RITUALS, from the makers of Human Planet, will immerse the viewer in the spectacular and emotional human stories that form our global rituals.

From intimate ceremonies to welcome a new born child into a remote Amazonian tribe, to the millions of pilgrims who have piercings in the name of their God in Malaysia, rituals teach us how to be human and keep society together. Through colourful ceremonies of birth, marriage and death, this series will reveal how we love and are loved.

In Sulawesi the dead are exhumed and honoured many years after their funeral, with relatives posting selfies with the corpses on Facebook.

In India, Jain novice nuns must pass three final temptations before plucking out all their hair and embarking on a solitary religious life where they will never see their family again. Only the novice herself can explain why she feels this path is her destiny.

In Siena, Italy, 60,000 people from different districts gather for a bareback horse-race around a mediaeval square as their ritual battle to keep the peace, and when 60 million devotees gather at the Kumbh Mela on the banks of the Ganges, it provides one of the greatest human spectacles on earth.

And we visit the surreal world of Burning Man in the Nevada desert, showing that even in places where we are losing traditional rituals, we are making new ones to serve our emotional needs.