gypsy traveller movies

10 great films about Gypsies and Travellers

Jonas Carpignano’s The Ciambra, about a young boy growing up in an Italian Romani community, is one of the rare films about the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community that avoids stereotypes of criminality or mysticism. Here are 10 other films and TV shows that honestly show the vibrant culture of the GRT community.

Jonas Carpignano ’s new film  The Ciambra  is a neorealist fable about a young boy growing up in the Italian region of Calabria, part of a secluded neighbourhood of Romani people. In a nation where highly publicised hate crimes against Gypsies and Travellers have been relatively recent, The Ciambra looks at the mistrust with which the GRT (Gypsy, Roma and Traveller) community regards the rest of society. As the young protagonist Pio’s grandfather tells him: “It’s us against the world.”

When it comes to depictions of the GRT community in cinema, the feeling can be pretty similar. Travellers frequently find themselves stuck between invisibility or ridicule, and as in real life, misunderstandings about them abound. Romani people are stateless, but have been living for generations in Europe and Great Britain; Irish Travellers are Celtic (‘Pavee’) in origin – all suffer endemic poverty, social exclusion and open discrimination.

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In some ways, it might be easier to write a list of films wholly ignorant of the travelling communities they portray – in the UK , for example, the obnoxious ‘reality television’ series and films that turn travellers into punchlines or employ racial epithets. Still, some films and filmmakers have sought to counter the popular narratives of their people as criminals or mystics. Their work has run the gamut from abstract fiction to harrowing documentary; they have depicted Eastern European slums and modern travellers’ camps in Essex.

Some of the filmmakers showcased below offer honest and diverse portrayals of their own Gypsy communities; all of them attempt to purge centuries of collective myth-making that obscure a vibrant culture.

Sky West and Crooked (1966)

Director: John Mills

Sir John Mills ’ pastoral drama  Sky West and Crooked  is an open-minded portrayal of the travelling community in rural Britain. Its central focus is an oddball romance between Brydie ( Hayley Mills ), a troubled West Country teenager, and Roibin ( Ian McShane ), a broodingly handsome young man from a nearby travellers’ site.

Examining small-town prejudice and siding firmly with its two outsiders, Mills’ film intelligently portrays the mistrust between the settled community and the travellers and underlines how foundational fear of the unknown is when it comes to racism. Kids under the age of 10 parrot that they’re “scared of gyppos”, clearly never having interacted with anyone outside their country village. With poignant empathy and a smattering of real Romani words, Mills’ film attempts to bridge the gap between communities in a heartening way. Considering this was made in the 1960s, it’s shocking how few British films since have come with such a progressive perspective.

I Even Met Happy Gypsies (1967)

Director: Aleksandar Petrovic

Aleksandar Petrovic’s  I Even Met Happy Gypsies  has the distinction of being one of the earliest internationally released features to be made in the Romani language. Because of the tendency of nomadic people to pass down culture orally, it’s a language that has long struggled to be recognised and written into the annals of linguistic history.

Soundtracked by genuine Gypsy melodies and unafraid of depicting the shocking poverty of isolated traveller sites around what was then Yugoslavia,  Petrovic ’s story is one of small-time dramas and family machinations, filmed with a heightened black and white realism that gives it a stylised documentary feel. The subject matter, too, is ultimately fitting – ritualised courtship, elopements, domestic strife and a girl seeking to escape the cruelty of a domineering stepfather – all feel deeply relevant to the close-knit, family-oriented Traveller community.

Where Do We Go from Here? (1969)

Director: Philip Donnellan

This  short documentary  comes in at just around the 60-minute mark, but its activist intentions are as vital today as they were almost a half-century ago when they were filmed. This BBC doc attempts to shed light on the enigmatic lifestyles of British Travellers, particularly at a time when more traditional nomadic habits were being displaced by an increasingly industrialised nation and pressure to find a fixed abode.

Director  Philip Donnellan  was a documentary filmmaker for the BBC for decades, making dozens of films on the struggles of the working class and with a particular interest in GRT issues. He allows generous time in his film for insightful interviews with his subjects, many of whom still maintain prominent family names in contemporary English Traveller society. At a moment in the 20th century when questions about alternative ways of living were becoming increasingly germane, this film turns a fresh eye to the ethnically nomadic people who had been populating Britain for hundreds of years.

Angelo My Love (1983)

Director: Robert Duvall

Robert Duvall ’s overlooked  feature  stars a young New Yorker that the director had a chance encounter with on the street. The boy’s street-smart manner belied his age, and Duvall was intrigued to learn that the kid – Angelo Evans – came from a cloistered enclave of Romani people.

The loose narrative of the film focuses on a stolen family heirloom, but this is a thin premise for a vérité romp through the chaos of the real Angelo’s life, featuring actual friends and family along the way. His rough-and-tumble and often comical interactions – not to mention his light hustling – are captured with a pseudo-documentary style. Swirling around old-fashioned values of the community – family pride, masculine honour and the like – Duvall makes a surprisingly ethnographic character study out of his collection of on screen incidents.

Time of the Gypsies (1988)

Director: Emir Kusturica

As Serbia’s arthouse director du jour,  Emir Kusturica  has dealt glancingly with the Romani community in Eastern Europe for many years. Often, this is in the mode of magical realism, which presents certain questions about the superstition around Gypsy people, and the claptrap associations with the mystical attributed to them.

Time of the Gypsies  doesn’t help much on that front: its main character, the bespectacled Perhan, is telekinetic. But what Kusturica lacks in cliché-busting he makes up for in other ways: he is masterful in his tragi-comic sensory overload-style depiction of Traveller life. Squawking chickens, muddy-faced children and noisy encampments seem to overwhelm the characters within, and their response to that impoverishment is what one might expect: denigration, crime and outright begging on the street. The magical powers might be a foolhardy touch, but the rest of the picture is unfortunately accurate.

Latcho Drom (1993)

Director: Tony Gatlif

Tony Gatlif – a prolific European Romani filmmaker who almost exclusively makes films in the Romani language – perfectly married form and content in this  French film . Its title means ‘safe journey’, referring to the fabled ancient migration of Romani people from India into the nations of Europe. The film is a quasi-historical documentary that meets with the far-flung Romani diaspora in various countries and examines their cultural practices and differences.

