Across all the major streamers and broadcasters, documentaries have been at the forefront of major conversations this year.
Whether it's Disney+ taking a closer look at the untimely death of Caroline Flack, or Netflix examining injustice in the US, there have been plenty of thought-provoking series and films.
These 25 picks are the very best released this year, forcing audiences to reappraise, reconsider and read further between the lines of stories that have dominated the headlines.
As we near the end of the year, take the time to catch up on some of the best watches of 2025.
25. The Truth About Jussie Smollett
Where to watch: Netflix
In one of the most peculiar showbiz stories of recent years, Jussie Smollett created a drama that would have felt far-fetched even in Empire, the hip-hop epic that made his name. In 2019, the actor claimed to have been the victim of a racist and homophobic attack – an incident he was later accused of staging – and lengthy legal wrangling ensued. With Smollett interviewed along with police and lawyers, The Truth About Jussie Smollett had plenty to say about the nature of celebrity in the USA. - Gabriel Tate
24. Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer
Where to watch: Netflix
In 2010, police officers searching a beach in Long Island, NY, for a missing woman got a horrifying surprise: they didn’t find her, but they did find the bodies of many other women, all of them sex workers. The hunt for the Long Island Serial Killer went on for more than a decade, with many observers feeling the authorities’ indifference to the women’s fate hampered the quest for justice; this three-part doc tells the victims’ stories and recaps the facts and twists of the case. - Jack Seale
23. Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing
Where to watch: Netflix
This is a modern-day horror story about the world of "kidfluencing", where children create social media content, sometimes gaining huge followings along the way. Piper Rockelle's YouTube channel hosted videos of her singing, doing pranks and documenting daily life with a "squad" of friends. On camera it was all smiles, but cast members detail a cult-like atmosphere and allege horrendous abuse at the hands of Rockelle’s mother. - Jack Seale
22. The Diamond Heist
Where to watch: Netflix
One of the biggest robberies in British history nearly took place in November 2000: a gang of career criminals planned to steal a £350 million diamond from the De Beers exhibit inside the Millennium Dome in east London, in broad daylight. It was an outrageous heist that took months of planning and the careful assembly of a crack team.
Just one problem: the police were following the robbers from the start. A three-part documentary makes good use of one of the gang, Lee Wenham, as the main interviewee, going into more detail than most shows would about the thieves' backgrounds, giving the cops their own episode, and setting us up for a thrilling outcome. - Jack Seale
21. Katie Piper: Locked Up In Louisiana
Where to watch: U
Ever since the acid attack that changed her life, Katie Piper has wanted to understand why people commit violent acts and admits she felt like killing the man responsible. She's spending a month inside a women’s jail in New Orleans where she hears that 75 per cent of the 120 inmates suffered domestic abuse before they committed their crime. It’s disturbing viewing and you may question the life sentences they face. "We all have choice," says Piper, "but sometimes the choice is me or them." - Jane Rackham
20. The Jury: Murder Trial season 2
Where to watch: Channel4.com
Nobody knows what goes on when a jury retires to deliberate a case, other than those who are in the room. This returning documentary series, stripped throughout the week, gave us an inkling. It replicates a real murder case, using actors speaking from court transcripts in front of 12 ordinary people – like a real jury they’re of all ages, opinions and walks of life – to observe the judicial process and see whether they reach the same verdict as the original decision-makers.
The case, which has been tweaked to make it anonymous, is about the fatal stabbing of a young man by his girlfriend. What the jury must decide is whether she acted in self-defence. What becomes clear very quickly is how much people’s individual experiences colour their opinions, and how the bigger voices in a group can dominate and even influence the discussions. One man seems to have made his mind up almost immediately, while others are swayed by each new piece of evidence. - Jane Rackham
19. Educating Yorkshire
Where to watch: Channel4.com
Anyone who feels broadcasters are short of new ideas could point to this reboot. But they'll welcome it anyway, because – who wouldn't? The Educating docu-strand was the prom queen of 2010s TV, a critical and ratings hit that got its best grades for the series set at Thornhill Community Academy in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. Four million viewers enjoyed the relatable snapshots of school life then choked back tears in the episode where stammering teenager Musharaf gave a speech at his end-of-year assembly. The teacher who helped him, Mr Burton, is now the head at Thornhill.
