A series of films about real lives now.
The Gypsies Are Coming...Each year, in June, nearly 3,000 gypsies and travellers converge on the sleepy
Cumbrian town of Appleby to hold their traditional horse fair. For locals it is a ten-day nightmare. Police presence in the town is multiplied, pubs are boarded up, children taken out of school, and the residents of Appleby feel forced to maintain a constant vigil over their property.
But Appleby is the last great gypsy horse fair. William and Jeannie Nicholson , from one of the oldest travelling families, find the residents' attitude offensive, to them typical of a racism that threatens their whole way of life. Yet despite the pressures, horse dealing continues, Fair Hill is covered with colourful tethered cobs, trotters and ponies, and much ready money changes hands. How much longer can it continue? Narrator ROGER MILLS
Photography RICHARD RANKEN Film editor EDWARD ROBERTS Director SUSANNA WHITE
40 Minutes editor EDWARD MIRZOEFF An ALLEGRA FILM for BBCtv
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