gypsy travellers tv series

10 great films about Gypsies and Travellers

Jonas Carpignano’s The Ciambra, about a young boy growing up in an Italian Romani community, is one of the rare films about the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community that avoids stereotypes of criminality or mysticism. Here are 10 other films and TV shows that honestly show the vibrant culture of the GRT community.

Jonas Carpignano ’s new film  The Ciambra  is a neorealist fable about a young boy growing up in the Italian region of Calabria, part of a secluded neighbourhood of Romani people. In a nation where highly publicised hate crimes against Gypsies and Travellers have been relatively recent, The Ciambra looks at the mistrust with which the GRT (Gypsy, Roma and Traveller) community regards the rest of society. As the young protagonist Pio’s grandfather tells him: “It’s us against the world.”

When it comes to depictions of the GRT community in cinema, the feeling can be pretty similar. Travellers frequently find themselves stuck between invisibility or ridicule, and as in real life, misunderstandings about them abound. Romani people are stateless, but have been living for generations in Europe and Great Britain; Irish Travellers are Celtic (‘Pavee’) in origin – all suffer endemic poverty, social exclusion and open discrimination.

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In some ways, it might be easier to write a list of films wholly ignorant of the travelling communities they portray – in the UK , for example, the obnoxious ‘reality television’ series and films that turn travellers into punchlines or employ racial epithets. Still, some films and filmmakers have sought to counter the popular narratives of their people as criminals or mystics. Their work has run the gamut from abstract fiction to harrowing documentary; they have depicted Eastern European slums and modern travellers’ camps in Essex.

Some of the filmmakers showcased below offer honest and diverse portrayals of their own Gypsy communities; all of them attempt to purge centuries of collective myth-making that obscure a vibrant culture.

Sky West and Crooked (1966)

Director: John Mills

Sir John Mills ’ pastoral drama  Sky West and Crooked  is an open-minded portrayal of the travelling community in rural Britain. Its central focus is an oddball romance between Brydie ( Hayley Mills ), a troubled West Country teenager, and Roibin ( Ian McShane ), a broodingly handsome young man from a nearby travellers’ site.

Examining small-town prejudice and siding firmly with its two outsiders, Mills’ film intelligently portrays the mistrust between the settled community and the travellers and underlines how foundational fear of the unknown is when it comes to racism. Kids under the age of 10 parrot that they’re “scared of gyppos”, clearly never having interacted with anyone outside their country village. With poignant empathy and a smattering of real Romani words, Mills’ film attempts to bridge the gap between communities in a heartening way. Considering this was made in the 1960s, it’s shocking how few British films since have come with such a progressive perspective.

I Even Met Happy Gypsies (1967)

Director: Aleksandar Petrovic

Aleksandar Petrovic’s  I Even Met Happy Gypsies  has the distinction of being one of the earliest internationally released features to be made in the Romani language. Because of the tendency of nomadic people to pass down culture orally, it’s a language that has long struggled to be recognised and written into the annals of linguistic history.

Soundtracked by genuine Gypsy melodies and unafraid of depicting the shocking poverty of isolated traveller sites around what was then Yugoslavia,  Petrovic ’s story is one of small-time dramas and family machinations, filmed with a heightened black and white realism that gives it a stylised documentary feel. The subject matter, too, is ultimately fitting – ritualised courtship, elopements, domestic strife and a girl seeking to escape the cruelty of a domineering stepfather – all feel deeply relevant to the close-knit, family-oriented Traveller community.

Where Do We Go from Here? (1969)

Director: Philip Donnellan

This  short documentary  comes in at just around the 60-minute mark, but its activist intentions are as vital today as they were almost a half-century ago when they were filmed. This BBC doc attempts to shed light on the enigmatic lifestyles of British Travellers, particularly at a time when more traditional nomadic habits were being displaced by an increasingly industrialised nation and pressure to find a fixed abode.

Director  Philip Donnellan  was a documentary filmmaker for the BBC for decades, making dozens of films on the struggles of the working class and with a particular interest in GRT issues. He allows generous time in his film for insightful interviews with his subjects, many of whom still maintain prominent family names in contemporary English Traveller society. At a moment in the 20th century when questions about alternative ways of living were becoming increasingly germane, this film turns a fresh eye to the ethnically nomadic people who had been populating Britain for hundreds of years.

