TRAVELLERS GOT TALENT

FROM community.livejournal.com

FROM THE DAILY STAR

"You’ve got 300,000 travellers in Britain who have been hiding talent under a bushel".   Jake Bowers

9th March 2011

BY PAUL ROBINS

A BIG fat bidding war has broken out as telly bosses fight to bring Travellers Got Talent to our screens.

Producers are desperate to secure the rights to the show after the Daily Star revealed it was set to be a smash hit.

They reckon it could catapult gypsy performers into superstardom..

Insiders are tipping it to be even bigger than Channel 4’s hit series Big Fat Gypsy Weddings.

Last year’s talent hunt, based on Britain’s Got Talent, was the talk of gypsy camps nationwide.

And organisers say they have been swamped with offers to take the concept onto primetime TV.

Jake Bowers, from the Gypsy Media Company, said: “It would be phenomenal. There are so many talented people within the traveller community.

“Last year’s contest didn’t get the coverage it should have done.

“What it needed was for a big company to take it onto a national stage.

“We’ve already had calls from production companies who want to turn it into something.”

Hundreds of performers with Romany roots battled it out last year, with a final at Stowmarket, Suffolk.

They included the Doyle family band, made up of seven children who all play instruments, and 15-year-old winner Olivia Ayres.

Jake said: “You’ve got 300,000 travellers in Britain who have been hiding talent under a bushel.”

He believes Travellers Got Talent would provide a real insight into gypsy life and repair damage caused by the Channel 4 show.

“It would be a great thing if handled right,” he said.