Last night on BBC2 we saw the very welcome return to our screens of documentary filmmaker Louis Theroux.  Filmed in Ohio in The United States, this was the first part of two programmes he has done on the subject of mental health illness.  His focus last night was on patients who had committed violent crimes but rather than being sent to prison, they had been found not guilty by the courts and instead been ordered to serve time in secure psychiatric facilities.  The documentary dealt with the treatment of such people and their potential reintegration back into society.

I loved this documentary and Louis Theroux proved yet again just what a master he is at this art form.  The programme was educational, informative and I found myself being extremely moved by it.  The thing I love about about Louis is the style of his films.  They are never overtly political or come with an obvious big agenda that he wants to get across. Instead,  he just beautifully documents a subject for us in a relatively non-judgmental way.  In this respect he is the exact opposite to famous American documentary filmmaker Michael Moore and I for one prefer this more subtle approach by Louis.

The thing I love about Louis is how he befriends his subjects.  He becomes their friend in a very sincere genuine way, and this puts both them and us at ease.  The dialogue therefore has a naturalness to it.  I am sure his subjects open up him much more to him due to this caring style of his.  He does not seek to exploit them, he just wants to document their story to us and I really like this.  We saw this charming rapport that he develops between his subjects and himself a lot last night .

The patient that had the most emotional impact on me was a guy called Jonathan. He was a guy in his late thirties who seven years previously had killed his Father due to believing he had sexually abused him when he was younger.  His well respected Father who was a History teacher at the time had not done this to him but Jonathan had experienced delusions at the time making him think that he had.  It was a heartbreaking story to hear about and one that I found myself being both really sadden and moved by.  It was obvious that Jonathan was not a bad guy and that his actions were the result of a severe mental health condition that he was rapidly improving with.  When he said his Mum had been moved to tears at the prospect of them having dinner together somewhere unsupervised, I too was then duly moved to tears.  I loved how polite and caring Louis was with him.  In the presence of Jonathan,  there was a bit towards the end where Louis mentioned to one of his doctors about Jonathan having a good heart.  You could tell this meant the world to this patient and was further evidence of this great caring style that Louis has.  Do not get me wrong though, Louis did not molly coddle them or anything. He did ask them tough questions at times but they were always handled in a very caring sensitive way.

In my opinion, right now Louis Theroux is the best documentary filmmaker to come from the United Kingdom.  He has produced some outstanding pieces of work in the past and this first part about mental health illnesses deserves very high praise too. It worked because most importantly he cares about his subjects. There is never any DARKNESS when I watch Louis Theroux, ONLY EVER RAYS OF LIGHT!

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