Angelo My Love (1983)

Director: Robert Duvall

Robert Duvall ’s overlooked  feature  stars a young New Yorker that the director had a chance encounter with on the street. The boy’s street-smart manner belied his age, and Duvall was intrigued to learn that the kid – Angelo Evans – came from a cloistered enclave of Romani people.

The loose narrative of the film focuses on a stolen family heirloom, but this is a thin premise for a vérité romp through the chaos of the real Angelo’s life, featuring actual friends and family along the way. His rough-and-tumble and often comical interactions – not to mention his light hustling – are captured with a pseudo-documentary style. Swirling around old-fashioned values of the community – family pride, masculine honour and the like – Duvall makes a surprisingly ethnographic character study out of his collection of on screen incidents.

Time of the Gypsies (1988)

Director: Emir Kusturica

As Serbia’s arthouse director du jour,  Emir Kusturica  has dealt glancingly with the Romani community in Eastern Europe for many years. Often, this is in the mode of magical realism, which presents certain questions about the superstition around Gypsy people, and the claptrap associations with the mystical attributed to them.

Time of the Gypsies  doesn’t help much on that front: its main character, the bespectacled Perhan, is telekinetic. But what Kusturica lacks in cliché-busting he makes up for in other ways: he is masterful in his tragi-comic sensory overload-style depiction of Traveller life. Squawking chickens, muddy-faced children and noisy encampments seem to overwhelm the characters within, and their response to that impoverishment is what one might expect: denigration, crime and outright begging on the street. The magical powers might be a foolhardy touch, but the rest of the picture is unfortunately accurate.

Latcho Drom (1993)

Director: Tony Gatlif

Tony Gatlif – a prolific European Romani filmmaker who almost exclusively makes films in the Romani language – perfectly married form and content in this  French film . Its title means ‘safe journey’, referring to the fabled ancient migration of Romani people from India into the nations of Europe. The film is a quasi-historical documentary that meets with the far-flung Romani diaspora in various countries and examines their cultural practices and differences.

Brilliantly,  Gatlif  employs no voiceover or interviews for his non-fiction film, using traditional music and dance to evoke the moods and impressions of the people on screen. “Why does your mouth spit on us?” croons a female Gitano singer sorrowfully, bringing back the centuries of discrimination, enforced sterilisation and holocaust brought upon her people. It’s a moment that speaks for itself in reverberative, literal terms.

Pavee Lackeen (2005)

Director: Perry Ogden

Perry Ogden’s gentle  fiction film  is about a real Irish Traveller girl and her family, as they stop on an unfriendly roadside outside Dublin. Ogden underlines the stark contrast between the Maughan family’s trailer and the lights and colours of contemporary urban life in Ireland. Since the governments of both the UK and Ireland regularly fail to allocate legal sites for Travellers to stay in, they are often forced to camp illegally on roadsides and lay-bys.

There’s no judgement in  Ogden ’s gaze, and he charts the frequent misunderstandings between the travelling and settled communities with real sensitivity. The community officers and various bureaucracies may want the family to integrate, but there’s a refusal to see that it may mean the Maughan family would be subsuming their ethnic identity as a result. Yet the safety and continued education of the children in the family is of concern, and so Pavee Lackeen offers a measured look at both sides.

Knuckle (2011)

Director: Ian Palmer

Ian Palmer’s  documentary  was over a decade in the making as he gained intimate access to two Irish Traveller families locked in a series of violent feuds.  James Quinn McDonagh  is the central protagonist of the tale – a bare-knuckle Gypsy champion with a shaved head and solemn features. A rival clan, the Joyces, have a long-held hatred of the McDonaghs over an old brawl that landed one family member in prison and another dead.

Knuckle may not do much to quell stereotypes of Irish Travellers as belonging to a violent, honour-driven society deeply in thrall to old-style masculinity, but Palmer, trusty with a handheld camera, does present the reality of what he sees: engaging, brutal and sometimes bizarrely funny. There’s a real failure to more pressingly get to the heart of what drives these bare-knuckle fights – or to truly understand the families of the men who go through this primitive, trying behaviour repeatedly. As bitter a pill as it is for some to swallow, the iron-clad tradition of bare-knuckle boxing in the Traveller community is unlikely to go away anytime soon.

An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker (2013)

Director: Danis Tanović

A Bosnian festival favourite and winner of the Berlinale Grand Jury Prize,  Danis Tanović ’s upsetting  drama  is played out by a non-professional cast who genuinely experienced the events of the film.

