Renowned documentary maker Louis Theroux is to produce three more programmes for the BBC in 2017, variously covering murder, sex trafficking and opiate dependency.

The 46 year old journalist is set to debut the three films on BBC Two before the end of the year, all of which will analyse “uniquely devastating challenges” that face America. Provisionally titled ‘Murder in Milwaukee’, ‘Sex Trafficking Houston’ and ‘Opiate City’, none of them are going to explore the rise of Donald Trump, despite previous reports that he’s working on a separate project concerning the newly elected president.

Louis TherouxLouis Theroux at the 2017 NME Awards

“I immerse myself in some of the most dysfunctional and disturbing aspects of American society,” Theroux said in a statement regarding the new triptych to The Independent. “They combine hard-hitting actuality with intimate interviews.”

“I have been granted access to the police in several states; I've got to know the people affected by crime; and I've also spent time with the perpetrators of crime, with the idea of understanding the causes of it, both on a systemic level and also in a very personal way.”

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The first, ‘Murder In Milwaukee’, investigates racial tensions in the city between the police and the African-American population. The second, ‘Opiate City’, looks at how the over-prescription of drugs had inadvertently led to a heroin epidemic in parts of the country.

Finally, ‘Sex Trafficking Houston’, believed to be only a working title so far, looks at the relationship between prostitutes, gangmasters and law enforcement in the Texan city, which is considered to be the US’s capital for sex trafficking.

“This is so exciting. It is always a real event to have a new series from Louis on BBC Two,” the channel’s editor Patrick Holland said. “This trilogy promises to be hugely timely and challenging, it has never been more important to engage with the forces shaping modern America.”

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