Movie that inspired a moving series
during a game of “secret whispers” while the family were on holiday in Blackpool – and the show reveals how the marriage turned five of his eldest children against him.
“They were against the marriage, and we haven’t spoken since. So it’s gone that way. But you know, it’s fine by me.”
Tony agrees the falling-out depicted on our screens was serious, but said: “They will need me before I need them. That’s the way I see it. The five children have the same mother, but none of them want to speak. Please themselves. It’s got nothing to do with the documentary, it just happened.”
The colourful trainer, something of a local celebrity, has eight children from four women.
There’s also the possibility of a ninth child, a daughter, who undergoes a DNA test during the filming of the show – with the results revealed in the documentary.
Tony’s life has been punctuated by drama.
He revealed, after filming was finished, that one of his older boys is serving an eight-and-ahalf year jail sentence for conspiracy to deal drugs.
“He wasn’t dealing to people on the street,” he said. “It was to those higher up, you know.”
The director has told the Borgs that their story could potentially become a new reality series.
“The documentary has helped me in a way,” said a thoughtful Tony, “talking about my children. But I’ve always been open about it anyway. My children all know who their mother is, they’ve all been brought up together, holidayed together.they’re not strangers to each other.
“But that’s the way it is now. I grew up without my dad. I didn’t know him. My mum brought me up but she died when I was 17. Boxing kept me out of prison.”
Emma said: “I think the two families coming together like this is quite typical.”
Asked if he’d like to be a reality TV star, Tony laughed: “It goes over my head, everything does. I just want one more World Champion, two more European champs.
That’s my target.”
● This Is Our Family – The Borgs, Sky Atlantic, Tuesday, 10pm, and Now TV.
THE BORGS is the first of four films in a series that was inspired by the film Boyhood.
In that ground-breaking movie, the producers and directors followed the story for many years to develop a rapport with the talent.
Sky Atlantic executive producer Ben Gale said: “We wanted to make a documentary series that shared that movie’s drama and ambition, capturing an epic sense of time passing and the unthinkable change it can bring.
“It felt like everyone else was filming in hospitals and police stations, but we wanted to make documentaries that were unapologetically domestic.”
The documentary team spent nine months in casting the families, searching across the country for suitable subjects.
Gale said, “It was no simple matter”.they had to be sure the stories “would unfold over a number of years”. He added: “We had to be sure the long-term commitment would be healthy and productive for everyone concerned.”
The directors from This Is Our Family spent three years with each family, sometimes in deeply traumatic times for them, before editing their story down to just under an hour’stv.
Each documentary is raw, and emotional.the series begins withthe Borgs then goes on to follow the Hoyles family in Hull when their first baby is born with a life-threatening condition.
Week three follows a family in Margate with 86-year-old Irene dealing with dementia while the final instalment focuses on father-to-sixvinnie Nailor who has spent the majority of his adult life in prison.