Brilliantly,  Gatlif  employs no voiceover or interviews for his non-fiction film, using traditional music and dance to evoke the moods and impressions of the people on screen. “Why does your mouth spit on us?” croons a female Gitano singer sorrowfully, bringing back the centuries of discrimination, enforced sterilisation and holocaust brought upon her people. It’s a moment that speaks for itself in reverberative, literal terms.

Pavee Lackeen (2005)

Director: Perry Ogden

Perry Ogden’s gentle  fiction film  is about a real Irish Traveller girl and her family, as they stop on an unfriendly roadside outside Dublin. Ogden underlines the stark contrast between the Maughan family’s trailer and the lights and colours of contemporary urban life in Ireland. Since the governments of both the UK and Ireland regularly fail to allocate legal sites for Travellers to stay in, they are often forced to camp illegally on roadsides and lay-bys.

There’s no judgement in  Ogden ’s gaze, and he charts the frequent misunderstandings between the travelling and settled communities with real sensitivity. The community officers and various bureaucracies may want the family to integrate, but there’s a refusal to see that it may mean the Maughan family would be subsuming their ethnic identity as a result. Yet the safety and continued education of the children in the family is of concern, and so Pavee Lackeen offers a measured look at both sides.

Knuckle (2011)

Director: Ian Palmer

Ian Palmer’s  documentary  was over a decade in the making as he gained intimate access to two Irish Traveller families locked in a series of violent feuds.  James Quinn McDonagh  is the central protagonist of the tale – a bare-knuckle Gypsy champion with a shaved head and solemn features. A rival clan, the Joyces, have a long-held hatred of the McDonaghs over an old brawl that landed one family member in prison and another dead.

Knuckle may not do much to quell stereotypes of Irish Travellers as belonging to a violent, honour-driven society deeply in thrall to old-style masculinity, but Palmer, trusty with a handheld camera, does present the reality of what he sees: engaging, brutal and sometimes bizarrely funny. There’s a real failure to more pressingly get to the heart of what drives these bare-knuckle fights – or to truly understand the families of the men who go through this primitive, trying behaviour repeatedly. As bitter a pill as it is for some to swallow, the iron-clad tradition of bare-knuckle boxing in the Traveller community is unlikely to go away anytime soon.

An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker (2013)

Director: Danis Tanović

A Bosnian festival favourite and winner of the Berlinale Grand Jury Prize,  Danis Tanović ’s upsetting  drama  is played out by a non-professional cast who genuinely experienced the events of the film.

Filmed in an unobtrusive style, the title describes Nazif and his wife Senada, who have two children and live on Nazif’s scrap-dealing income. Because of their ethnicity, the two are refused admittance to their local hospital after Senada suffers a miscarriage. They are then forced to undertake a painfully long journey while Senada grows increasingly desperate and in need of medical care. The shocking endemic racism recalls the cruellest days of America’s Jim Crow era, where the Travellers are turned away by the institutions that they are most in need of.

Peaky Blinders (2013-)

Creator: Steven Knight

Although it took a few seasons to fine tune, this historical gangster drama about a gang of vicious British criminals is one of the most accomplished televisual depictions of Traveller history. With its colourful and nuanced set of central characters born of English Traveller blood, it offers something new – anti-heroic, dashing and complicated protagonists from Gypsy stock.

Set in the Black Country of Birmingham in the early 1920s,  Steven Knight ’s series focuses on the Shelby family, a bunch of strapping Romani-born lads who come up out of nothing to build an organised crime empire. Chief among them is the charismatic and coldly feline Tommy Shelby ( Cillian Murphy , whose angular face and cutting blue eyes are put to excellent use here), a shell-shocked First World War veteran who returns to his decrepit hometown with a desire for more.

Featuring Romani language from the second season onward and input – even supporting roles – for actors and writers from this background, Peaky Blinders has an implicit importance that goes far beyond the machinations of its often extravagant criminal plot twists. When someone speaks disdainfully of Tommy’s background, he sarcastically drawls, “I sell pegs and tell fortunes.” This isn’t your romanticised view of Gypsies. If anything, it’s a reminder that English Travellers have been around for a long time, and even back then they were sick of your stereotypes.

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Best Gypsy Movies

The best gypsy movies deal with the people less commonly known as the Romani, Travellers or Pikeys (if they‘re of Irish origin). Never ones to stay in a single location, they move about the land (often Europe), and popular legends frequently associate them with thievery, cons and various forms of curses. Of course, not all gypsies fling black magic and steal from people, but their cinematic counterparts sure seem to be obsessed with that kind of behavior. Take a look at some of the best gypsy movies and see if you can separate fact from fiction.

If you find something that really catches your eye, head on over to Netflix and pick up the DVD or Blu-ray disc . We’ll get a little bit of money from the fine folks at Netflix, and that’ll help us keep the doors to OGM open. It’ll also keep me from getting my gypsy pals to place a curse on you.

The Wolf Man (1941) – The curse of lycanthropy is passed from a gypsy man (Bela Lugosi) to the unassuming Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.). From that point forward, all hell breaks loose (as much as it could in a 1941 film).

Snatch (2000) – A fight promoter (Jason Statham) must join forces with an Irish gypsy (aka “pikey”) in order to keep from being killed by a London crime lord named Brick Top (Alan Ford). There’s lots more going on in this Guy Ritchie crime film, including the search for a stolen 86 carat diamond.

Black Cat White Cat (1998) – This Yugoslavian romantic comedy deals with a Roma smuggler who plans to steal a train loaded with fuel. Certainly bizarre by American standards, the movie features a wedding ceremony with a midget, a booby-trapped toilet, and a guy who juggles hand grenades.

King of the Gypsies (1978) – Eric Robert stars as Dave, a modern-day gypsy living in New York City. When his grandfather, the current King of the Gypsies, passes away, he wants to leave the title in the hands of Dave. While the young man isn’t interested in this responsibility, that doesn’t stop jealous rivals from trying to kill him for the title. Also starring Sterling Hayden, Brooke Shields, Susan Sarandon and Judd Hirsch.

Into the West (1992) – Two young Irish Travellers set off on an adventure to retrieve their stolen mystical horse named Tir na nOg. Starring Gabriel Byrne and Ellen Barkin.

