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tv   We Are England  BBC News  November 27, 2022 2:30pm-3:01pm GMT

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the headlines. anti—government protests in china against wrecked disease marker restrictions were some demonstrators calling for the leader to go. 216—year—old boys have died after being stabbed about a mile apart in south—east london. police are treating the two deaths as linked. with further rail strikes expected, the transport secretary says reform is needed to fund wage rises but labour says the government needs to do more to support workers during a cost of living crisis. people who use social media post to encourage self—harm or face criminal prosecution under new proposals. now, on bbc news, we are england. i started helping my father at nine years of age on the front of the show,
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and he gave me a microphone and said, "you get some people in this show, son." and i was on the front of the show for, what, nearly a0 years of my life? being here, it feels right. i think we all love it. we are like an extended family. my dad means sort of everything. he's all we look up to and we want to be, more or less. he's the mr miyagi. that's exactly it. my granddad and my dad don't get on. but typical in—laws — _ everybody's got family dramas. so you're saying we're doing something wrong, are you? yes, lam. we're not, ok?
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nipper is a true showman legend. he's known up and down. the country by everybody. there isn't nobody- that doesn't know him. i don't think i'd ever want to stop being a showman. hopefully, there's a lot of life left in this old dog yet. this is my wagon.
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and this is the showman�*s traditional living wagon which showmen across the country live in and travel around the country with. i have all the amenities that we need these days. living room, kitchens, bedroom areas. it's come a long way from the old wagons of many, many years ago. this is a bus that i was brought up in and lived in, or one of them. room was at a premium. so i remember one day my father went in, come out, after my mother had a set of twins, and he came back and where we never had enough room for more to sleep, he bought some hammocks and put the children in there and then you could just rock them to sleep. and theyjust loved it, you know, it was like, i suppose, for a child
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it was heaven, swinging heaven. my grandmother there used to be known as the mae west of show business in her youth. she'd be telling the tale to the public, telling them what we're going to take place on the show, what you was going to see and do. they did the crocodile skin, man. you know, the elephant skinned man. there was all different kinds of people. but today, you know, our society has changed. it wouldn't be appropriate to do that. but in those days it was, and the public would come and you could walk along there. and my father would do sword tricks and fire eating, dancing girls, drums and music playing. it was all excitement.
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i started helping my father at nine years of age. i was banging on the big drum at the front of the show, and he gave me a microphone and said, "you get some people in this show, son." and i started there and i was on the front of the show for, what, nearly a0 years of my life? it's like losing one of your arms to an extent, you know, because all our showman�*s wives do a lot of work in the industry. they work alongside you as a team. sandra had ourfirst child when we were 16 and we ended up with three sons and two daughters, which we brought up in this life and industry that they worked alongside of us and grew up with it until they all got married and created their own businesses in the show business world and travel the country, which they still do today. so it's a family unit that works together and that's what makes it so wonderful.
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it is the thing that we do, you know, as a complete unit. this is appleton�*s yard. this is ourfamily unit where we live. as you can see coming up here, this is known as the chalet. here is where britney and monique live. my grandchildren, monique and britney there. they are a couple of livewires, actually. we are in here, us two, all day. every day we just sit on the bed.
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we do tiktoks in here, we do stupid stuff and it will often mean pretty much we do everything together. we near enough get classed as twins, we are that much alike. so this one's my room. it's symmetrical. so straight through is the bathroom, adjoining bathroom. and then the other side is britney's room. we used to leave the doors undone, and i'lljust, like, sit up and i could see her in the bed still. she was there, pulling faces at me. we've both got our own trailers now. they're side by side, we're next to each other. so we're not even far from each other still. we're in our own little bubble. so we come back, and soon as we step on our van, it's like ahh, the outside world don't see in.
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going down to what we call the bottom of this yard. this area down behind you is where we store all the machines, the equipment, the lorries and things. this is where we do all our maintenance. as you can see, we have some of the children's rides, the old fashioned swing boats, which shortly these ones now will be taken down today on tomorrow, ready to go down to the king's lynn mart tomorrow night. the men don't actually do anything inside the household. they do the outside work, the maintenance of the funfair rides, whereas the women would be inside there and make sure that there's food on the table, clean clothes, tidy home to come back into. it's not so much of a tradition.
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it'sjust more that's theirjob and this is ourjob. but each family is different. when i do get married and i've got my own home and my husband is going to be outside in the cold all day and working to put food on the table for us, me giving him a clean home and clean clothes to come back into and a warm home makes me happy knowing that he's going to be happy. me and my boyfriend had been together almost five years now. when i get married, i'll be moving up to scotland. i think it'll affect britney because i'm always at her side 24/7. so i think she'll be a little bit lost and i'll be upset that i'm leaving her as well. it is a spectacular opening at the king's lynn mart and holds a special place in our heart for us because we live here and we've been associated with it for a long time. and when we open here, you'll see the big bang on saturday at the lynn mart, yeah.
