Channel 4 doc slate to lift veil on Gypsy weddings

Published: 02 April 2009 09:39 Author: Robin Parker

Firecracker Films is to lift the lid on extravagant Gypsy weddings in a Channel 4 documentary.
The indie is filming several Romany weddings, which typically cost £100,000 – five times the UK average – for the Cutting Edge film.

The weddings often feature lavish decorations, horse-drawn carriages, extravagant fireworks, and a teenage bride in a 20-stone wedding dress.

C4 commissioning editor for factual entertainment Alistair Pegg ordered the film. He said that it would reveal a "moral world of traditional values" among the Gypsy community.

Pegg has also commissioned The World's Oldest Mums (working title), a Cutting Edge doc from Blast! Films. It will meet two Indian women who made headlines last year by giving birth in their early 70s.

Director Amanda Blue, who previously made Prescott: The Class System and Me, will explore the taboo of women over 50 who have a baby. In the UK, 100 women over 50 have IVF each year, and 20 of them give birth.

"As a nation we still have a kneejerk opinion, rooted in disgust, on this issue, but the film will show how science is way ahead of us," said Pegg.

The commissioner has also greenlit a third series of Dragonfly Film and Television's The World's… and Me, in which Mark Dolan meets people with extreme claims to fame. The 4 x 60-minute series will include the world's richest teenager, the world's closest twins and the world's fattest family. Series one has already covered the hairiest man and fattest pet.