Filmed in an unobtrusive style, the title describes Nazif and his wife Senada, who have two children and live on Nazif’s scrap-dealing income. Because of their ethnicity, the two are refused admittance to their local hospital after Senada suffers a miscarriage. They are then forced to undertake a painfully long journey while Senada grows increasingly desperate and in need of medical care. The shocking endemic racism recalls the cruellest days of America’s Jim Crow era, where the Travellers are turned away by the institutions that they are most in need of.

Peaky Blinders (2013-)

Creator: Steven Knight

Although it took a few seasons to fine tune, this historical gangster drama about a gang of vicious British criminals is one of the most accomplished televisual depictions of Traveller history. With its colourful and nuanced set of central characters born of English Traveller blood, it offers something new – anti-heroic, dashing and complicated protagonists from Gypsy stock.

Set in the Black Country of Birmingham in the early 1920s,  Steven Knight ’s series focuses on the Shelby family, a bunch of strapping Romani-born lads who come up out of nothing to build an organised crime empire. Chief among them is the charismatic and coldly feline Tommy Shelby ( Cillian Murphy , whose angular face and cutting blue eyes are put to excellent use here), a shell-shocked First World War veteran who returns to his decrepit hometown with a desire for more.

Featuring Romani language from the second season onward and input – even supporting roles – for actors and writers from this background, Peaky Blinders has an implicit importance that goes far beyond the machinations of its often extravagant criminal plot twists. When someone speaks disdainfully of Tommy’s background, he sarcastically drawls, “I sell pegs and tell fortunes.” This isn’t your romanticised view of Gypsies. If anything, it’s a reminder that English Travellers have been around for a long time, and even back then they were sick of your stereotypes.

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Here Come the Gypsies: Who is Tony Giles?

Find out more about the star of the channel 5 series here.

New Channel 5 series Here Come the Gypsies! is set to reveal the hidden world of Gypsy and Traveller communities/.

MORE:  Viewers are saying the same thing about Stacey Dooley's 'important' new documentary

One of the stars of the show is a familiar face to those who have watched the likes of Gypsys Next Door and My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding . Meet Tony "The Rhino" Giles here...

Tony appears in the new Channel 5 series

The 36-year-old is a respected figure in the community and is the first Gypsy to win a world title in mixed martial arts. These days, Tony uses his background in cage fighting to act as a mediator between warring families within the Gypsy community.

As viewers will see on the show, together with his cousin, Johnny, Tony organises bare-knuckle brawls between the men of the family as a way to resolve their differences.

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Speaking to The Sun , Tony said: "It's in our blood, in our genes, fighting. You get brought up from an early age to protect yourself.  In the Gypsy community, money comes second to fighting and honour. You're a lot more respected being the roughest Gypsy than the richest."

Tony was married to Danielle Mason

Away from his fighting career, Tony has had an off-and-off relationship with former Page 3 girl Danielle Mason for the best part of a decade. Danielle, who is the half-sister of Eastenders'  Kat Slater actress Jessie Wallace, first met the cage fighter back in 2010 and together, they are parents to two children: nine-year-old son Rudy and seven-year-old daughter Delilah.

MORE:  14 soap stars currently planning weddings: Ryan Thomas, Mark Jordan, Louisa Lytton and more

The couple tied the knot in front of the cameras on an episode of My Big Fat Gyspy Wedding back in 2012 . However, they split four years later in 2016, with Tony reportedly disapproving of Danielle's work as a glamour model.

The pair rekindled, which led to Tony proposing for a second time, but they never made it down the aisle for their Harley Quinn and The Joker themed nuptials. According to sources, Danielle broke it off after she noticed Tony's Facebook relationship status still showed him as 'single'.

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Adrian Bower narrates ‘Here Come the Gypsies!’ on Channel 5

The new six part series reveals the hidden world of gypsy and traveller communities.

Here Come the Gypsies! on Channel 5 is revealing the hidden world of Gypsy and Traveller communities – but who is the narrator?

And what are the Romany traditions? Here’s everything you need to know!

Read more:  The Town the Gy psies Took Over on C5: What is the Appleby Horse Fair and why are the police involved?

Who narrates Here Come the Gypsies! on Channel 5?

The narrator of Here Come the Gypsies is actor Adrian Bower.

You may recognise him from Channel 4 drama Teachers which was a big hit in the early noughties.

The now 50 year old played PE and geography teacher Brian Steadman in the first three series.

Most recently he has starred in Love, Lives And Records, The Last Kingdom and Gangs of London.

