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No Place Like Home
Picking up where the hugely successful Cutting Edge special left off, Big Fat Gypsy Weddings paints a visually arresting portrait of the secretive, extravagant and surprising world of gypsies and travellers in Britain today. Ancient traditions meet modern fashions in an ostentatious culture clash in the world of 21st-century gypsy and traveller weddings. Gaining rare access to this fascinating and often misunderstood community, Cutting Edge uses the prism of the weddings to reveal a culture where brides compete to have the biggest dress but having children out of wedlock is still taboo and divorce is unheard of. Considered ‘on the shelf’ at 20, many girls in Gypsy and Traveller communities get married soon after their 16th birthday with the support of their family. The weddings are visual spectacles: girls parade into church in enormous dresses that sometimes weigh more than the bride herself. Although the women look sexually provocative there is a tradition of premarital chastity that is increasingly unusual in Britain today. This is a community that lives alongside but detached from mainstream society. It is a community of contrasts, living by centuries-old religious and cultural traditions but at the same time embracing the gaudier extremes of the celebrity- and fashion-obsessed times in which we live., This episode explores how the travelling community are fighting to preserve their ancient culture and customs and the obstacles they face keeping their traditional way of life alive. Romany Gypsy Pat (20) faces criticism from the gypsy community for marrying a non-gypsy, although his bride Sam (17) is determined to prove her gypsy girl credentials with a 14 stone dress that lights up in the dark. Six-year-old Mary Ann has her first spray tan in preparation for her first communion, which the family are celebrating early as they face eviction from their home on a traveller site., A Roma girl’s first communion is documented.