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showman�*s industry in a body is one big family across the country, from lands end tojohn o'groats. usually when the children get married, they marry into another showman�*s family. so the extension grows and grows, you know. showmen are like an extended family. i mean, i've known nipper all my life. that's pretty good. getting boys is good because they carry the name on. i'd say my dad means sort of everything. i i mean, he means more or less like, well, he's our role model who we look up to and who we want to be more or less. yeah, he's the mr miyagi. that's exactly it.
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a yard is very important to showmen because we've got a lot of work and maintaining to do. we've got to go somewhere. we've got to park up and we've got to get all the preparations ready for the following season. i've got around about five or six rides here. i've got a lot of infrastructure. you know, i must have up to 20 loads in total. they only let me stay here and use the facilities out of a goodwill gesture, really. but they could say to me at any point now or in the future, "we'd like you to leave." i don't know what i'd do, to be quite honest with you, because i wouldn't want to be on the side of the road. i'd have to start putting rides in separate locations all over the country. i mean, my businessjust couldn't work that way.
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we are now arriving with all our living wagons. we have got between a0 to 50 families that own parts of the fairground and own and operate them on the king's lynn mart. go back a bit. phone rings. 0h. i don't know where i'm supposed to put this trailer. well, why don't you give nippera ring, then? - i've tried, but i can't get through. john, harrison, they've got their way of doing things and i've got my old—fashioned way of doing things.
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john, leave the radio alone, please. you can't do anything until we phone nipper. i know, but it's distracting me. 0h, 0k. you know, if i say we're going to get up at 6:00 in the morning, one will say 7:00 and the other one will say 8:00 so, you know, we bicker about everything, basically. you go up, john, and i'll back you in. nipper — i mean, is a big part of king's lynn mart. he'd be organising everyone. listen to me, you will be ok. he's very calm like that. now follow me, follow me, john.
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some people, you have to guide them in and say, "look, please do this as you say or please do that" but they get a bit flustered because they want to get in and get sorted, but it all comes together 0k in the finish. we've done it for 800 years, so i'm sure we'll manage this year. but in them days, we came with the horse and cart. it was a lot easier. just giddy up boy, and you're in. there's an awful lot of health and safety now, you know? and whatever we do now, it's not a way of life any more. it's a business. and you've got to run it as a business. go steady! the thing about king's lynn was, in one word, hectic. everything's got to be precise — especially at somewhere
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like king's lynn. there's no room for error. over here, lawrence. yeah, right. you've got your markings down. that is your position. if you're over one way by four orfive, six inches, obviously, that affects the next person. and then, it can then curtail onto someone else's positions. it belongs to our family, not yours! and it can come out a few arguments, you know, things like that, especially in the early hours of the morning. it's a fake bowl. is that a fake bowl? that's a fake bowl. is that right? that's a council bowl. so you're saying we're doing something wrong here? yes, iam. well, we're not. we're not. well, just one disagreement, as you see, because somebody started wailing that it was on his ground, but he never gave us a chance to get measured up properly and get on the march. so that was resolved.
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as you see, i measured it up, pushed it forward a few inches and problem solved. so was it your daughter's husband? yes, it was. big families have differences of opinion but, you know, in general and give it time and it gets sorted out and you carry on, you know, as a family. it is nearly 2:00, it's 1:48, and it's my bedtime. chuckles. yeah, time to call it a day. is that 0k? we can watch telly now.
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we wanted the fair to make a comeback, you know? and the quicker we get built up and get open, the better, i think, because i can't wait. i mean, we've lost two years. we look at king's lynn to see how the rest of the season is going to be. so if we have a good king's lynn, then hopefully we're in for a good summer. bell rings. oh yea, oh yea, oh yea!
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the king's lynn showground opens this year. god save the queen. being near it, it feels right. because this is what we are, this is what we do. i think we all love it. it's in our blood. we all love it. i think every showman... the excitement, the thrill, the atmosphere. _ i seeing the little kids and families. walking round with their candyfloss. their balloons. getting excited. getting in the queues to go on to the next ride. - ifeel proud because i'm proud of what i am and what we've done and what we've achieved in life. it's important to my dad because he's coming up 80 and our family don't live that long in life because we work hard and we burn ourself out. he got to go on. he's special.