Thinner (1996) – An obese lawyer runs over a gypsy woman with his car and gets cursed by her 105-year-old father to start losing weight at a lethal pace. Based on the novel by Stephen King.

The Man Who Cried (2000) – The life and loves of a Jewish girl from Russia who grows up in England and later moves to France and then the United States (prior to the outbreak of WWII). Christina Ricci plays the lead role, and Johnny Depp co-stars as a soulful Romani who captures her heart.

From Russia with Love (1963) – While on a mission in Istanbul, James Bond watches two gypsy women fight over a lover. Needless to say, Bond ends up sleeping with both of them. Way to go, 007.

Drag Me to Hell (2009) – Alison Lohman plays a bank employee who refuses to grant an old gypsy woman another loan. In return, the humiliated senior citizen places a horrible curse on the girl, dooming her to be claimed by the demonic Lamia. Directed with a darkly comic touch by Sam Raimi.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 9:59 am and is filed under Good Movies . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response , or trackback from your own site.

12 Responses to “Best Gypsy Movies”

Leave a Comment

This is just silly. How about movies actually about the Roma.

Christian Olteanu

I’m doing some research on gypsy culture, and came across your website through google. Your list of “best gypsy movies” leaves out one of the best gypsy movies! Gypsies Are Found Near Heaven (1976). Best of luck,

Thanks for the recommendation, Christian. I advise everyone to check out Gypsies Are Found Near Heaven .

Latcho Drom (1993) directed by Tony Gatlif is my favorite. He focuses on the Roma in different countries with songs and dancing-but always with a story. There is a great scene with a small, shy boy at the train station.

How about movies actually about Romani people? Movies like “Latcho Drom,” “Time of the Gypsies,” and “Gadjo Dilo.”

Nah. Let’s stick with movies about tribal headhunters.

I was born in 1947, I saw a movie once when I was about 12 years old that has stayed in my spirit ever since I can not remember the title, but the script was about a little girl that could not make friends because her family moved too much.I think I saw it on a public television station. if any one can help with the title maybe I can go to the library. They were gypsies living with a caravan of other gypsies. the movie was in black and white,around 1957 or 1958.

mark venner

Sky West and Crooked (1966), Gone to Earth (1951), Jassy, The Gypsy and the Gentleman, Madonna of the Seventh Moon, Hot Blood (1956, Nicholas Ray)The Virgin and the Gypsy, Carmen (Carlos Saura), Fish Tank, Gypo, Pavee Lackeen, Vengo, Angelo my Love (directed by Robert Duvall) to name but a few. I can give you couple of hundred titles if you are interested.

im looking for a gypsy film where a young girls mother passes away and comes back as a horse,i cannot remember the name of it,please could somebody help.

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Capturing a Tradition, Blow by Blow

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By Corey Kilgannon

• Nov. 25, 2011

THE big, bald man at the end of the bar extended a huge hand and introduced himself as the filmmaker Ian Palmer and his slighter, gentler-looking companion as the bruising bare-knuckle boxer James Quinn McDonagh.

It was a traveler’s trick, of course. The bald joker was himself the Mighty Quinn, king of the gypsy bare-knucklers in the documentary “Knuckle,” a rib-cracking look at the brutal fistfights long used to settle feuds between clans of Irish travelers — nomadic families that go back centuries in Ireland.

“This is always how the families have sorted things out and stopped larger violence,” said Mr. Quinn McDonagh, 44, who heads a clan of about 200 people, mostly in the Dublin area. “Other people use guns and knives to settle things — we do it through our fists.”

He had cut loose the publicist who coordinated the interview and ordered up pints of beer, so that a proper discussion could be conducted here in this Irish bar in Hell’s Kitchen.

Next to him, Mr. Palmer, who made “Knuckle,” looked as if he knew the drill. After all, he had hung around with Mr. Quinn McDonagh for 12 years to make the film, which opens in select theaters in New York City and Los Angeles on Dec. 9 after an impressive run at festivals, including Sundance, Hot Docs in Toronto, and Irish Film New York (where it was named best film last month). HBO has even aquired the rights to make a series based on the film.

This is hardly the first star turn for traveler culture. The 2007 cable series “The Riches” featured Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver as the leaders of a con-artist traveler family in the United States. “My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding,” a British reality series that began last year, chronicles over-the-top nuptials there. And who can forget Mickey O’Neil, the Irish traveler bare-knuckle boxer played by Brad Pitt in Guy Ritchie’s 2000 film “Snatch”?

“Knuckle” is fueled by the personality of this big man, who is undefeated in fighting for his family name against the Joyce and Nevin clans.

Never mind that the three clans themselves are interrelated with, as the film puts it, “brothers and cousins fighting brothers and cousins.” One family member in “Knuckle” points to the absurdity of the self-perpetuating feuds and fights: “At least wars are about something.”

The feud in the film was supposedly started by a torched tinker’s cart at a horse fair, and renewed in 1992 by a deadly fight outside a pub, for which Mr. Quinn McDonagh’s brother Patty served prison time for manslaughter.

In the film, Mr. Quinn McDonagh is derided as Baldy James by rival clan members who send taunting videotaped challenges, a modern wrinkle on this centuries-old tradition.

“The fights help settle a score, but then the next tape arrives and everyone gets stirred up again,” Mr. Quinn McDonagh said in the interview.

As a referee scolds two boxers in the film, “It’s what you say on the videos that keeps the fights going.”

As it happened, videotape helped open the door for Mr. Palmer. In 1997, he videotaped a Quinn McDonagh wedding and the family then invited him to shoot Mr. Quinn McDonagh fighting a Joyce. Mr. Palmer followed a triumphant Mr. Quinn McDonagh, 20,000 Irish pounds in his bloody hand from side wagers, rushing back to “a giant fan gathering” at a pub in Dundalk, Mr. Palmer recalled.

“It was like a medieval knight coming back from a tournament,” Mr. Palmer said. “An amazing, huge world had just opened up to me, the most amazing thing I’ve ever had the chance to film. I remember calling a friend and saying, ‘I really have to find a way to make a film about this.’ ”

He did find it, by hanging around the feuding families for the next decade. It started as a bit of a tradeoff, he said, with the Quinn McDonaghs giving him access to the fights and Mr. Palmer giving them some footage. The travelers had already been taping their own fights and either selling the footage in streets and pubs, or editing it into “threat tapes.” “In a way, they were already documenting themselves,” the director said.

