Acting Up With The BBC

Brothers Tom and Pender Buckley are from St. Neots. They are two of the youngest Romany Gypsies to work for the BBC.

They play Travellers in in the BBC's first-ever series made for, and about, the Gypsy community.

Tom and Pender Buckley live on their family's caravan site just outside St. Neots in Cambridgeshire. They've lived their since they were born.

Like most Travellers they love their animals: Pender is getting interested in breeding dogs, and Tom keeps Japanese chickens.

But what makes Tom and Pender stand out is that they've just finished recording a radio drama series about Travellers for the BBC.

And they're not new to the business, either: they'd already acted in a series last year!

The boys relished the chance join in making a realistic drama about Travellers.

“Normally when you see Travellers in films, you'll think “That's not right”, only silly little things, but it makes a difference”, says Pender. “I saw one programme where a boy was letting a dog lick his plate. It's not right.”

“It's in the way they talk, the things they do, their reactions”, says Tom.

Atching Tan is airing on BBC radio stations across the East of England until Christmas, as well as on the BBC website. And thousands of people will hear Tom and Pender playing Travellers on the airwaves. Does that make them nervous?

“I'd get nervous acting in a film”, says Tom. “But doing it through speech isn't so bad. They've got no proof it's you!”

“We got the chance to work with professional actors. It was really good”, says Pender.

And we hope to hear more from Tom and Pender, and other talented young Travellers, in the future.

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Tom Buckley plays Ambrose Buckton, and Pender Buckley plays Ethan Arkley in the second series of Atching Tan by Dan Allum and the Romany Theatre Company. Atching Tan is airing this autumn on BBC radio and internet radio.