Life less ordinary: Seven documentaries to watch on BBC iPlayer

Louis Theroux's 2015 film on the controversial Church of Scientology was a long time in the making - he had tried unsuccessfully since 2003 to gain access to its members in order to make a documentary.

Theroux, working with director John Dower, eventually switched tack in order to make My Scientology Movie, using actors to re-stage controversial procedures that former members claim were used.

Daniel Farson was a writer with a reputation for hell-raising behaviour, but he also made important contributions to British television documentaries. His films about people who did not follow strict societal norms – such as naturists – had great impact in more socially conservative times.

In his 1974 film for the BBC, The Dracula Business, Farson investigated a phenomenon related to his own family, exploring the facts, the legend and the business interests which surround Dracula, the book written by his great uncle, Bram Stoker.

On multiple occasions, acquaintances and strangers have offered to pray with wheelchair user Emily Yates, who has cerebral palsy, in order to 'heal' her.

In her 2017 documentary, Heal Me in the Name of Jesus, Yates – a writer, presenter and travel consultant – met with a well-known Australian healer called John Mellor to put him to the test. Could he, with the help of Jesus, cure her disability?

Alan Whicker, clad in a pair of neatly pressed slacks, blazer and regimental-style tie, was a British television institution. He began his film-making career as a war correspondent but moved into a very different kind of programme-making with Whicker's World.

In this long-running series he unearthed the impressive and bizarre, and while his interview technique was relaxed, he didn't shirk awkward questions. In his 1967 film The Love Generation he turned his attention to the long-haired drop-outs of San Francisco.

US filmmakers David Redmon and Ashley Sabin's documentary Girl Model was shown on the BBC through the Storyville strand. It exposes the shocking supply of adolescent women to the Japanese modelling industry.

The film follows a 13-year-old who travels from Siberia in Russia to Tokyo in search of work. She has hopes of a lucrative career, encouraged by American scout Ashley Arbaugh, but the reality fails to live up to the promise.

Young people being drawn to London might seem like a contemporary issue, but it's nothing new. Back in the 1950s, there were concerns about the hundreds of girls who were leaving their homes in the provinces each week to head to the bright lights of the city.

In his 1956 documentary A Girl Comes to London, Robert Reid went to find out why girls upped sticks for the capital, and what happened when they got there.

John Pitman's films ranged from the everyday, like seaside holidays, to the more unusual, like sex therapy.

In his 1985 piece on the Tower of London he profiled a day in the life of the tourist attraction, meeting both visitors as well as some of the famous beefeaters – the ex-soldiers who describe the venue's gruesome history.