), where they hail from, their modus operandi, a brief history and how to refer to them with a fair chance of not causing offence. I had no idea that Roma and Romany were not the same thing ... well it hadn't crossed my bows.
That is probably most people's approach - largely indifference and a fair dose of what is effectively racism - passive but nonetheless ... racist.
There are several TV series here eg "My big fat gypsy wedding" and some serious documentaries that are educating us and at least shining a light on travellers and travelling societies. The interplay between staid society and travelling societies has always been a tricky one. I think the world would be a much poorer place without travellers.
My house overlooks a park - its on the side of a valley. Our garden has a 40' drop to the lawn, with a zig zag path down. An urban stream (Dodham Brook, Yeovil, Somerset, UK) runs along the bottom. On the other side of the stream is the QEII meadow - about an acre of flatish ground, with a cafe at one end.
For a couple of years a bunch of travellers have rocked up on the meadow - Irish. I think. Their boy trotted his pony and trap up the path of the old railway line (long gone - cheers Mr Beaching) for a few quid. They repaired some cars and sat around a fire, long into the night. Funny thing is that late night noise went down. My new neighbours simply fitted in. All they left was some scorch marks on the grass, which was better than the twats who allowed a barbie to set fire to the meadow. There are some concrete BBQ stands less than 50m away.
So I really try not to be judgemental and I feel a bit bad saying this, but I don't have a single good thing to say about Gypsies and I've never met someone who has. At least about the ones you see in the UK.
They are a huge problem in the city where I went to University, constantly draining police resources to deal with petty crime. Everyone I've talked to in front of house roles absolutely hated dealing with them as well, if not stealing they always seem to find hair in something and so get a refund or a discount.
Where I grew up they caused huge problems when they moved camping ground, draining council resources and never clearing up after themselves. They left huge piles of litter in the most beautiful countryside spots.
There is an interesting documentary about UK Gypsies called 'Big Fat Gypsy Weddings', it's worth a watch if you're interested in that sort of thing. http://www.channel4.com/programmes/big-fat-gypsy-weddings
Edit: And I don't like the 'well you must be racist if you think this' comments here.