As Channel 4 again wire his corridors and classrooms with fixed cameras and radio mics, the staff face a new set of challenges, from an attendance crisis to rising pupil anxiety. - David Butcher
18. Love Con Revenge
Where to watch: Netflix
If you saw the hit Netflix doc The Tinder Swindler, you’ll recognise Cecilie Fjellhøy as one of the victims of an arch fraudster who targeted single women. She returns for a series that continues to explore the dark world of "romance fraud" – con merchants who roam dating apps looking for marks, convincing them that love is in the air before hitting their victims with requests for loans that will never be repaid.
Rather than just documenting the phenomenon, Fjellhøy teams up with fiery private investigator Brianne Joseph to track down these scammers — and wherever possible, confront them on camera. - Jack Seale
17. Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 bombers
Where to watch: Netflix
You could perhaps pair this documentary with the excellent Disney+ drama Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes - both recall an extraordinary few weeks in the summer of 2005, when London was rocked on 7th July by co-ordinated suicide bombings during morning rush hour on the Tube and bus network.
An already traumatised city was further destabilised by a separate terrorist cell attempting to perpetrate a very similar set of atrocities a fortnight later, creating a pressure-cooker environment in which an innocent man, de Menezes, was shot dead by police. Those who were in London at the time, including survivors of the 7/7 attacks, are on hand to provide first-hand witness statements. - Jack Seale
16. Girlbands Forever
Where to watch: BBC iPlayer
After last year's BBC Two documentary Boybands Forever, this three-part series was always going to be the follow-up. In charting the highs and lows of being in a 1990s girl band, Melanie Blatt of All Saints is the most candid (episode one would be blander without her anecdotes; some are funny, others horrific), while members of Eternal, Atomic Kitten and Mis-Teeq are among those recounting spats, successes and sinister press stories (the tabloid headlines are appalling).
It's a detailed but not encyclopaedic take on the decade (B*Witched , who had four number one singles, fail to get a mention), and despite any analysis of '90s girl bands inevitably revolving around the Spice Girls’ orbit, frustratingly and intriguingly, producers haven’t secured any of the five to take part. There are at least a few nice nuggets from the man who put them together: music manager Chris Herbert relays how watching Friends made him want to apply that same formula to creating a girl group. - Frances Taylor
15. Call Her Alex
Where to watch: Disney+
Alex Cooper, the podcaster behind the cultural juggernaut Call Her Daddy, puts herself in front of the camera as she charts her meteoric rise to fame - which didn't come without its setbacks.
Following her from an awkward kid growing up to an impressive athlete at university all through to her multi-million dollar podcast deals, it's difficult to not be left impressed by Alex's domination in what began as a heavily male-dominated field. - Katelyn Mensah
14. Amy Bradley Is Missing
Where to watch: Netflix
This is a three-part, true-crime doc about a missing-person case that is, as the title implies, still alive – but which concerns a woman who disappeared in 1998. Amy Bradley, 23, was on a Caribbean cruise holiday with her parents when she vanished from the family cabin balcony in the early hours of the morning.
Did she fall overboard? Possibly, but she’s never been found and there have been multiple reported sightings of her on land, stretching across three decades. The programme sifts through the theories, the suspects and the efforts that have been made to find Bradley – so far, in vain. - Jack Seale
13. Boyzone: No Matter What
Where to watch: NOW/Sky Documentaries
Boyzone didn't feature in BBC Two's documentary about '90s boybands, but they now get a dedicated three-part retrospective detailing the tensions and traumas that went on behind the squeaky-clean scenes. Laid bare is the behaviour of the band's former manager Louis Walsh. He is never shy of a soundbite, but is particularly boorish here as he relays – without remorse – how he'd make up stories for the tabloids: one even involving an escape from a fictional plane crash. "I never felt guilty," he shrugs. "I was doing my job. And I’d do it all again." - Frances Taylor
12. Our Knife Crime Crisis
Where to watch: BBC iPlayer
What a sobering hour of television this is. Idris Elba sets out his goal of finding "real, practical solutions" to the deeply distressing rise in knife crime around the UK – although until austerity's funding cuts in youth provision and community support are reversed (in the process easing the pressure on the NHS, education and penal systems), it’s hard to see either being possible.