Here Come the Gypsies! on Channel 5 – what’s it about?

Channel 5’s series is delving into the hidden world of the Gypsy and Traveller communities.

The show delves into their unique traditions and codes to understand how this community survives – and, in fact, continues to thrive.

Who is Tony Giles?

Tony Giles is a Romany Gypsy cage fighter nicknamed ‘The Rhino’.

Episode one centres heavily around him, when he organises a bare-knuckle brawl between two topless men – in full view of cheering young children.

Tony, 36, is a mixed martial arts expert and self-proclaimed ‘Fair Play Man’.

This means he acts as a mediator for disputes between families within the Gypsy community.

Tony is the first ever Gypsy to win a world title in the MMA.

He said about fighting: “It’s in our blood, in our genes; you get brought up from an early age to protect yourself.

“In the Gypsy community, money comes second to fighting and honour.

“You’re a lot more respected being the roughest Gypsy than the richest.”

He has been in trouble with the law for various offences including possession of firearms and a threat to kill.

Is Tony Giles still married to Danielle Mason?

Some may recognise Tony from his nine-year relationship with former glamour model and My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding star Danielle Mason.

Documentary makers followed their relationship on the smash-hit C4 series.

Of course, Danielle Mason is the sister of EastEnders ‘ actress Jessie Wallace.

The pair dated from 2010, and married in 2012.

However, they split in 2016 because he didn’t agree with her job as a glamour model and Page 3 girl.

Despite reuniting, the couple split for good in 2019.

Danielle is now dating reformed Broadmoor prisoner Ben Hatchett.

Ben served time alongside Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe and Stockwell Strangler Kenneth Erskine in Broadmoor.

The 31-year-old walked free from prison in June last year and has turned his life around.

He is now the host of podcast Let’s Be Real and a published author.

Read more:  Big Fat Gypsy Wedding twins found dead in suspected suicide left letter on grandmother’s doorstep

Does Tony Giles have children?

Tony had two children during his on-and-off relationship with Danielle.

The couple share nine-year-old son Rudy and seven-year-old daughter Delilah.

How is Paddy from Big Fat Gypsy Weddings now?

Eight million viewers watched Channel 4’s My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding on Channel 4 in the early 2010s.

The show introduced us to Paddy Doherty.

The larger than life TV personality contracted Covid-19 in January 2021.

The star uploaded a video from his hospital bed wearing breathing apparatus.

The 61-year-old told fans he was “a bit on the weak side… but I’m alive”.

His manager told the Press Association he was taken to hospital after developing pneumonia.

The former Celebrity Big Brother winner said he thought he was “indestructible” but the virus had left him “knocked out for the last couple of days”.

In 2020, he revealed he had been treated for prostate cancer.

Paddy is now back to his chirpy best, and was last seen on Facebook heading to the pub when they opened after lockdown.

Don’t change Paddy!

What are the Romany traditions?

The staple life of a Romany Gypsy includes horse trading, bare knuckle fighting and fortune telling.

Due to their nomadic lifestyle, the Gypsy life is at odds with that of the ‘settled’ community.

There are thought to be over 300,000 Gypsy Roma and Irish Travellers in the UK.

Roma Gypsies are originally from northern India, whereas Travellers are of Irish origin and both groups are nomadic.

Since 2002, Travellers have been recognised as an ethnic group and are protected under the Race Relations Act in the UK.

Being on the road means traveller children often grow up outside of educational systems, and many children never attend school.

The vast majority of travellers are Roman Catholics.

Many Travellers are breeders of dogs such as greyhounds or lurchers and have a long-standing interest in horse trading.

Until they are engaged, some teenage Traveller girls are subjected to the ‘grabbing’ courtship ritual, where a boy grabs a girl they want to kiss.

Couples marry young – girls at around 16 or 17, and boys between 18 and 19. They’re not supposed to marry non-travellers but marriage to second cousins in families is common.

How many episodes is Here Come the Gypsies! and how can I watch them?

Here Come the Gypsies! is a six part series.

The first episode airs on Wednesday April 14 2021 at 9pm on Channel 5.

Subsequent episodes air every Wednesday thereafter.

The final episode is due to go out on May 19 2021.

Here Come the Gypsies! starts on Wednesday April 14 2021 at 9pm on Channel 5.

Do you remember actor Adrian Bower who narrates Here Come the Gypsies! on Channel 5? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix .

