Gypsy Girl | |
---|---|
Genre | Drama |
Written by | Elizabeth Arnold Carol Noble |
Starring | Gemma Gregory Fionnuala Ellwood |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 7 |
Release | |
Original network | ITV (CITV) |
Original release | 19 February – 2 April 2001 |
Gypsy Girl is a 2001 British television series that ran on CITV. [1] [2]
Gypsy Girl began airing in February 2001. [3] Made up of seven episodes, the show is based on Elizabeth Arnold's three-book series consisting of The Parsley Parcel, Gold and Silver Water, and A Riot of Red Ribbon. [4] It centred on a Romani girl, Freya Boswell (played by Gemma Gregory), and her family, who lived in a typical caravan on the corner of a typical suburban street. Her great-grandmother was played by Eleanor Bron. [4]
Freya was often called "Gyppo", a derogatory term, by a boy who disliked her. [5] To make the show an accurate representation of Romany life, the show relied on an advisor with Romany expertise to construct the Romany caravans, camp, attire. [4] For her role, Gregory received horse-riding lessons. [4] She debuted as a professional singer, performing the show's title track. [4] Gregory said in an interview, "It was really nerve wracking. I've been acting for ages, so that doesn't worry me, but the singing was something new. I had no experience but it was fantastic to do. The song is wicked as well." [4]
In The Hill and Beyond, the authors Alistair D. McGown and Mark J. Doherty praised the series for being an "excellent" show that "harked back to seemingly lost values". They wrote, "Though it was roundly marketed as a British Sabrina, and probably only commissioned in the hope that it would be, the reality was that the stories it told were rather more thoughtful." [7]
Eleanor Bron is an English stage, film and television actress, and an author. Her film roles include Ahme in the Beatles musical Help! (1965), the Doctor in Alfie (1966), Margaret Spencer in Bedazzled (1967), and Hermione Roddice in Women in Love (1969). She has appeared in television series such as Yes Minister, Doctor Who, and Absolutely Fabulous.
Emma Lee Bunton is an English singer, songwriter, actress, and media personality. She rose to fame in the 1990s as a member of the girl group Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Baby Spice, reflecting the fact that she was the youngest member. With over 100 million records sold worldwide, the group became the best-selling female group of all time.
The Sinti are a subgroup of Romani people. They are found mostly in Germany, France and Italy and Central Europe, numbering some 200,000 people. They were traditionally itinerant, but today only a small percentage of Sinti remain unsettled. In earlier times, they frequently lived on the outskirts of communities.
Gemma Louise Atkinson is an English influencer, actress, radio presenter and former glamour model. She played Lisa Hunter in Hollyoaks and in three spin-off series, Hollyoaks: After Hours (2004), Hollyoaks: Let Loose (2005) and Hollyoaks: In the City (2006), Tamzin Bayle in Casualty and Carly Hope in Emmerdale (2015–2017). She currently presents the drive time slot across the Hits Radio Network. In November 2021, it was announced that Atkinson is set to reprise her role as Lisa Hunter in Hollyoaks.
Romanichals are a Romani subgroup within the United Kingdom and other parts of the English-speaking world. There are an estimated 500,000 Romani in the United Kingdom; almost all live in England. Most Romanichal speak Angloromani, a mixed language that blends Romani vocabulary with English syntax.
The Romani flag or the flag of the Roma is the international ethnic flag of the Romani people, historically known as "Gypsies", which form a stateless minority in countries across Eurasia, Africa, the Americas, and Australasia. It was approved by the representatives of various Romani communities at the first and second World Romani Congresses (WRC), in 1971 and 1978. The flag consists of a background of blue and green, representing the heavens and earth, respectively; it also contains a 16-spoke red dharmachakra, or cartwheel, in the center. The latter element stands for the itinerant tradition of the Romani people and is also an homage to the flag of India, added to the flag by scholar Weer Rajendra Rishi. It superseded a number of tribal emblems and banners, several of which evoked claims of Romani descent from the Ancient Egyptians.
