Several recent television productions have embraced ritual - a classic topic for anthropologists! These shows have sought to document, explore, and interrogate ritual as both spectacle and concept for wide audiences. Interestingly, whilst they have looked at rituals from all over the globe, they have also highlighted how ritual behaviours infuse lives here in the contemporary UK.

At this event, members of the team behind BBC’s Extraordinary Rituals (producers Simon Bell and Tuppence Stone) and Channel 4’s Grayson Perry: Rites of Passage (producer Neil Crombie, of Swan Films) join us to reflect on the nature of ritual, and share their experiences of bringing the power of ritual to the TV screen.

We’ll consider which rituals make good TV, the sensitivities of filming such powerful and personal moments in people’s lives, and how these productions have encouraged British audiences to examine their own rituals.