Mr. Palmer grew up middle class and well educated in the Dublin suburbs and like many Irish “settled” people, he knew travelers from seeing them solicit work at the door, women asking for old clothes to mend and sell, and men offering their tinsmithing skills to fix garden tools and sharpen knives.

During his first few years on the project, Mr. Palmer, who had tried a screenwriting career in Los Angeles with little success, also shot two shorter, nonboxing documentaries for Irish national television, on the Quinn McDonaghs and traveler activity. But since the bare-knuckle fights were sporadic, it became clear that a fight film would take years to complete.

Each time the call would come, Mr. Palmer would pile in a crowded car and head to a remote country lane, the precise location a secret to prevent the authorities from showing up. Often there were a series of fights, lasting hours. There were no clocks, no rounds, and of course, no gloves — just shirtless men pummeling each other until one gives up.

“I was following something completely unpredictable,” said Mr. Palmer, who shot roughly 200 hours of footage and changed video formats six times to keep up with changing technology. He held a day job in the family business running trade shows, but always stored a camera in his desk.

“If the fights were more frequent, I could have finished more quickly, but I would not have captured them changing over time,” he said.

Through the years, Mr. Quinn McDonagh repeatedly declares he’s retiring, only to begin training again after the next taunting tape arrives. Then there is his brother Michael, who broods over a lost fight for a decade.

Will “Knuckle” affect the feuds? “I don’t expect the film to change what is hundreds of years of tradition,” Mr. Palmer said.

To Mr. Quinn McDonagh, the film had had a calming effect — for now. “These feuds change like the weather,” he said. “Anything can trigger anything.”

Anyway, calm never lasts in a traveler’s life, Mr. Quinn McDonagh said, finishing his pint. He recently moved his family to Wales after their home in Dublin was burned down by gangsters seeking one of his relatives. He said that his younger son, Huey, 19, is taken with bare-knuckle fighting, and that he has reluctantly agreed to train him.

“I don’t approve, but I can’t stop him,” Mr. Quinn McDonagh said. “It’s in the blood. It’s in the heart. I hope he doesn’t do it, but if he does, I want him to be prepared.”

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A young man, Pat, visits the clan of gypsy-like grifters (Irish Travellers) in rural North Carolina from whom he is descended. He is at first rejected, but cousin Bokky takes him on as an apprentice. Pat learns the game while Bokky falls in love and desires a different life. Written by Jeff Hole

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David Essex: gypsies, Shogun Warrior, paradiddles, Traveller

We interview musician and actor David Essex about his film career, gypsy heritage, almost taking John Travolta's role in Grease & more...

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As it says in his autobiography, David Essex means different things to different people. To some, he was a Jackie-magazine-fuelled adolescent obsession and the soundtrack to their youth. To others, he’s a star of musical theatre. To others still, he’s a former ambassador for aid charity VSO, head of the Gypsy Council, or neckerchief-wearing singer of the unavoidable-in-December  A Winter’s Tale .

To you he might have been lock-keeper Davey in eighties sitcom  The River , or that bloke who went out with Catherine Zeta-Jones before Michael Douglas (or, for that matter, with Sinitta at the same time as Simon Cowell). To  Eastenders fans, he’s antiques dealer and father of four, Eddie Moon.

To me, amongst other things, he’s the man whose face is on a tea towel in my kitchen. When I tell him this mid-interview, he laughs good-naturedly and later, as I’m leaving, says, “When you use that tea-towel, think of me”. In addition to the many things David Essex is, he’s also a little bit of a flirt.

I spoke to David Essex about his role in  Traveller , a new independent UK film set amongst the gypsy community in which he plays horse trader, Blackberry, opposite his real-life son, Billy Cook…

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You refer in your autobiography a number of times to having a gypsy soul, having gypsy blood, gypsy curls even… Is that what brought you to Traveller then, to represent that part of your heritage?

Both of us thought of that, Billy Cook my son, and myself. He got the lead part first and I thought that was great but it was a bit of a gamble because he hadn’t done much before and if he’s not any good, then the film’s not any good. So, then they contacted me and I read the script and I was very struck with the spirituality of his journey, because he plays a character who’s half gypsy and half non-gypsy and it’s about where he belongs and all that. So I said I’d play Blackberry.

I didn’t know how Billy was doing to begin with, I went down to where we were filming – we were very fortunate in as much as the travelling community and the gypsy community trusted the project so we were able to film on a proper site on traveller land and they were a great help. So I went down and had a scene with Billy and I was just blown away. I just thought he was so truthful and focussed, so I didn’t worry anymore.  I thought, ah, he’s going to be fine.

Is that important to you, truth? To present the truth of the gypsy community?

Yeah, because I know there’s good and bad in all communities, and they can be a handful obviously but it’s not My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding . It’s a way of life and it’s a very insular community that we don’t – I mean I did, but most people don’t – look into, and one you can’t get to look into and be a part of unless you’re trusted.

Trust is a big thing with the travelling community, and we were trusted and we were given access and I think we’ve given an insight into English gypsies that probably has not really been there with too many things, so that’s a big plus I think with the film.

The film isn’t a softened portrait of the gypsy lifestyle, there are bare-knuckle fights. There’s a cock-fight at one point…

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That’s right. A lot of these communities are basically outlaws, because they’re not involved in what we know as the norm, so they have to scratch about and find ways of making money for the kids and all the rest of it [laughs]. Sometimes that can cross over a bit.

You mentioned  My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding . Is the film intended as a sort of answer to that representation of traveller life?

No, no it’s not. It’s not carrying a banner for anybody, but I think what makes it interesting is the fact that we were allowed to draw upon their experiences, we were living with them, we were talking with them. I’ve always been aware of them because I was patron of the Gypsy Council and my granddad was a travelling tinker man from Cork. My mum always said, a line which I included in the film…

A land without gypsies…

[nods] …is a land without freedom. And in these very restrictive times, it’s even more important to me that there is a sense of freedom in somebody, instead of a camera being pointed at you and ‘you can’t do this and you can’t do that’, so all those aspects strike a chord with me. They’re quite resonant with me I think, so that’s why I got involved.

