Big Fat Gypsy Christmas Special

The Sun today reports that the Bio channel is to air a show to rival Britain’s Got Talent, but which allows entrants only from the traveller community.

To be entitled Travellers Got Talent, the show is expected to air later this year.

Here’s the full article from The Sun…

A TEENAGE girl with “a big voice”, a performing horse and the gypsy equivalent of the Von Trapp family – welcome to Travellers Got Talent.

A new TV show will focus on this incredible nationwide competition and it looks set to be as big a ratings winner as Channel 4′s Bafta-nominated Big Fat Gypsy Weddings.

Performers drawn from the gypsy and traveller community will battle it out at five heats across the country, with the top three acts from each heat progressing to the final at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

Among the acts hoping to “make it to London” are dance troupe Ambition, which includes little Levy Gregory.

The contest could give ITV’s Saturday night smash Britain’s Got Talent a run for its money. The winner of TGT will scoop £1,000, the runner-up £600 and the act in third place £400.

Organiser Jake Bowers, editor of Travellers Times and a Romany gypsy himself, says: “It is going to be sensational.

“There are some crazy acts but some awesome talent too. Musical talent features heavily in Romany culture and is passed down through the generations.”

The show even has its own Amanda Holden, in the shape of singer Jentina Chapman – although she actually looks more like US X Factor judge Cheryl Cole. Jentina, 24, from Hastings, East Sussex, landed a record deal aged just 19.

She is also a model and has even been a “Wonderbra Girl”. Born into a Surrey Romany family, Jentina says: “There’s a massive amount of showbiz talent in the gypsy community.

“It feels great to be part of something that shows travellers in a positive light.

“I’m thrilled to be a judge at this year’s competition and I’m really looking forward to seeing the acts.

“I’m hoping to see amazing dancers, singers and mad entrants who do all sorts. I think the heats will be full of surprises.”

Travellers Got Talent – or Bari Radt (“big night” in Romany) – will feature on the Bio channel Sky 156/Virgin 242, later this year as part of the eight-episode series A Gypsy Life For Me.

Click here to see profiles of some of the hopefuls.

The Daily Mirror today reports that Big Fat Gypsy Wedding star Thelma Madine is hoping to launch her own TV series, training girls to make the dresses from the hit show.

Here’s the rest of the Mirror’s article…

Her Apprentice-style series starts filming next month and will see up to 15 gypsy girls learning how to sew, go into business and make her famous wedding frocks.

The winner could potentially be given a job at her Liverpool boutique Nico.

Thelma said she was “really excited”, adding: “We will have a little factory and I will train the girls up.

“Gypsy girls don’t normally have jobs but with me they have a chance to see how their dresses were made.”

The show could prove a ratings winner for Channel 4, as up to eight million tuned in for the series. But it said any new programme ideas were still at the pilot stage.

Thelma is famous for her huge wedding dresses, including a 20-stone design for Sam Norton, 17, complete with flashing lights.

The designer of some of the amazing dresses seen on Big Fat Gypsy Weddings has told Digital Spy that the Christmas special episode of the show will be “gobsmacking” and “on another scale.”

She also revealed that there’ll be no less than 13 weddings for the festive special!

Here’s the full article from DS…

Dress designer Thelma Madine has told Digital Spy that the Big Fat Gypsy Wedding Christmas special will be “gobsmacking” and “on another scale” from the previous episodes of the Cutting Edge series.

Madine, who is a regular in the documentary exploring the culture and lives of the travelling community, promised that Channel 4 had upped the ante with the festive special later this year.

“The one at Christmas is just on another scale. It’s unbelievable. It’s some travellers in a little village that I didn’t know anything about and it’s a whole new side to things,” she said.

“This little village in Ireland is completely owned by travellers, this whole village, and there will be 13 weddings in a Christmas week.

“They are not there all year, they just come home for six weeks of the year to have their celebrations, weddings, christenings and things like it. It’s just unbelievable. It’s totally gobsmacking. It will be good viewing.”

Gypsy Weddings is nominated for the ‘YouTube Audience Award’ BAFTA this year, alongside The Killing, The Only Way Is Essex, Downtown Abbey, Miranda and Sherlock.

Speaking about the show’s chances of taking home the award on Sunday night, she said: “You know all that being a lady and clapping the other people that win, I can’t do that. If we don’t win, I can’t hide it.

“The show is not like any of the others where they are all willing and on camera, this was so, so much hard work. They’d do a whole two months of filming with someone and they’d then pull out at the last minute.

“It was so difficult… It was so hard and I think for these other shows, well, they just act, don’t they. This was really, really hard. There were tears and directors crying. They deserve to win, I think.”

The Philips British Academy Television Awards will be held in London on Sunday. The ceremony will be broadcast on BBC One from 8pm.

The List today report that Channel 4 are planning a ‘Big Fat Gypsy’ Christmas special, which will focus on how the travelling community prepare for December 25.

Here’s The List’s full report…

Channel 4 are planning a ‘Big Fat Gypsy’ Christmas special. The show – which follows the lives of the travelling community – was a huge hit when it was aired earlier this year and now bosses want a festive version, which focuses on how gypsies prepare for Christmas.

Newlyweds Sam Norton and Patrick Sky Lee – whose extravagant wedding was shown in the series – are sure the show will be ratings winner because there’s so much that goes on in the run-up to Yuletide, including the husbands having to splash out on eye-catching dresses for their wives to wear on December 25.

Sam told the Daily Star newspaper: “It’s brilliant. The women all get specially-made dress for the day and that’s on top of all their other gifts.”

As well as the splashing out on extravagant dresses for their other halves, the men are allowed to let their hair down on Christmas Eve, leaving the women at home.

However, Patrick admitted: “Last year I got into trouble for coming home a bit worse for wear.”