C4 examines polygamy in the US

Channel 4 in the UK has commissioned a four-part documentary series focusing on a group of fundamentalist Mormons living in the Utah desert.

The Polygamist (working title, 4×60′) comes after London-based Keo Films and C4 were given “unprecedented access” to a community of 15 families living in homes carved into the face of a vast sandstone rock.

Over half of the residents practice “plural marriage” and the series will aim to show the everyday lives of modern polygamous families, including the protocols of special occasions such as Valentine’s Day.

The films also explore how the families deal with the attitudes and curiosity of wider American society at a time when the mainstream Mormon church is keen to distance itself from a practice it renounced almost 130 years ago.