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60 Days with the Gypsies (2022)

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Explorer Ed Stafford spends two months with Gypsy and Traveller communities across the country, as he delves beneath the stereotypes and reveals the challenges of living in modern-day Britain.

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Season 1 of 60 Days with the Gypsies premiered on February 7, 2022.

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Here Come the Gypsies!

In South Wales, Romany Gypsy horse dealer Jim `Beb' Price faces his toughest day of the year as he puts on his first-ever horse drive. Meanwhile in Surrey, Romany Gypsy cage fighter Tony 'The Rhino' Giles arranges a bare-knuckle fight.

Romany Gypsy Lee Hughes devises a plan to expand his business by tapping into a lucrative market - treating racehorses. Meanwhile, Lavinia is preparing her daughter Valentina for a glamorous occasion.

In Hampshire, it's the day of the renowned Cooper horse drive, and hundreds of gipsies gather to buy and sell horses and ride out together through the New Forest. Featuring two horse traders from very different backgrounds.

In County Durham, gipsy scrap metal man John finds himself in a tight spot when the falling price of scrap leaves him short of cash to buy a special gift for his baby daughter. He scours the northeast trying to find enough metal.

Horse dealer Beb goes on a midnight rabbit hunt as he needs food to fill the family larder, while Romany housewife Lavinia puts her two-year-old daughter Valentina in her best Gypsy dress and jewellery for a photoshoot.

In Dorset, Romani Gypsy Marie and her brother Leon honour their deceased parents with an ancient and secretive Gypsy ritual. In Redditch, Romani Gypsy Percy and his 18-year-old daughter Rachel set out with their hunting hawks.

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‘Gypsy Kids’ star Ben Bennett takes a stand against racism

Ben Bennett, one of the young stars of the much anticipated Ch5’s new series about Gypsy and Traveller young people which launched earlier this month, has pitched in to support a Gypsy/Traveller anti-race hate campaign.

Ben – who stars in the TV series ‘ Gypsy Kids – Our Secret World’ and talks about becoming a qualified pilot when he gets older – took to Twitter to post  a photograph of himself holding up the logo to ‘Operation Report Hate’ and tweeted:

“Proud to support #operationReportHate #gypsykids my community suffer daily retweet &support @GypsyTravellerM.”

Ben is featured in episode two of the series, produced for Ch5 by TV production company ‘Knickerbockerglory’. The series launched to “relief” from many Gypsy and Travellers who were fearing another ‘Big Fat Gypsy Weddings’ type show.

On the show, Ben and his mum Nathalie talk about the racism and bullying that Ben has faced at the nine schools he has attended, and how Ben is determined to rise above it and realise his dream of becoming a pilot like his Grandad who served in the Royal Air Force in the 1950’s.

Talking to The Traveller’s Times, Ben Bennett said that he felt that the popular TV series – which was watched by 1.6 million viewers – had given him an opportunity to have his voice heard.

“It was fantastic to be involved,” he said.

“It gave me and other Gypsy and Traveller kids an opportunity to show who we really are, and that we are just everyday kids that have the same dreams and aspirations as anyone else.” 

“Since I have been on the program I have received thousands of positive messages wishing me every success for my future.  Some have even said that the program has changed their perception of Travellers to a positive one.”

“I am now enjoying my latest school and the school and the teachers are very supportive and they really want me to succeed, I've also made lots of friends.  Since the program has been on TV it's been very positive for me.”

Ben Bennett said that his past experience of dealing with bullying had prompted him to support Operation Report Hate and he hoped that the campaign would “wake people up” to the hatred and prejudice that many Gypsy and Traveller young people have to face in their daily lives.

“I personally have experienced hate crime and it's horrible, it makes you feel worthless,” he said. 

“This campaign gives an opportunity for my community to stand up to hate crime by reporting it.”

Because of the fall-out from the infamous Ch4 series ‘ Big Fat Gypsy Weddings’ and the promotional ‘Bigger, Fatter, Gypsier’ billboards – two of which were eventually banned by the advertising watchdog - many Gypsies and Travellers where “dreading” the new series on Gypsy and Traveller children when the Traveller’s Times broke the news that it was in production for Ch5.

However, the initial reaction to the series from Gypsy and Traveller campaigners, now that all three episodes have been shown, has been one of “relief”.

Speaking to The Travellers’ Times, Nathalie Bennett – Ben’s mum – said that after talking to the producers of Gypsy Kids, she had taken “a leap of faith” and decided to become involved.

