Health & wellness documentaries

BBC Select joins presenters, like Louis Theroux, who explore what it takes to fight illness in order to nurture a healthy mind, body and soul. If you live in the US or Canada, you can watch a range of BBC documentaries on health and wellbeing.

Louis Theroux: Talking to Anorexia

Watch Louis Theroux: Talking to Anorexia on BBC Select

Anorexia has the highest death rate of any psychiatric disorder in the US. The pathological fear of eating and gaining weight affects around one in every 250 women, and for some it can be a lifelong battle.

Filmmaker Louis Theroux visits two of London’s biggest adult eating-disorder treatment facilities – St Ann’s Hospital and Vincent Square Clinic – to try to understand this mysterious illness in this insightful documentary.

Return of the Black Death

The discovery of 25 medieval skeletons in London could shatter the myths around the Bubonic plague and explain why it was so devastating in the past. While the disease is far less prevalent today, it still exists and still takes lives.

This fascinating documentary reveals how these ancient corpses could hold the key to understanding and possibly even eradicating this terrible disease.

Louis Theroux: Extreme Love - Dementia

Watch Louis Theroux: Extreme Love - Dementia on BBC Select

Phoenix, Arizona: America’s dementia capital.

British filmmaker Louis Theroux looks at how those directly affected by dementia try to keep relationships alive in circumstances that can be among the strangest and most challenging imaginable in this BBC documentary.

He spends time at Beatitudes, a residential institution for people with the condition, and at the homes of those who have become carers for their loved ones.

Louis Theroux: A Different Brain

Watch Louis Theroux: A Different Brain on BBC Select

An estimated one million people in the UK live with the long-term effects of brain injury. What’s it like having a hidden disability?

In this Louis Theroux documentary, the British filmmaker takes a sensitive look at how individuals and their families come to terms with life-changing conditions that often come with little or no physical differences. He finds family members caught between loss and learning to love changed people.

Louis Theroux: Life on the Edge

Watch Louis Theroux: Life on the Edge on BBC Select

Genial and curious in equal measure, award-winning Louis Theroux documentaries have become synonymous with stories involving extreme subcultures and people on the fringes of society. He reflects on 25 years of acclaimed filmmaking in this candid retrospective, which utilizes his own home movie footage and news archives.

Looking back, Louis revisits the most iconic moments of his celebrated TV career and discusses the challenges and lessons he’s learned from telling truthful tales on screen for a quarter of a century.