Many fictional depictions of the Roma in literature and art present Romanticized narratives of their supposed mystical powers of fortune telling, and their supposed irascible or passionate temper which is paired with an indomitable love of freedom and a habit of criminality. Critics of how the Roma have been portrayed in popular culture point out similarities to portrayals of Jewish people, with both groups stereotyped negatively as wandering, spreading disease, abducting children, and violating and murdering others.
A vardo is a traditional horse-drawn wagon used by British Romanichal Travellers as their home. A vardo must have four wheels, with two being used for steering. The vehicle is typically highly decorated, intricately carved, brightly painted, and even gilded. The Romanichal Traveller tradition of the vardo is seen as a high cultural point of both artistic design and a masterpiece of woodcrafter's art.
The title King of the Gypsies has been claimed or given over the centuries to many different people. It is both culturally and geographically specific. It may be inherited, acquired by acclamation or action, or simply claimed. The extent of the power associated with the title varied; it might be limited to a small group in a specific place, or many people over large areas. In some cases the claim was clearly a public-relations exercise. As the term Gypsy is also used in many different ways, the King of the Gypsies may be someone with no connection with the Roma.
Caravan is a 1971 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller film directed by Nasir Hussain and produced by his brother Tahir Hussain, under the Nasir Hussain Films and T.V. Films banners. The film stars Jeetendra and Asha Parekh. Three Hussain fixtures were involved in the music production: composer R.D. Burman, lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri, and singer Mohammad Rafi. The film's plot was loosely inspired by Girl on the Run (1953).
Caravan is a 1946 British black-and-white drama film directed by Arthur Crabtree. It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas and is based on the 1942 novel Caravan by Eleanor Smith.
Lady Eleanor Furneaux Smith was an English writer and active member of the Bright Young Things.
The Romani people are also known by a variety of other names; in English as gypsies or gipsies, and Roma; in Greek as γύφτοι (gíftoi) or τσιγγάνοι (tsiggánoi), in Central and Eastern Europe as Tsingani ; in France as gitans besides the dated terms bohémiens and manouches; in Italy as rom and sinti besides the dated terms zingari, sigani, and gitani; in Spain as gitanos; and in Portugal as ciganos.
Susan Elizabeth Arnold is an English writer of children's fiction. Her best-known works form a trilogy set among Gypsies in the New Forest of Southern England.
Caravan is a melodramatic novel by the British writer Lady Eleanor Smith first published in 1942. A young Englishman James Darrell goes on the road living with the Romany people in England while trying to make enough money as a writer to marry his sweetheart Oriana. However, she does not wait for him and marries a wealthy young Englishman. James then undertakes a mission to Spain for a business friend, while there he is attacked and robbed. He is rescued by a gypsy woman but he has lost his memory. Having lost his memory, he marries the gypsy girl, Rosal, without knowing of his former life in Britain. When his memory returns he resents the gypsy girl for deceiving him but stays with her and works as a secretary for a famous bullfighter. When Rosal is accidentally killed by the bullfighter the hero goes to Morocco. Upon his return to England his book on his journeys in Spain make him a famous and wealthy man. He reunites with his first love, Oriana, who is trapped in a loveless marriage. The book is written as a young reporter is sent to interview James Darrell on the occasion of his 70th birthday, and is written as a "flashback" by the old author.
Amber L. Hollibaugh is an American writer, filmmaker and political activist, largely concerned with feminist and sexual politics.
Scarlett Lee is an English singer. In 2018, she finished as runner-up in the fifteenth series of The X Factor. She also competed in the fourteenth series and reached the six chair challenge, but failed to proceed further.
Romani people have been recorded in the United Kingdom since at least the early 16th century. Records of Romani people in Scotland date to the early 16th century. Romani number around est. 225,000 in the UK. This includes the sizable population of Eastern European Roma, who immigrated into the UK in the late 1990s/early 2000s, and also after EU expansion in 2004.