Gypsy Blood documentary prompts Ofcom and RSPCA investigations
Channel 4 documentary Gypsy Blood has been branded by some viewers as “vile” and “repugnant” after it featured young children being encouraged to be violent.
The show aired on January 19th, and even as it aired, the channel, Ofcom and the RSPCA were receiving complaints from viewers who claimed that it depicted what amounted to child abuse and cruelty to animals.
Ofcom received 289 complaints about Gypsy Blood, and C4 also received a number of –as yet undisclosed – complaints.
A spokesman for Ofcom said the complaints were “being assessed” while a Channel 4 spokeswoman said of the film, which was directed by Leo Maguire, and seen by more than 2million viewers, “To accurately reflect the experiences of the film-maker who spent years documenting the culture of two gypsy families, including hunting and fighting, some scenes were included that viewers may have found difficult to watch but were justified in context…”
“The programme was preceded by on air warnings and appropriately scheduled.”
Meanwhile, the RSPCA stated that they would also be making an official complaint.
A statement from the animal charity read, “The RSPCA has now begun an investigation into activities shown in the programme.
“We would urge anyone who shares our concern at the programme’s content to also contact Channel 4 and Ofcom to register their disapproval.”
What did you think of the show? I didn’t watch it – but will be doing when I get chance – so I’d be interested to know if you agree with the complainants or if you enjoyed the programme and felt it was indeed a fair and accurate depiction of gypsy life.
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Best doc of the decade!
OMG. I’m going to watch it again now….
I watch a lot of quality docs and tnis was right up there with the best. Insightful, compelling and repulsive in equal measures, surely the complaints should be directed at the subjects who were indeed filmed drink driving, hunting with dogs, causing ABH/GBH etc. Don’t shoot the messenger! Leo McGuire’s film was a masterpiece, so real it made BFGWs look like an ITV drama!
Any one who knows anything about the Gypsy culture would expect this in a gypsy doc, why people complain when they can just not watch it is beyond me. this is real and this is how these people live.
I thought it was a fantastic documentary (watched it yesterday). It was absolutely vile in some places, especially the cock fighting scene, but that wasn’t the fault of the documentary makers or Channel 4 for airing it. It was vile because ALL animal abuse is vile.
As for the hunting and kids fighting scenes, I don’t think they were that bad. If you’re a meat eater, as most of us are, the animals killed for food certainly had a better death than anything killed in a slaughterhouse. The kids boxing were just doing what kids do – but under adult supervision, as opposed to out of sight where things can arguably go very wrong. I’d rather it didn’t happen at all, but the kids seemed happy to be involved and they were supervised.
So in short, I agree with Scottie above: a fantastic piece of documentary film that featured some inhuman behaviour that should definitely be investigated by the right welfare people. Bravo to the production crew for getting the trust of the people involved (most of whom seemed like decent people) in order to fairly document what goes on.