tv We Are England BBC News December 2, 2022 2:30am-3:01am GMT
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this is bbc news. the headlines — joy forjapan as they beat former champion spain 2—1 in doha to reach the knockout stage of the world cup. fans gathered in a fanzone to watch the match and after were seen celebrating in the streets. spain also go through, but the result means that germany are out of the tournament. the case against a former political adviser accused of raping a colleague inside australia's parliament building has been dropped because of concerns for his alleged victim's mental health. the adviser, bruce lehrmann, denied sexually assaulting brittany higgins in a government minister's office in march 2019. a royal row over racism has been raising questions
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in the uk after a woman accused honorary royal lady susan hussey of �*othering' her at an event at buckingham palace. the controversy comes as prince william and kate attend events in the us. in a statement, prince william's kensington palace office said "racism has no place in our society". now on bbc news, we are england: england's greatest showman. i started helping my father at nine years of age on the front of the show, 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. it's in our blood. we all love it. it's entertainment. we are like an extended family.
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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. you said we're doing it wrong? yes, lam. well, we're not. 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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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 it was heaven, swinging heaven. where's the time gone? 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 were going to take place on the show, what you was going to see and do.
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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. 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,
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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. it is the thing that we do, you know, as a complete unit. this is appleton�*s yard. this is ourfamily
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unit where we live. as you can see coming up here, this is known as the chalet. here is where brittany and monica live. my grandchildren, monica and brittany there. there are a couple of livewires, actually. we are in here, us two, all day. every day we just sit on the bed. we do tiktoks in here. we do stupidity stuff in here. me and monique 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. it was — i could see her there, pulling faces at me. we've both got our own trailers now. they're side by side, we're next to each other.
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so we're not even far from each other still. we're in our own little bubble. i'd say we've lived deep pretty sheltered life. so we come back, and soon as we step on our van, it's like ahh, the outside world don't see in. 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,
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the old—fashioned swing boats, which shortly these ones now will be taken down today and 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. 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
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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. 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
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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 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. he's the mr miyagi. that's exactly it. 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.
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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. we are now arriving with all our live—in wagons. we have got between a0 to 50
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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. 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,
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and i'll back you in. nipper — i mean, he's 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. you could break him loose but he is very calm. nice and steady, keep it like that. keep it like that. 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.
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and you've got to run it as a business. go steady! pull up at kings lynn was, in one word, hectic. everything's got to be precise — especially at somewhere like kings lynn. there's no room for error. over here, lawrence. there. 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!
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it can come out in 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 mark. so that was resolved. 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's1:48, and it's my bedtime. he chuckles.
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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 kings 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. 0yez, oyez, oyez! god save the queen. being here, 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.
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we all love it. i think every showman... the excitement, the thrill, the atmosphere. _ 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. 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.
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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. 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.
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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, you times that worst worry and times that 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. i just can't see why it's taken as long as it has.
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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 notjust me in the same predicament — there's showmen all over the country that's in the same situation. we just want somewhere to put our equipment. i somewhere — you know, - everybody's got to have a home. everybody's got have somewhere to go. i 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. somewhere where we can call home.
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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, all this shouting and jumping around or they're playing with their toys and i can't focus. so, like, i'mjust 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 i very, very important. all my children, i'd strive to keep them in school.
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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 tojust get by. do you like school? no. why don't you like school? um, 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. suck in. are they too tight i or are they all right? 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
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and then, after i've opened up, i'll do it in there. 18, 19, 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. 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
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be arriving in five minutes. could everyone stand around the dance floor, please, and all immediate family up by the door. he is here! cheering and applause. what a party! it was overwhelming, to be honest, to have all of my family there. it was a shock. i was pleased that all of my children and great—grandchildren could be there for that day. woolly bully!
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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 star 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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murky conditions to once again start friday morning and it should break to give some spells of sunshine. the merc is conditions likely to be across east wales, midlands and the west country but with the breeze starting to pick up, you will see a bit more sunshine developing here is the day wears on. staying grey with the odd spot of drill. northern ireland should see some spells of sunshine. feeding into eastern england on fairly brisk easterly breezes. the highest temperature is out west, on screen. through friday night, not as much fog because there will be more reasoning showers into eastern parts of england, particularly with more cloud for northern ireland in the north—west of scotland with the odd spot of light rain or drizzle, most places staying above freezing. and into the weekend, chilli easterly breeze, a lot of cloud, lots of dry weather as well, just some showers at times.
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welcome to bbc news, i'm nuala mcgovern. our top stories: japan's joy. they beat spain in doha to reach the knockout stage of the world cup. but huge disappointment for two of europes' big hitters, germany and belgium are out. a0 years after the disappearance of a woman in australia, her husband who became the subject of a popular crime podcast has been jailed for 2h years for murder. another royal row over racism raises questions as the woman accusing lady susan hussey of othering her at a formal event speaks out.
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