“We became the consultants on the series,” said Nathalie. “The producers did everything they said they would – we were involved in the editing process – and the result has been positive.”

“At the end of the day it worked out, thank God,” said Nathalie.

Nathalie Bennett – who runs a Gypsy/Traveller organisation in the Nottinghamshire area called ‘Gypsylife’ - said that ‘Gypsy Kids’ stood in stark contrast to “certain Ch4 shows in the past,” adding that the ‘Gypsy Kids’ producers presented Gypsy and Traveller children and young people as “resilient and resourceful”.

The Traveller’s Times, who declined to take part in the first series and instead published advice on how to protect yourself when working with TV production companies written by a TV industry insider, contacted Knickerbockerglory TV who said that they were pleased with the reaction to the series.

They added that they took great care of the young people they worked with and even employed a trained psychologist to check on their welfare.

Knickerbockerglory wouldn’t be drawn on whether a second series would be made, but said they were “hopeful”.

The Traveller’s Times will be talking to Ben Bennett about his ambition to become a pilot. Watch this space!

Herceg91's Top 100 Gypsy Movies/Series

1. Time of the Gypsies

2. Who's Singin' Over There?

3. Peaky Blinders

4. Underground

5. The Hunchback of Notre Dame

6. Queen of the Gypsies

7. Army of Shadows

8. Gypsy Magic

9. Big Fish

11. I Even Met Happy Gypsies

12. Touch of Evil

13. Papusza

14. The Man Who Laughs

15. Latcho Drom

16. Notre-Dame de Paris

17. A Cruel Romance

18. Carnivàle

19. Black Cat, White Cat

20. Aferim!

21. It Rains in My Village

22. The Red Violin

23. Ruzové sny

24. Stone Wedding

25. From Russia with Love

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Peaky blinders: the true story behind the shelby family’s romani heritage.

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Peaky Blinders: 5 Historical Facts The Show Gets Right (& 5 It Gets Totally Wrong)

10 characters based on historical figures in peaky blinders, peaky blinders true story: how close america came to allying with hitler.

• Peaky Blinders season 6 explores the Shelby family's Irish-Romani Gypsy heritage, but doesn't fully explain the distinct traditions of the Roma people.
• The Shelbys are specifically of Irish-Romani descent and refer to themselves as Gypsies, but their lifestyle differs from other Gypsy characters in the show.
• The use of the term "Gypsies" in Peaky Blinders is historically accurate, though many Romani people now prefer terms like "Rom" or "Roma."

The Shelby family’s Gypsy heritage plays a large role in Peaky Blinders and is a foundational element of the show’s storyline as well as a defining attribute of many characters – but many viewers still want to know what kind of Gypsy Tommy Shelby is. Tommy Shelby and his kin are Irish-Romani (sometimes spelled Romany) Gypsies, a unique cultural and ethnic group present in Britain since the 1500s. The award-winning Peaky Blinders is directed by Steven Knight and has run for 6 seasons, the most recent hitting U.S. Netflix in June 2022.

Peaky Blinders season 6 delves further into the Shelby family's Irish-Romani Gypsy heritage. However, it doesn't explain much about what makes Roma distinct from other nomadic cultures like Irish and Scottish Travelers. For example, the reasons why Irish-Romani Gypsies don't mention the names of their dead is a uniquely Roma tradition. Many viewers still want to know exactly what kind of Gypsy Thomas Shelby is, as the Peaky Blinders Gypsy connections to real history aren't explained in full.

Peaky Blinders: 5 Things That Are Historically Accurate (& 5 That Aren't)

Peaky Blinders' historical accuracy is a part of what has made the show so popular. But how historically accurate is Peaky Blinders, really?

Where The Shelby Family Comes From

Tommy shelby and his family have irish-romani heritage.

Set in the early 20th century in Birmingham, the Peaky Blinders Gypsy storyline follows the Shelby family through their criminal dealings, detailing their rise from the slums of Small Heath to wealthy, powerful aristocrats with global reach. The Shelbys are specifically of Irish-Romani descent, but they refer to themselves and other Romani with the blanket term “G ypsies ” in the show. Tommy Shelby, the gang’s leader, along with his siblings, Arthur, John, Ada, and Finn, have Irish-Romani heritage on both sides and consider themselves Gypsy.