Still, this is an earnest, important and substantial film, in which the actor meets police, youth workers, Keir Starmer and King Charles, but most crucially families of victims, and perpetrators both reformed and incarcerated. Between them, they help Elba correct misconceptions, understand root causes and try to find hope in some of the country’s most troubled parts – and some of the local outreach programmes are inspiring indeed, with many who run them proof of the value of early intervention. - Gabriel Tate
11. Number One on the Call Sheet
Where to watch: Apple TV
This two-part documentary explores the experiences of leading Black actors in Hollywood, splitting its focus per episode between Black women and Black men.
Told through candid interviews and exclusive access, the series sees stars – the likes of Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx and Will Smith as well as Angela Bassett, Viola Davis and Halle Berry – open up about their breakthrough moments in Hollywood.
The end result is a joyful tribute to Black excellence on the silver screen, and the time it takes to reach the number one spot on the call sheet. - Katelyn Mensah
10. Bibaa & Nicole: Murder in the Park
Where to watch: NOW/Sky Documentaries
This documentary series paints a picture of the lives of sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, who, in 2020, arranged a picnic to celebrate Bibaa's birthday as COVID lockdown restrictions began to ease. 36 hours later, they were tragically found dead.
Many already know the harrowing details of the case, but this documentary does a stellar job at taking the viewer through the heartbreaking hour-by-hour process that their loved ones endured with the police, naturally looking to them for help in searching for the sisters. Failed not only in the initial search, the case takes on another horrifying note as it's discovered that police officers had taken pictures of Bibaa and Nicole's bodies whilst supposedly protecting the crime scene.
Chronicling the resulting parallel investigations and the race to catch their killer, the real standout of this series is the inspiring and heartbreaking interview with the sisters' mother Mina, who continues the fight to bring about institutional change. - Morgan Cormack
9. Flintoff
Where to watch: Disney+
"It's like a reset — I'm trying to find out what I am now." Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff has made limited media appearances since he suffered life-altering injuries while filming Top Gear in 2022. This feature-length biography sees him tackle his new reality directly, as the England cricket legend tries to come to terms with permanently looking different — and perhaps feeling different for ever, too.
That lends deep poignancy to the other element of the film, which is a profile of the sportsman Flintoff once was. As well as the likes of Michael Vaughan and David Lloyd talking about Flintoff’s sporting career, his old A League of Their Own colleagues James Corden and Jack Whitehall recall the brash media figure they used to know. - Jack Seale
8. The Undercover Police Scandal: Love and Lies Exposed
Where to watch: ITVX
The stories that Helen, Alison and Lisa tell are creepily similar. They were all politically active in their 20s when they met their boyfriends. They describe how an intimate, long-term relationship blossomed although, over the years, they began to suspect they weren’t being told the whole truth. Alison discovered a bank card in a different name, while Lisa found phone messages suggesting her bloke had children. Helen only became concerned when her boyfriend disappeared without trace. He, like the other two, had left a "sorry it’s me not you" letter, which, in hindsight, was clearly a carefully worded exit strategy.
All the women were shattered to learn that everything they thought they knew about the person they had shared their hearts and their beds with was false… because these men were undercover cops. This astonishing three-part documentary charts how Helen, Alison and Lisa turned detective to reveal a shocking chapter in police history, which the Met has since described as "abusive, deceitful, manipulative and wrong". - Jane Rackham
7. Unknown Number: The High School Catfish
Where to watch: Netflix
Very rarely does a documentary force you to rewind multiple times to ensure you've understood proceedings correctly, but Unknown Number: The High School Catfish is a complete beast of its own.
The 90-minute watch unpacks a real-life cyberbullying case that revolves around 13-year-old Lauryn Licari and her then-boyfriend Owen. The pair were relentlessly pursued by an unknown number, with messages containing information that only someone close to Lauryn could have known, which forced concerned parents to turn to the police for help.
But it's the reveal of who was behind the 15-month tirade that'll leave you with a pit in your stomach. - Katelyn Mensah
6. One Night in Idaho: The College Murders
Where to watch: Prime Video
When four young adults were stabbed to death in a student house near the University of Idaho, a small community was devastated and soon become the subject of incessant speculation from online "sleuths".
