Viewers were brought to tears by a powerful documentary exploring how people deal with the long-term effects of a brain injury.

Louis Theroux’s A Different Brain, saw the presenter spending time with staff and service users at the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust, one of the UK’s largest providers of neuro-behavioural rehabilitation, in an effort to understand how individuals and their families come to terms with this life-changing condition.

In his characteristically calm and empathetic manner, Louis probed beneath the surface and asked the difficult questions – prompting praise from viewers of the BBC2 show.

First up we were introduced to Dan, who was hit by a transit van when he was 14, and spent a year in a coma.

Dan (screenshot/BBC)(screenshot/BBC)

He got into the wrong crowd, and ended up in prison at 18 – where he weighed just four-and-a-half stone.

After 14 years of rehab he now wants to live independently.

Louis also met Natalie, a type-one diabetic who attempted suicide 15 years ago by injecting herself with too much insulin. She’s completely forgotten that day, and believes her brain injury was caused by a knock on the head.

Natalie (screenshot/BBC)(screenshot/BBC)

Despite everything she’s gone through, her mum says she is “still the loving and caring Natalie” she used to be.

But what really captured viewers’ hearts was the fraught relationship between Rob and Amanda, who was a veterinary nurse before injuring her brain in a horse riding accident.

Amanda (screenshot/BBC)(screenshot/BBC)

The couple’s two young boys revealed they sometimes see mummy as “an intruder”, while Amanda described herself as a “burden that can’t hoover”.

Rob and Amanda before the accident (screenshot/BBC)Rob and Amanda before the accident (screenshot/BBC)

Heartbreaking.