Their paternal aunt, Helen McCrory’s irreplaceable Polly Gray , is the daughter of “ Gypsy Princess ” Birdie Boswell, and their mother comes from the Lee family. Additionally, several of the important Peaky Blinders Gypsy characters come from the Shelby family’s Gypsy ties like Tommy’s close friend, Johnny Dogs, and Aberama Gold, who is Polly’s love interest and Tommy’s hired assassin. John Shelby's wife, Esme, is also a Romani Gypsy in the show, with her character playing a huge part in Peaky Blinders season 6 because of her Romani heritage and her connection to the Shelby family.

When preparing to begin filming Peaky Blinders in 2013, actor Cillian Murphy said (via Independent ) , “ Steve Knight, the creator of the show, took me to Birmingham, where he's from, to meet his buddies so I could record their accents. I spent time with Romani Gypsies. I learned about extreme poverty .” As with Peaky Blinders' adaptation of the real-life Birmingham gang, the Peaky Blinders, the show reveals much about the Romani heritage and traditions but also takes creative rather large liberties along the way.

Peaky Blinders True Story: How Much Really Happened

Created by Steven Knight, Peaky Blinders is based on a true story but also heavily fictionalized for dramatic purposes. Here's what really happened.

Peaky Blinders Uses Real-Life Romani History

Thomas shelby's gypsy heritage has many true elements.

Because he doesn't live in a wagon in Peaky Blinders, many viewers unfamiliar with Irish-Romani culture wondered if Tommy Shelby really is a Gypsy. He and the Shelbys refer to themselves as such, although they live a notably different life to other Peaky Blinders Gypsy characters in the show. While many Irish-Romani and Roma Gypsies do live in nonstationary settlements, the belief that no Gypsies can have permanent abodes is a misconception. Peaky Blinders' protagonist Tommy Shelby has Irish-Romani Gypsy heritage, but like many real-life Romani families left the nomadic lifestyle several generations before the 1900s.

Of greater significance to the Romani people is living in groups consisting of immediate or extended family. In the early 20th century, the Romani camps would have been covered wagons or vardos (wooden wagons) like in the show. While Peaky Blinders refers to the Romani people as Gypsies, and the term is being reclaimed by contemporary Roma and other traveler communities, it was considered pejorative for many decades. Alina Bradford states (via livescience ) that “ some people consider that a derogatory term ” and points out that many Romani people still refer to themselves as “ Rom ,” “ Roma ,” “ Roman ,” or “ Romany .”

As some fans point out, Peaky Blinders has a history problem, but the use of the term Gypsy isn't a symptom. When the Romani people first distanced themselves from the term “ Gypsies ” is unclear, and it was likely because of the historic persecution associated with that term and its propensity to be used as an umbrella term for all contemporary nomadic cultures. However, in recent years many Romani have started to reclaim the label. The use of the term by both Roma and non-Roma was common at the time of Peaky Blinders, and is historically accurate, even if today its use is still debated even within Romani communities.

Peaky Blinders is a popular crime drama with many fans, and here are a few historical facts the show gets right and a few it takes liberties with.

Is The Gypsy Language In Peaky Blinders Real?

The show made many errors with its portray of irish-romani language.

Peaky Blinders is a British period drama , but it takes some liberties with accuracy like many other entries in this genre, and there are discrepancies in the language spoken by the show’s Romani Gypsies. Throughout the Peaky Blinders Gypsy storyline, Tommy, Aunt Polly, and several other characters speak what they call “ Romani ,” but the language used in the show is a version of Romanian, whereas the Romani people are believed to come from India.

Stephanie Pappas (via livescience ) follows a recent genetic study from Current Biology claiming that the modern Romani people spread across Europe after originally migrating from northwest India, and their language reflects that. Regardless of origin, Peaky Blinders' version of the Romani language takes center stage in Peaky Blinders season 6, episode 1 when Tommy and Lizzie's young daughter, Ruby, becomes ill and begins speaking Romani. When Ruby mutters the Gypsy curse "Tikna Mora O Beng" through her fevered state, the " Gypsy" phrase unsettles Tommy, who believes it to be a threat sent from the beyond.

Tommy Shelby Gypsy Curse: What Was Ruby Shelby Saying In Romani

"tickna mora o'beng" means "devil".

Ruby's words in Peaky Blinders season 6 cause Tommy to insist she wears a charm of the Black Madonna. The words the Peaky Blinders Gypsy Ruby says, " Tickna Mora O'Beng", loosely translates to " devil " in Romani , according to creator Steven Knight ( via Digital Spy ). It didn't matter what Ruby's words meant as far as Tommy was concerned. The fact it was " gypsy stuff" was enough for him to panic. Tommy wasn't raised in a nomadic Gypsy settlement himself, but he shares many of the beliefs. Tommy's paranoid curse superstition when it came to Gypsies was standard for the 1930s, though, even outside of Romani culture.