With the suspect now arrested and charged, One Night in Idaho: The College Murders hears the heartache from those closest to the victims, which should always have been at the forefront ahead of online speculation attempting to piece together the crime. - Katelyn Mensah
5. No Other Land
Where to watch: Channel4.com
This film about life in the West Bank has been met with controversy since its premiere last February. Filmed by four activists, two of whom are Israeli and two Palestinian, it gives a frank and measured insight into life in the occupied mountainside community of Masafer Yatta. Lifelong resident Basel Adra is our main guide, opening his cinematic diary in 2019 when the government announces plans to claim more of the area’s land as military space.
Like the excellent Ukrainian film 20 Days in Mariupol, which won the Oscar last year, this is less a neatly contained film than a snapshot of an ongoing moment. It’s plain and personal, with a conscious lack of grandstanding: just Adra and his Jerusalem-based co-director Yuval Abraham presenting the situation from ground level. Their film closes in 2023; in real life, their work continues. - Calum Baker
4. Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth
Where to watch: Disney+
Winning Strictly Come Dancing and hosting Love Island were amongst the many things Caroline Flack was known and loved for. Tragically in February 2020, she took her own life. At the time, she was facing prosecution for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend, and despite the CPS recommending she receive a caution, the day before she died, she discovered she was to be prosecuted.
In this two-part documentary, her mother Christine wants answers to why Caroline was charged and how she was treated by the police and media. "I just hope I can achieve something," she says. "I wish I’d done it then, before she took her own life, and that’s my biggest regret." - Frances Taylor
3. Grenfell: Uncovered
Where to watch: Netflix
Whether you followed the headlines and the resulting public inquiry you aren't as familiar with all of the details of the Grenfell Tower fire, Grenfell: Uncovered lifts a lid on the tragedy and paints a picture of a heartbreaking case that is far from over.
It's no easy feat to map out a wide-spanning and emotionally raw story like this one in a way that will both educate and illicit emotion, but it's one that this 100-minute documentary achieves with marked poignancy. Toeing the line between highlighting staggering systemic failings and figures, this film also importantly weaves in personal tragedy and the stories of the bereaved, the survivors and the firefighters who attended to the fire on the night of 14th June 2017.
It's through their brave interviews that we get the essential human stories of Grenfell, stripped of technical scientific terms and replaced with the kind of emotion that will floor you.
By no means an "easy" or "light" watch, Grenfell: Uncovered may feel like too much to bear for many viewers. But in reality, it serves nobody to look away from the facts and stories at the heart of this documentary. - Morgan Cormack
2. Brianna: A Mother's Story
Where to watch: ITVX
The murder of Brianna Ghey in 2023 was incomprehensible. She was 16 and lost her life in the most horrendous and brutal manner at the hands of unfathomably young perpetrators. Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe were both aged 15 when they killed her. As we see through snippets of social media videos in this affecting documentary, Brianna and Scarlett had been pally. They’d met at school and did the usual teenage stuff together: colouring their hair, going to McDonald’s. The fact that Brianna believed Scarlett to be a friend is a detail that Brianna's mother Esther Ghey understandably finds especially painful.
It's hard to hear the details of this case, particularly the extent of the injuries inflicted on Brianna and to read the depraved text messages between Ratcliffe and Jenkinson. In the wake of her daughter’s death, Esther has been campaigning vigorously for changes she hopes can help protect young minds. "If I can make something positive out of what’s happened to her," she said. "Then it keeps her memory alive." - Frances Taylor
1. The Perfect Neighbor
Where to watch: Netflix
The Perfect Neighbor is a chilling tale about how a long-running neighbourhood dispute turned fatal. Told completely through police bodycam footage and 911 audio logs, the documentary explores the horrific incident of a mother, Ajike Owens, being killed by her neighbour, Susan Lorincz. Lorincz's freedom spurred protests in the small community in Florida, who ultimately got justice upon her arrest and incarceration.
In just over 90 minutes, it'll leave you shaken and and unsettled, asking the question: How could someone do this? - Katelyn Mensah
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