Since then, my son Billy’s done two films, he’s just done a drama for BBC One, and I think he’s going to be nominated for Best Newcomer by BAFTA, so he’s ticking over.

Well, he has a lot to live up to.

Yeah, but we don’t see it that way, that’s why he’s Billy Cook and not Billy Essex. Or not even Joey Essex! [To the PR] They keep saying he’s my son. People say ‘that’s your son isn’t it?’ [laughing]

Is there a part of you that wishes you could get away from the Essex name now that The Only Way Is Essex has come about?

No, no. The only reason I changed my name, because my name’s Cook as you know, was because I couldn’t join Equity as David Cook, there was a fella called David Cook. So I was living in Essex at the time – we’d just moved out from the East End – and my manager said, what about Essex? And I said okay.

It hasn’t done you badly has it?

No, it’s worked hasn’t it?

Is it fair to say that with Traveller and a number of your previous films, there seems to be an autobiographical element? Obviously the first two, That’ll Be The Day and Stardust , two stories about a young man becoming a world-famous pop star, had an awful lot of crossover. Even Silver Dream Racer had your love of bikes in it. Was that your choice or has that been just what comes to you?

No, I suppose it’s choice. Whatever comes, if it sparks a real interest… The play I’m doing wouldn’t be an autobiographical one, it’s called The Dishwashers .

Not based on your life then. Though you did do some grafter jobs before it all happened for you though, didn’t you?

I’ve done proper jobs, yeah [laughing]. But that play’s all about aspiration really and it’s quite political, it’s a very witty black comedy that’s never been done so we start that in January.

Generally, you’re quite right, that’s perceptive, if it strikes a chord with me [clicks fingers] then I’ll give it one hundred percent.

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Filming That’ll Be The Day , tell me, was there ever a moment at five in the morning, sat around the bar drinking with Keith Moon and Ringo Starr  when you thought, ‘Tomorrow’s scenes just aren’t going to happen’?

No, I was very professional. I would creep off. My wife and my daughter were with me on the Isle of Wight. We had a house in Shanklin, so I would try to get away.

It’s difficult isn’t it, because they’d be saying [puts an arm drunkenly around an imaginary him] ‘Come on Dave, are you going to have another?’ but no, I’d sort of slope off because I was aware, like Billy was aware in Traveller , if he didn’t come off, it’d be no film. I knew if I didn’t come off in That’ll Be The Day , it wouldn’t be a film. There’s a lot of people’s dreams and aspirations that you’re carrying and you’re responsible for. There’s that sense of duty and professionalism I’ve always tried to hang on to. If I’m doing a show, I won’t tear the arse out of it, I’ll go to bed. Boring, but that’s the way it is.

I grew up around where you were filming on the Isle of Wight…

Did you? Well, you know that film ran there forever, because everybody was in it. So they’d all go and watch themselves and say ‘There I am!’ and it ran there for months and months and months.

One of my teachers was an extra in it.

There you go. It’s a lovely place.

Not all of your film work is autobiographical of course, you were never a sword-fighting Spanish Duke [as he played in 1991’s martial arts film Shogun Warrior/Journey Of Honor ] in real life.

[Laughs] No! I don’t think I’ll ever be a Spanish Duke again with that strange French/Jewish accent!

Do you have fond memories of filming that?

It was mad, it was mad. I was over in Los Angeles for some reason and somebody said ‘Do you want to do this film’, and I said ‘A Spanish Duke? Yeah, sounds like an adventure’, because I never thought it’d see the light of day and anybody would know I’d been in it!

It was odd because all the fight directors were all Japanese so I couldn’t… and there were these big sword fights. It was ridiculous, I think the director must have been in his hundreds he was so old, I don’t know where they got him from, and he was very cranky.

We seemed to be sitting around a lot in Croatia, which was okay, but not doing very much, me and Ronald Pickup, who’s a lovely actor, we’d just sit there. My sons, the twins, were very impressed because apparently Shô Kosugi is like a martial arts hero but I’d never heard of him.

Your other co-star was Christopher Lee of all people.

Is it right that he saved your eyesight on set after a stunt went wrong?

Yeah he did, yeah, because we were using these musket things and there was bad feeling between the Serbians and the Croatians, you could feel there was going to be trouble, and one of them just filled this musket up with all this powder and it went ‘whack’ into my eye. I was ready to go on, but Christopher Lee said ‘No, you’ve got to get it treated’. So we went off to one hospital and that was shut and we had to go on and get me all stitched up. [Laughing] It was mad.

If there’s something about a project that resonates though, I’m there, because I get offered a lot of things and I think, ‘I’m not going to do that’.

Does that go back to your old manager, Derek [Bowman]? Have you internalised his sort of, ‘No, David, don’t do that’?

Occasionally I think of him, yes. Because he was always very very suspicious of television, so I’ve not done much TV. I know I did Eastenders , but that was more for my mum, because she loved Eastenders. So I do have that, yeah, a lot of words of wisdom that float by occasionally from Derek.

Different times now, you know, but I would never do a reality show or any of that nonsense.

You wouldn’t?

Well you’re a busy man. I laughed actually, reading your book; you describe yourself as semi-retired because you’re only doing one album and one tour a year. For a lot of performers, that would be a full-on schedule.

I know, what happened there?

Compared to say, someone like, say, Scott Walker, who came around a bit before you and went through a similar sort of phase with the teenage fans in The Walker Brothers and then moved away from it, and he’s now doing one album every ten years…

[Laughs] Oh, I couldn’t wait that long.

You couldn’t? What drives you then?

I’m less driven then it was. I always wanted to get to tomorrow today. That was a fault I think, because I never savoured any success that I’ve had, it was always, ‘Oh, number one, nice, what’s next?’

Now I’m older, obviously, there’s not so many days in the future, so I think I take stock a little bit more, but I’ve still got that insatiable urge to move on. Being able to work in all those different mediums for me is the key, being able to float from one to the other, it’s different, it feels fresh again.

Like you’re making progress?

Yeah, it’s a change. A change is as good as a rest, isn’t it?

