documentaries

Monday: The Affair, Season 3

Sky Atlantic, 9pm

HyperNormalisation will explore the time of uncertainty we currently live in, where even those in power don’t know what to do.

The documentary is inspired by the unpredictable events of recent times – from the rise of Donald Trump to Brexit, the war in Syria, the endless migrant crisis, and random bomb attacks.

It seeks to explain both why these chaotic events are happening, and why we and our leaders can’t understand them.

The Polygamist (w/t) takes a peak at the daily rituals and practices of 15 families living in a small township, whose homes are carved into the face of a vast sandstone rock and where more than half of residents are involved in 'plural marriages'.

The four-part series is produced by KEO Films, who made the refugee documentary The Exodus: Our Journey To Europe for BBC2 and current Channel 4 reality show Eden. 

The former army officer will begin his 1700 mile journey in the north-eastern tip of Mexico, heading through eight Central American countries before reaching the Darien Gap where he hopes to pass into Colombia and South America.

The Darien Gap has long been a pull for explorers.  The 10,000-square-mile expanse of wild tropical forest stretches from Panama to Colombia and is a refuge for outlaws and dangerous wildlife.

Wood has previously lived in Mexico and trained with the British Army in Belize, but the rest of the trip will see him visit new territory.

Speaking about the films, to be shows on BBC One, Two, Three and Four, Patrick Holland, BBC Head of Commissioning, Documentaries, said: “We are delighted to announce such a diverse and distinctive range of films from such a terrific group of programme-makers. The variety of stories and filmmaking approaches shows the ambition we have at BBC Documentaries. What unites these projects is the desire to find the very best ways to tell the most important and engaging stories."

In Brain Injury (working title), Theroux will spend time with staff and patients at the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust, one of the UK’s largest providers of neuro-behavioural rehabilitation, to find out how individuals and their loved ones cope with life-changing brain injuries that effect an estimated one million people in the UK.

With 30,000 homeless young people having been refused local housing by councils in the last year alone, according to Centrepoint, Manderson aims to look at the problems underlying the issue of  young homelessness in Sleeping Rough (working title).

Documentary maker Kim Longinotto has been named as the 2015 recipient of the BBC Grierson Trustees’ Award.

The Grierson Trust awards, often referred to as the Oscars of the documentary world, were set up in memory of the Scottish documentary maker John Grierson, to celebrate the best work in the field.

Longinotto has made a name for herself creating films that focus on the lives of women across the globe, giving a voice to many living in repressed societies.