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storm eunice has hit the uk, damaging properties and causing extensive travel disruption because of powerful winds. and it's just been confirmed that two people have been killed. we are concerned with the forecast and how severe the wind may be and we won't have the fair open for the public for safety, as you say. have you checked the diesel in the lorry? well, get that done sooner rather than later, then please. yeah, i know, i know. so if there's any issues, we know about it. sometimes, my dad be a bit stressed, but the things that's going on behind the scenes, it's all on his back. do you know what i mean? we don't have no staff. we do it all ourselves.
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i worry about my dad when he gets stressed out because i don't want anything to happen to him. it's not only that you've lost money due to the weather, it's the fact that all the rides out there is left out there to the elements. so you're up all night long, you know, keeping an eye on things and making sure everything's tied down. so it's not like a day off to us because we're closed. it's notjust cheap equipment. it's hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of equipment. normal people think they've got worries about payments and bills and loans and things like that. well, your times that worst worry and time's up by ten because you've got everything else on top of it. the most important thing for my family would be a base to work from.
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i just can't see why it's taken as long as it has. i think it's just easyjust to keep putting a showman at the back of the list. i don't feel that the council understand the urgency or the position that i'm in. it's frustrating because there's not just me in the same predicament — there's showmen all over the country that's in the same situation. wejust want somewhere to put our equipment. somewhere — you know, everybody�*s got to have a home. everybody�*s got have somewhere to go. me and my family are homeless at the moment. this bit of land means so much to me. this would be a future for me and my family.
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somewhere where we can call home. bye. see you later. bob, stop it. sit down. that's the first time he's ever listened to you. ever! indi's got her head screwed on. she's very brainy. she's into her schoolwork and studying. whenever there's everybody around, it's very difficult to do schoolwork. the kids are very chaotic,
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all this shouting and jumping around or they're playing with their toys and i can't focus. so, like, i'm just always waiting for the time on my own before i can do schoolwork. why is your top on backwards? because i want it this way. you can have this at the table. education to me is very, very important. all my children, i'd strive to keep them in school as much as possible. seen so many people struggling in our business without an education and although many people do get by without it, i don't want my children to just get by. do you like school? no. why don't you like school? it's a waste of time. i want to be a showman, so i don't really care about education. when i was ocean's age, - i had the same point of view — i didn't really like school, i i thought it was pointless, and i wanted to travel all the time. but now, i've realised that it is important. . when was the last time you had a haircut? - i don't know. laughs.
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suck in. are they too tight i or are they all right? if you get yourself dressed and you go over up and a slip, please. i'm going to take someone over to the slip. i do a little bit before and then, after i've opened up whatever, i'm doing it in there. see you later. 0k, see you in a bit. 18, i9, 20. ready or not, here i come! when he comes in the doorway here, we're going to have two nice dancing girls because as you can see, the mexican twist is my family's show.
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we have people coming from all over the country. there would be about 100 family members. it is very rare for all of us to be together because we are a massive family. very special day, yes, yes. quite excited and quite nervous. ladies and gentlemen, dad will be arriving in five minutes. could everyone stand around the dance floor, please, and all immediate family are by the door. he is here! he's here! come on, family! family! cheering and applause. what a party! it was overwhelming, to have all of my party, family there.
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i was so pleased that all of my children and great—grandchildren could be there for that day. woolly bully! i will carry on as long as possible and i will not retire, i want to be around my people and industry and fellow showmen. hopefully, there is a lot of life left in this old dog yet. nipper means everything to us, he is the start of the family, he is the man and without him, we would feel a bit lost. we are a showman family and i would not want it any other way than being a showman and entertaining the public of this country.
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in the week ahead things will turn drier and colder. this afternoon we haveissue drier and colder. this afternoon we have issue with lingering rain, heavy and thinly the scotland but the rain lingering over is angular. some spousal sunshine which will equate to clear skies, still some rain, so some showers pushing into western areas. we could see some issues with fog particular across north—east england and maybe some fog and mist in scotland where we see the lowest temperatures. a colder night than recently and chilly tomorrow, but dry and bright.
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the fog may linger and we'll keep some showers through wales, south—west england. temperatures down compared to the weekend, 9-12 c. down compared to the weekend, 9—12 c. for the week ahead, things looking dry but not of cloud and some issues with lingering fog. goodbye.
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this is bbc news, i'm ben boulos. the headlines. anti—government protests in china against strict covid restrictions are spreading , with some demonstrators calling restrictions are spreading, with some demonstrators calling for the country's leader, president xi, to go. two 16—year—old boys have died after being stabbed about a mile apart in south—east london, police say they are trying to establish if the two deaths are linked. i can confirm the two young boys are charlie bartolo and kearne solanke. the families are aware, and we are asking that their privacy is respected at this unimaginably difficult time. with rail workers and nurses among the public sector workers voting to take strike action in the run—up to christmas, politicians are coming under pressure to promise pay deals which match
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the cost of living.

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