PICK OF THE DAY

EXTRAORDINARY RITUALS, 9PM, BBC2

ALL over the world, we are bonded by rituals that unite us at key moments of our lives, such as birth, marriage and death. But though such events are universal, we mark them in very different ways across the globe. This new three-part series looks at some of the world’s most extreme and spectacular rituals, from a Brazilian custom to protect newborns to elaborate, expensive, weeklong funerals in Sulawesi. Tonight’s startling episode is subtitled Circle Of Life, and among those featured is John (pictured), who, in a village in Papua New Guinea, has undergone an extreme initiation ceremony that involves skincutting, to signify the transition from boy to man. Ouch!