Louis Theroux announces two new BBC documentaries airing later this year

One will focus on alcohol addiction while the other on brain injury

Louis Theroux in his By Reason of Insanity programme at Summit Behavioral Healthcare Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio. (BBC)

Louis Theroux - journalist behind the fascinating Weird Weekends series and last year’s My Scientology Movie - is returning to BBC two for a pair of documentaries, expected to air later this year.

The first in the two-part series will focus on alcohol addiction, Theroux having spent time with patients of alcoholism at King’s College Hospital.

The second - given the working title Brain Injury - will look at the issues facing the one million Brits living with long-term brain injuries.

Adam Barker, BBC Two Channel Editor, said: “BBC Two is delighted to welcome Louis Theroux back to the channel with a set of films covering British subjects with his usual penetrating documentary gaze and commitment to unpicking complex human dilemmas with highly sophisticated filmmaking.”

Later this year, Theroux will release his second documentary on Jimmy Saville for the BBC. Previously, the filmmaker made When Louis Met Jimmy, a documentary that showed a darker side to the presenter but failed to uncover any of the sexual assault claims that came to light in 2012.

“I think none of us wants to believe that someone we know is a sex offender,” he told comedian Richard Herring on a podcast last year. “I knew when I was making it there was his sexual side that I had not fully understood.”