So they say! I’m interested in your perspective on British film over the years, because you’re working now in independent UK film with Traveller and…

Meet The Guv’nors

…yes, and a few decades ago you were working on That’ll Be The Day so you must have seen a lot of changes. How have things changed in the industry from your perspective?

I think more people are trying to make films with very low budgets, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all, but then you hit a point where those films never get promoted, because they’re not big million, billion dollar films, that gets a little bit depressing. For instance, Traveller is only a limited release. It’s in cinemas, which is a big deal really for a film like that as opposed to going straight to DVD.

I’m always a little bit disappointed in as much as there seems to be two kinds of British films, the period ones, where they do throw a bit of money at it, and then the bang crash wallop type, you know? Like Meet The Guv’nors is all about [adopts a rough, growly accent] gang warfare, you know what I’m saying.

East End gangs?

Yeah, well, Thamesmead. It’s about gangland warfare between two generations. Good film, nice script and all the rest of it, but wouldn’t it be nice if there were different kinds of films instead of the period drama and [does the growly voice] ‘I’ll knock your lights out’. It seems to me there are those two and not much in the middle, whereas I think, Traveller has got a bit of spirituality about it. I’d like to see more of that. I’d like to see more poetry in British film.

Do you think there used to be poetry in British film, but it’s gone?

Brief Encounter is a beautiful film – isn’t that a great film? It’s poetic. I know it’s very posh and very clipped and of a bygone era, but it’s absolutely beautiful.

It’s quite a small film isn’t it? I mean in terms of story, it’s very contained, just about two people.

Yes, it’s lovely. There’s no… it’s just people, it’s about people. I like films like that. I prefer films like that. I can’t stand films where they’ve got all special effects. I mean, I went to see Skyfall and thought, what a waste of money this is.

Oh, you’re not a Bond fan?

Michael Apted [ That’ll Be The Day director] went on to do one of those.

Did he? No, I like films about people and what happens to them.

You’re not a fan of those East End gangster films as a rule then, Danny Dyer films?

Do you watch Jason Statham films?

I actually don’t. I’ve got a problem here, I have to speak to Debbie [his PR] about, I’m supposed to name five favourite films and I don’t watch films.

I think I’ve seen Brief Encounter , I’ve seen Terminator and a few films on the plane.

You must have seen your own? Though I suppose it would be bad form to name those in your top five…

[laughing] Imagine! Number one, Silver Dream Racer , then That’ll Be The Day , Stardust , and don’t forget Shogun Warrior .

No, cinema to me seems like a waste of time. I much prefer going together on a journey with live actors in the theatre, so I don’t know about films really. I enjoyed that The Great Gatsby , I saw that on the airplane.

The Baz Luhrmann one?

I really was interested by the score of that because it’s like a strange mixture and mish-mash, I thought that was good.

Jay-Z did it I think.

Yeah, I saw that. I thought it was really good.

Another sort of trend in your film appearances is that they don’t tend to have happy endings…

[Laughs] I know, I like that. I went to see War Horse recently and I thought, ‘Why didn’t they shoot the horse?’

[Laughter] You must have been the only person to come away thinking that!

[Laughing] I was, the only person. I’ve got this dark side to me that likes that. It’s funny, because on Silver Dream Racer , they changed the end for American audiences.

I noticed that! If you read the Wikipedia entry now it says the film ends with Danny crossing the finish line first.

There you go. They had to change it because America couldn’t stand the fact that the hero died.

Is that reluctance to have a big, shiny happy ending is something to do with being British? You’ve described yourself as “very, very English” in your book, which is why you couldn’t really settle in America at the height of your music career.

It might be, it might be. It might just be a [adopts mysterious ominous voice] a strange darkness in my character.

Your innate need to kill off horses…

I just thought it would be shocking [in War Horse ] if they’ve gone through this whole thing – I’m talking about the stage show, I’ve never seen the film – and he finds the horse and all the rest of it, and then there’s a German guy who’s just about the shoot the horse – [laughing] shoot the bloody horse!

About your Englishness, I was surprised to hear that you’d been in the running for John Travolta’s very American role in Grease.

Did you consider it?

I considered it, I’m glad they never asked me to do it, because I thought John Travolta was great. [Sings] ‘You’re the one that I want, ooh ooh ooh.’ [laughter].

Do you ever do that one on karaoke?

Never. I never do karaoke. I don’t enjoy singing to be honest. Mad isn’t it?

Just now or…?

I’ve never really enjoyed it. I’m a drummer that’s what really I am, and it’s gone downhill from there! But I enjoy communicating and I like writing and writing lyrics and so on, and a few of my songs mean a lot to a lot of people, that’s nice, but the actual thing of singing… I always find it interesting, like, if I’m doing a musical, you can always hear everybody singing all over the place, and nothing from my dressing room. I just have a cup of tea, have a fag and go and do it.

It’s just a job to you?

It’s the communication I like. It’s not like [in an impressively operatic singing voice] ‘I’ve got a great voice, I’ve got to siiiiing’ like they do, they just walk up and down doing [does an effortless operatic scale] all these warm ups that they’ve been taught at stage school and of course, I never went to stage school. I had to learn in front of audiences.

Out of your dressing room then, is just the sound of biros drumming on the desks and walls?

I’ve got over that. That’s a syndrome that drummers have, but I’ve kind of got over that. I’m not still doing my paradiddles. Shall I teach you how to do a paradiddle?

Go on then.

Okay. Right, left, right, right [taps out a rhythm on the table with his fingers, I follow it]. Good, now, left, right, left, left [I do it] That’s it, you’ve just learnt a right-handed paradiddle and a left-handed paradiddle.

So if I’m ever called to the stage…

You can paradiddle.

And I can say I was taught by a master.

[Laughs] They’re military rudiments that you learn as a drummer. So you’ve got that [starts tapping away, getting faster and faster]. You need that speed, right? [more impressively fast drumming].

[I don’t have that speed] The idea of you in Grease really tickled me.

It’s hysterical.

Well, not because you wouldn’t have been great in it.

Oh, I don’t know about that!

But because That’ll Be The Day is almost an opposite to Grease isn’t it? One’s so English and about being an English teenager in a realist way, and the other’s so American and marshmallow-y.

It is, yeah. That’s right.

