September 4th (Insomnia)

NOTE: This was written before Tyson was beaten by Alexander Usyk

What Is It. A documentary about Tyson Fury, boxing heavyweight champion and his family

What is it on? Netflix

Synopsis: Tyson Fury, for those who live on Mars, is the former heavyweight champion of the world. He is probably better than most of his contenders, Usyk, Joshua, et. al even though Usyk holds all the other belts. Usyk won them from Joshua who is probably past his best.

Whether the Fury/Usyk to unify the division is 50/50

Anyway, boxing is irrelevant we are talking about the TV show.

Whilst I was growing up and to some extent grown up, I was fed a stereotype about traveller folk. In Viz, the adult comic did a cartoon called ‘Those Thieving Gipsy Bastards’, which fed me a stereotype that all Romany and Irish Folk were thieving awful bastards. They would stay in a field without permission and would leave a piles of shit on the field that they had been staying on and also fly tip rusty metal for no good reason.

This was not helped by the Guy Ritchie film ‘Snatch’ which opened with the line ‘I fucking hate Pikeys’, If Guy Ritchie said it, it must be true.

The next generation was more inclusive with a tv series called ‘My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding’ where they would ‘as it said on the tin’ have gipsy getting married and also explore all the aspects of the culture. It would interview Gipsy’s and have the saga up to their wedding. They would choose to follow the ones with most exaggerated personalities.

Anyway why have I gone all Politically Correct regarding Romany folk. I watched this show and I learnt that travelling people are real people and not cartoon characters as they are portrayed in the media.

I learnt that Tyson is a troubled man. Whilst he is boxing he is happy, If he does not have a goal his bi polar kicks in. When we see him front of the camera promoting a fight he is ‘Showman Tyson’. The real Tyson is a completely different person behind the one we see in front of the tv.

Also his wife and children and are real people. Not the cartoons we see in the media past. However we were shut off from seeing the Daughters conformation party where we may have seen some colourful dresses. The kind we saw in ‘Big Fat Gipsy Wedding’   

Did I like it?

It was alright. Possibly one for my friend Jane 😊. Could have been a few episodes shorter. However those who like their traveller folk, I have read a book about the life of a traveller so I do kinda, will like it.

One thing I do give Tyson credit for is that lots of people want to have their selfie with him. I couldn’t handle that so credit.