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North London's Hasidic Jewish community is an intensely private world, where marriage is an integral rite of passage, strict rules must be adhered to and faith is taken seriously. Film-maker Paddy Wivell spent three months finding out what goes on behind closed doors and how an outsider is received.
"Nobody can become a 10-minute Jew," warns Hasidic scholar and Stamford Hill resident Gaby Lock. "It's so vastly away from your way of life that you would have no understanding of it whatsoever." In Lock's front room, he talks about just a few of the 613 Commandments that govern the lives of the 20,000 orthodox Hasidic Jews who live here. It's already enough to give you a headache.
Out on the streets, men with beards and ringlets wear black hats and coats and hurry to synagogue while women push buggies into kosher supermarkets wearing wigs to protect their modesty.
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A Hasidic Guide to Love, Marriage and Finding a Bride is on BBC Two, Wednesday 18 May, 2100 BST
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The Hasidim see a lot of modern technology as a potential danger, putting at risk the spirit of purity and holiness of the community and threatening the innocent minds of its children.
Television is known as "the Yetzer Hara Box" which roughly translated means the "evil temptation machine". Owning one can be likened to "having an open sewer in the lounge". The change between Stamford Hill and even a just a mile down the road is like crossing a border into another country.
"[There are] laws concerning charity, laws concerning the salting of meat, rules concerning the eating of meals, laws about how to go the toilet," says Lock, plucking passages at random from just one of his volumes of the Code of Jewish Law.
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End Quote Avi Bresler Hasidic JewIn my parent's generation, they wouldn't even meet for an hour [before agreeing to marriage]”
Along with these rules, the desire for privacy and scepticism about the media makes it difficult to speak to anyone.
"Everyone is very secretive," says Lock's wife Tikwah, who has been married to him for 40 years. "They're thinking about the children they have to marry off and what will harm their name. Blow it all. We just say what we like, especially my husband."Continued
Lock smiles. He is rare in this community - someone happy to engage with outside media. In fact, he quite enjoys ruffling feathers.
He is considered something of a rebel but in the village-like atmosphere of Stamford Hill, even he doesn't want to be too conspicuous and won't be filmed outside the confines of his home.
A lot of the community is very open and engaging to speak to, but most are unwilling to appear on camera.
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