You actually found yourself being taken a little bit more seriously by the American music press than in the UK after all the Essex mania happened, is that fair to say?

Yes, that’s right, because over there, there wasn’t that kind of presence that I had here with the fan magazines and all the rest of it, it was out of my control and a little bit bewildering.

I was saying to a journalist earlier, fame and fortune has never been my motivation. It’s always been the project or the adventure of doing something rather than, I want to be famous. That’s vacuous, that’s pointless. Because once you’re famous, what is there?

That’s the message of Stardust in a nutshell isn’t it?

Exactly, exactly.

Going back to musical theatre, your show All the Fun of the Fair and fairgrounds generally sum up some of your work quite nicely don’t they? You’ve got the showbiz glitz and glamour – the Hold Me Close, Top of the Pops stuff – but underneath is something a bit dark, a bit dangerous – the bit that doesn’t like happy endings and wants the horse to die in War Horse ?

Yeah, I suppose that’s part of my make-up.

I am a nice person I think. I think I’m a good person. Dark things appeal to me much more than pink and frilly. That’s what I look for. I look for levels and obviously, there is no drama without conflict, so you need that.

You’ll have to forgive me for this question, but as it’s this time of year, can I ask if you’ll be doing your Christmas shopping soon?

Yeah, I’ve got five grandkids now, I like to get out and about and get their stuff.

So like the rest of us then, you must hear A Winter’s Tale a few times with every shopping trip?

Yes. But that’s generally supermarkets, I try and keep out of those, it causes a bit of a stir.

Do you ever find yourself walking around those supermarkets hearing it and thinking, that’s another 10p of royalties in [songwriters] Tim Rice and Mike Batt’s pockets?

Nah. I don’t think that way. I think, I’ll duck, if I’m in a supermarket I’ll duck, otherwise they’ll say, come on Dave, join in. Give us a verse.

David Essex, thank you very much!

Traveller is in selected cinemas and VOD from the 6th of December and on DVD on the 27th of January 2014.

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Louisa Mellor | @Louisa_Mellor

Louisa Mellor is the Den of Geek UK TV Editor. She has written about TV, film and books for Den of Geek since 2010, and for…

Appeals lodged against 'vulnerable' flood risk gypsy and traveller sites plans

A ppeals have been lodged against refusals for two new gypsy and traveller pitches in the county. Officials at Harborough District Council had previously rejected both amid flooding fears, but the applicant is contesting that.

Ruben Arrowsmith had aimed to erect the two separate pitches - one is for a mobile home with ramp access for a gypsy and traveller pitch, and the other is for a mobile home, with a dayroom and hardstanding - for Bowden Lane in Welham last year. The respective applications, which were submitted in October and November 2023, were both rejected by planning officials .

In their decision, the borough council said both pitches fell within a "highly vulnerable" flood risk area , and the proposed flood risk mitigation measures were inadequate. The council also believed the pitches' remote location meant there was a "high likelihood" private cars were needed, but Mr Arrowsmith disagrees.

READ MORE: Demolition date set for building at heart of controversial Lidl plan

In his appeal, Mr Arrowsmith said the land at Cosy Corner Stables on Bowden Lane, in Welham , is bordered by a site known as Stable View to the east. He said there is a "lawful" travelling showperson’s site, along the opposite side of Bowden Lane, known as Wild Meadow.

Included in the documentation, Mr Arrowsmith sent in the planning application for Wild Meadow, which was overturned at appeal, for one mobile home for the use of a travelling showman. This was approved 14 years ago, in May 2010.

Documents note that access to the appeal site is from Bowden Lane, which is a single-track country lane. Mr Arrowsmith added previous planning documents to his appeal, which included Cosy Corner Stables. Planning permission for this area was granted in September 2017 for the change of use of the front half of the site to equestrian use, together with permission for hardstanding and erection of stables.

Planning permission was then granted for the area in February 2021, for the change of use of the rear half of the site to equestrian use, together with the laying of hardstanding and erection of stables.

The appellant also sent in five other examples of gypsy and traveller site planning applications that were overturned at appeal, including four pitches at Mere Lane, Bitteswell, Lutterworth , and further pitches in Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire and Shawbury.

The applicant has requested a hearing take place for the decision, and explained: "This appeal relates to the appellant's home and raises issues of need, the availability of alternative sites, flood risk, personal circumstances and needs of the child. These issues can only be properly considered by means of an oral hearing."

An appeal decision date has not been set. Anyone wishing to make representations on the appeal or add to earlier comments, should send three copies of their letter to "the Planning Inspectorate, Room 3/09, Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, Temple Quay, Bristol, BS1 6PN" quoting appeal reference APP/F2415/W/24/3342312 or APP/F2415/W/24/3342250 respectively. Comments need to be received by Tuesday, September 24.

We are now bringing you the latest updates on WhatsApp first

25 Best Travel Movies Of All Time (Films That Will Inspire You To Travel)

1. Into the Wild

2. The Motorcycle Diaries

3. The Beach

5. 180° South

7. One Week

9. And Your Mother Too

10. The Darjeeling Limited

11. Encounters at the End of the World

12. The Bucket List

13. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

14. Out of Africa

15. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

16. Qué tan lejos

17. The Endless Summer

18. Easy Rider

19. The Art of Travel

20. A Map for Saturday

21. Vicky Cristina Barcelona

22. Hit the Road: India

23. Away We Go

24. Lost in Translation

25. Under the Tuscan Sun

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The 4 Best Portable DVD Players for Every Movie Buff and Traveler

No Wi-Fi? No problem.

If you buy something from the links on this page, we may earn a commission. Why Trust Us?

Similar to having a roadside assistance plan, a portable DVD player is one of those things you don’t realize is an absolute lifesaver until you need it. This trusty device can keep your kids entertained in the backseat on a road trip , add some movie magic to a camping trip, or give you a much-needed distraction during a blackout — popcorn not included (but highly recommended!).

Just like flip phones , point-and-shoot cameras , and wired headphones , portable DVD players are one of many retro tech gadgets that are making a comeback. This trend reflects a growing interest in disconnecting from the online world and tapping into a more intimate (and old school!) experience, whether we're watching movies or taking photos of friends. Here’s a breakdown of portable DVD players that promise to make every night a movie night , even when the Wi-Fi is sluggish or the power is out.