In the general populace, it was largely based on commonly held racial prejudices. Many believed that the Romani people dabbled in the supernatural. Polly's séances and Grace's cursed necklace would have been seen as legitimate by the majority of everyday people. Of course, there is literally no evidence to support these prejudicial associations with witchcraft, curses, or magic. There's plenty that explains why these stereotypes were so deeply entrenched, though. Historically, Gypsies have often been persecuted and scapegoated for their supernatural ties, and those stereotypes really stemmed from Romani Gypsies being seen as outsiders due to their nomadic way of life.

Peaky Blinders follows the fictional Shelby family's criminal enterprises, but there are some characters who actually existed in real life.

Were The Real Peaky Blinders Romani?

The real peaky blinders gang had a diverse membership.

The Peaky Blinders gang that historically operated in real-life 1920s Birmingham drew men from many cultural backgrounds, including Irish-Romani Gypsies like the Peaky Blinders Gypsy characters. Many Romani Gypsies in the real Peaky Blinders came from an area known as The Black Patch (near modern-day Smethwick). The Black Patch was a huge Gypsy camp in the UK in the early 1900s, but the thousands of residents were forcibly evicted in 1909 to make way for a public park. Unfortunately, the forced "moving on" of Gypsy camps, Romani and otherwise, still happens in the UK and Europe today.

In the time of the Peaky Blinders, many of the thousands of evicted Gypsies from The Black Patch and similar settlements made their way to urban population centers like Peaky Blinders' setting of Birmingham . There they found the abject poverty and squalid conditions that birthed gangs like the Peaky Blinders. However, Tommy Shelby, his family, and other Peaky Blinders Gypsy characters are fictional and were created for the show. It's not known who founded the real Peaky Blinders.

Judging by contemporary newspapers, a man named Thomas Mucklow may have been the first to organize the already-existing clusters of criminal youths under the Peaky Blinders name. There's no evidence that Mucklow was an Irish-Romani Gypsy, however, and Mucklow isn't one of Birmingham's known Gypsy family names (but it is a common English one). The truth is that the real Peaky Blinders were drawn together by the unlivable poverty they shared in the slums of Birmingham in the early 1900s rather than a single ethnic background like the Irish-Romani Shelby family in Peaky Blinders .

Peaky Blinders' Jack Nelson is based the real Joseph Kennedy, and, as the series suggests, America could have become pro-Nazi early in World War II.

Romani Or Otherwise, The Show Got One Thing Right With The Shelby Family

Peaky blinders accurately captured how deadly the real gang was.

The Peaky Blinders Gypsy portryal problems aside, the series did get something right about the Shelby family: the real Peaky Blinders gang was just as deadly. While the show does take a fair amount of historical liberty, it can't be denied that the real Peaky Blinders gang was a force to be reckoned with, and while they may not have been as homogeneously Gypsy as the show depicts, the series does at least portray their level of violence accurately as well as the struggles of the period. The real Peaky Blinders were founded in the working class Small Heath area of Birmingham.

One shocking event that happened in Peaky Blinders season 1 is mirrored in history, as an Irish police officer was called to restore order to the West Midlands, but was held up by corruption among his colleagues. The main difference between the real Peaky Blinders and the Shelby family is the latter's reach. The Peaky Blinders gang was mostly involved in robberies, racketeering, and violent crimes. Regardless, their menace was the same, and the real gang terrorized Birmingham for as long as they could. So, while Peaky Blinders isn't wholly accurate in its history, the fictionalized Shelby gang was just as violent as their real-life counterparts.

Peaky Blinders

In Manchester, Ed learns how to live off the land and hears about the persecution the community faces, before experiencing the cycle of eviction in Cornwall

Ed hears about the persecution the community faces, and experiences the cycle of eviction

Ed attends the Appleby Horse Fair and a protest against the proposed new Police Bill

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We have more than one page that may be referred to as Gypsy .

• If you're looking for the other itinerant race of people referred to by some as Gypsies, see Irish Travellers and make sure they didn't see you call them gypsy.
• If you're looking for the play and film adaptation about the life of Gypsy Rose Lee, see Theatre.Gypsy .
• If you're looking for the TV series starring Naomi Watts , see Series.Gypsy .

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