Stacey Dooley: Growing Up Gypsy | Preview (BBC Three)

Stacey heads to Bedfordshire to the private site where 23 year old Chantelle lives with her husband Swayley. Chantelle prides herself in keeping with the ‘old’ Gypsy values her granny Rita taught her and sharing them on social media where she’s blown up with nearly 400K followers on TikTok and 15 million likes on her page.

Her chalet is where she films all her ‘Gypsy Cleaning’ videos for her loyal fanbase. Chantelle shares her cleaning hacks with Stacey, “We don’t do cleaning by halves, we clean to perfection. It’s my superpower and you’d be surprised how good it makes me feel about myself!”

Over 2 months Stacey gets to know Chantelle and husband Swayley, hearing what courting looked like for this young couple, the reaction Chantelle has had to her viral videos and the vital role of family in their lives. 18 year old Serena and her family live in Lincolnshire and welcome Stacey into their bustling family life, Serena explains to Stacey why they’ve decided to invite her into their home, “It is nice for people to see we are normal people and we aren’t aliens.“

Serena is in the middle of planning her wedding to her fiancé Marco. He is from a Gypsy and Traveller community too and Serena wouldn’t have it any other way, “I couldn’t go out with a non-Traveller. My family wouldn’t allow it and it’s just not what I want.”

Spending time with Serena’s sister Ivana, and mum Teresa as they help Serena get organised for the biggest step in a Gypsy girl’s life, Stacey learns why this community often chooses to marry within their own as it enables them to protect the values and traditions they hold dear. Serena’s been searching high and low for all the things she going to need to create her new married home.

But she can’t find exactly what she wants, “I’m decorating the whole bungalow in gold, white and taupe, but it’s so hard to find what I want in gold!” Serena gets Stacey mucking out the horses in her stable where Serena has taken her childhood passion for horse-riding to launch her own business where she buys, breeds and sells horses.

The Traveller community has long been associated with horses but the business is usually left to the men; Serena is breaking the mould at just 18 years old. Stacey is surprised to hear that Serena often feels it’s best to keep her ethnicity hidden when she’s meeting potential clients as she fears they may not want to do business with her, “Racism towards travellers will never change. You’ve just got to be thick skinned and learn to live with it”.

9 In Nottinghamshire Stacey meets a young woman taking a new job in a busy, thriving salon in the ‘gorger’ (non-Traveller) world. At an age when many Gypsy and Traveller women may be hoping to get married, 22 year old Ebony is pushing ahead with her career in beauty.

Stacey joins her for her first day at the new salon and Ebony confides in Stacey about the compromises you sometimes have to make to fit into the ‘gorger’ world. “Some girls hide the fact that they are a Traveller, I’ve done it myself at jobs.” But, proud of her Gypsy heritage, Ebony has found a salon where she isn’t afraid to own who she is.

Stacey Dooley: Growing Up Gypsy airs 27th March on BBC Three.