Best Portable DVD Players

• Best Overall: DBPOWER 12” Portable DVD Player
• Big Screen: BOIFUN 17.5” Portable DVD Player
• Best Budget: YOTON 9.5" Portable DVD Player
• Best Blu-ray Player: NAVISKAUTO 17.5" Portable Blu-Ray DVD Player

What to Consider

Portable DVD players can vary greatly in terms of screen size, battery life, audiovisual quality, and price. You’ll want to strike a balance between something that works for your specific needs — whether that’s enjoying cinematic masterpieces on a high-resolution screen or a durable device for young kids that can withstand some wear and tear—and something that doesn’t break the bank. Here are some factors to consider as you shop for a portable DVD player.

Battery Life

When you’re investing in a portable DVD player, no other factors are quite as important as battery life. At a minimum, it should be able to play a typical two-hour movie on a full charge. But ideally, it could hold enough power to keep you entertained for several hours, as you’re most likely to use the device when you have little to no access to a power outlet. Check the specs of the device, along with reviews from other customers, to get a sense of a portable DVD player’s battery life.

Screen Resolution and Size

Look for a portable DVD player with a clear, high-resolution screen that will display a crisp, high-quality image. Size matters too, especially for travel—opt for a balance between portability and screen size for optimal viewing. If you plan to use the portable DVD player mainly at home, consider upgrading to a larger screen for a better picture.

Audio Components

Like image quality, good audio makes for a better movie-watching experience. Look for portable DVD players with at least two built-in speakers and a headphone jack so you can listen privately when you’re in a noisy environment or shared space. If you prefer wireless headphones, invest in a player with Bluetooth connectivity.

Quality and Durability

Unlike devices designed primarily for home use, portable DVD players are intended for use on the go. That means they should withstand some bumps and drops. Look for a device with a solid build quality. If you see other customers complain that the portable DVD player they bought broke easily, keep looking for something more durable—especially if your kids are going to use it. The best portable DVD players should serve you for several years or more.

How We Selected

We read hundreds of reviews from Amazon customers to see which portable DVD players delivered the best picture quality and projected clear sound. Another major factor we considered was battery life. We generally looked for portable DVD players that could play at least two full-length movies before needing to be recharged and noted when a device had a subpar battery. We rounded out our review with picks that could be great for travel and could read Blu-ray discs (these are for movie buffs, after all!).

Here’s a look at which devices topped our list of the best portable DVD players.

DBPOWER 12” Portable DVD Player

The DBPOWER 12" portable DVD player won us over for its long battery life (enough to watch two to three movies on a full charge!), vibrant screen, and travel-friendly design. It's less than 2 pounds, so you'll barely notice it in a bag. And it comes with a lot of great features for a relatively low price, earning it our pick as the best overall portable DVD player. Families who love to travel will appreciate having this portable DVD player on their next getaway. One of the device’s coolest features is its 10.5-inch swivel screen — it has a sturdy joint that allows it to rotate up to 280 degrees and flip 180 degrees, making it easier to help kids in tight spaces (like the backseat of a car) get a clear, glare-free view of their movie. It can even be attached to the car headrest on road trips.

With its high-capacity 2500 mAh rechargeable lithium battery, this portable DVD player promises up to five hours of run time—enough to watch a couple of movies. It boasts an AV output, so you can watch movies on a bigger screen, along with inputs for headphones, USB cables, and a microSD card. In other words, you should have no trouble connecting it to all sorts of media. It also comes with a handy remote control for added convenience.

While we wish it had better sound quality, we think this portable DVD player gets the job done well. It would make a wonderful gift for parents of toddlers who want a way to keep their little ones entertained on long car rides.

YOTON 9.5" Portable DVD Player

Whether you’re looking for a gift for a traveler or a reliable device that won’t break the bank, this portable DVD player deserves your consideration. At just 1.5 pounds and 9.5 inches — most of which are taken up by the 7.5-inch screen — this compact device is easy to pack in a bag for a trip.

It features a set of dual speakers to deliver stereo sound. Its built-in 2500mAh battery will keep the device powered for 4 to 6 hours at a time, which is enough for at least a couple of movies. It also comes with a power adapter and a car charger. As for connectivity, this portable DVD player features inputs for a USB cable, SD card, and 3.5-millimeter headphone jack.

Another cool feature of this player is its break-point memory function. If you turn off the device in the middle of a movie and then turn it back on again, it will take you to the exact place you left off.

Given its sub-$50 price tag, this portable DVD player boasts an impressive array of features. We think it’s one of the best values you can get if you don’t mind looking at a small screen.

BOIFUN 17.5” Portable DVD Player

Size isn’t everything, but it can make a huge difference when watching a movie — which is what makes it one of the best portable DVD players you can buy. Its large 15.6-inch screen, which can swivel and flip, means you won’t have to squint to see the details of the display.

Considering the screen size, it’s especially impressive that this device can play movies continuously for up to six hours on a single charge, thanks to its 5000mAh Battery. It comes with an AC power adapter and a car charger so you can recharge the battery when you’re on the move. You’ll also find a remote control and AV cable in the box.

Given its long battery life and big screen, this portable DVD player would be a fun gift for a kid who has become obsessed with movies and wants to be able to watch them anywhere they go. It’s also worth having around at home as a back-up to your TV during a power outage — the entire family can gather around the player for movie night on the couch.

NAVISKAUTO 17.5" Portable Blu-Ray DVD Player

This portable DVD player will make you feel like you have a private cinema at your fingertips. Its screen is impressive, spanning 15.4 inches and offering 1920x1080 resolution. It delivers a Dolby audio experience through its dual speakers or your home stereo using the included aux cable. Unlike many other portable DVD players, this one can play Blu-ray discs, which give you a sharper picture and better sound quality.

All those benefits do come with a downside, though — a big drain on the battery. The built-in 4,000mAh lithium-ion only runs for about three hours at full charge, so you’ll want to keep a charger handy if you’re in the mood to binge-watch a series or get through “Gone with the Wind” in its entirety.

It’s on the pricier side, but overall, this portable DVD player is a solid pick if you want something that plays Blu-ray discs (or you’re looking to splurge on a gift for a movie buff).

Electronics

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