Grayson Perry: Rites of Passage: Season 1, Episode 2

1 - 2: Marriage

Grayson Perry continues his exploration of the importance of ritual in our lives. Grayson visits Japan, where he attends a spectacular Shinto wedding. He's awe-struck by the ceremony's beauty, precision and attention to detail. And in Japan he finds a modern, high-tech society that nevertheless keeps its reverence for its ritual traditions: a combination that he believes we can learn from. Back in the UK, Grayson meets Ben and Sarika, a couple from very different backgrounds who are planning two weddings. Sarika belongs to the Hare Krishna faith, so her side of the family are staging a traditional religious ceremony. But the couple are also planning a civil ceremony the following day. Ben's from a non-religious background, and they're struggling to devise an occasion that expresses his cultural heritage. So Grayson helps them to come up with a secular ceremony with some of the magic and sense of occasion of the religious one.