I love a documentary. From wild-life to death row to minimalism to sex robots; give me a documentary, a cup of tea and some biscuits and I will be one very happy bunny. I love learning things and finding out more about parts of the world and human nature and documentaries are the perfect way to do that. Of course what makes a good documentary isn’t just the topic and the quality of the shoot. It’s the presenter as well. I love watching someone who’s open-minded, doesn’t beat around the bush and want’s to get into the nitty gritty of whatever it is they’re learning about. Stacey Dooley is one of my favourite people to watch when I want to watch a documentary. She investigates some incredibly awful problems all around the world and I admire her a lot for being so transparent, so determined and so thorough with her research. So…. if you’re not familiar with Stacey’s documentaries, here are 4 that I think everyone needs to sit down and watch!

TW: Violence, Domestic Violence, Rape, Sex

1. Russia’s War on Women

Honestly, this one shocked me to my core. I had absolutely no idea such awful things went on on such a huge scale in Russia. Russia’s War on Women teaches you than certain acts of domestic violence have be decriminalized in Russia. A man is able to beat his wife and get away with a warning, as long as he doesn’t hospitalize her.

2. Face to Face With Isis

In this one, Stacey spends time with a 23 year old Yadizi woman who was held captive as a sex slave for a Isis family. She returns to the house where she was held and comes face to face with an Isis fighter who killed over 900 people to ask why he did what he did. This one was incredibly emotional. We all know who Isis is, we’re all devastated by what they’ve done in the UK but seeing and hearing about what went on in Iraq and Mosul is truly disturbing.

3. Young Sex for Sale in Japan

This one was incredibly eye-opening. If you’ve not been to Japan, chances are you want to go. But if you don’t, you’re probably a little bit curious about the culture over there. In this one, Stacey investigates a darker side to the country where there’s a overwhelming focus on sexualising young girls.

4. World’s Worst Place to be a Woman

This one is really quite overwhelming and heart-breaking but Stacey ventures to Honduras where she investigates why it’s the worst place in the world to be a women and meets all sort of women with horrendous stories to tell about the violence against them in their own country.

If you’re looking for an informative, eye-opening and shocking documentary, then any of these will do. I love all Stacey Dooley documentaries and she does some incredibly fascinating ones about drugs as well. But these I think are really important and help make the world know about some of the incredibly awful things that happen which because we don’t see, have no idea are such a problem. You can find all of Stacey’s documentaries on the BBC iPlayer.