Louis Theroux: 8 of our favourite moments

From his Weird Weekends to Altered States, Theroux’s remarkable documentaries have shed light into some of the darkest and least visited corners of modern society.

His distinctive inquisitive, laconic, charmingly human approach has enabled Theroux to get closer than anyone else to some of society’s most controversial figures. And his strength in gaining enough trust from his subjects to subtly nudge them into exposing their own hypocrisy is perhaps best witnessed in his much-acclaimed documentaries on Westboro Baptist Church, American Neo-Nazis, and Jimmy Saville.

But, crucial to Theroux’s success, is the fact that the dark is often juxtaposed with a welcome light. Theroux’s commitment to throwing himself into his work has delivered great moments of humour and warmth, some intentional, some unintentional, and here are some of our favourites.

Christmas visitors

Louis Theroux first hit our screens in 1998 with his Weird Weekends, a series of documentaries which explored the marginal American subcultures. In the final episode of the series, ‘Weird Christmas’, Theroux invited someone from each of the previous episodes to his home for Christmas. Among his house guests was Reverend Short, an alien contactee, who wanted to help deliver a special message from his alien friend Korton, of the planet Koldas.

As you might expect there’s a lot to take in, but beyond the failure of Theroux’s guests to keep a straight face, Mrs Short looking at her watch is a personal highlight.

Beginners’ luck

In 2007, Theroux went Gambling in Las Vegas for a special BBC Two documentary, as he tried to uncover the real world of the Las Vegas Hilton’s casino. The documentary saw Theroux join gamblers on the floor, where his reason and apparent naivety was welcomed by those he met…well, until he started winning more than them. The final cutaway in this clip is a perfect bit of editing.

Present wrapping

Back to Theroux’s Weird Weekends and the final episode of series three in which our hero travelled to explore the gangsta rap scene of the ‘Dirty South’. Whilst there he teams up with rappers Reece and Bigelow to write his own rap, for him to perform in a live radio rap battle. His may not be the most typical delivery, but ‘ridin’ in my Fiat, you really gotta see it’ – you can’t argue with those bars.

The dog whisperer

In 2014, Theroux produces a trilogy of documentaries, LA Stories, which looked at life in Los Angeles. The first of these, ‘City of Dogs’, explored the world that revolved around the LA’s large canine population, from attack dogs to city strays. Perhaps the most remarkable of his interactions is with self-styled dog aggression expert, Brandon Fouche, who somehow tames an aggressive German shepherd in a matter of minutes.

Guessing the missing word

Theroux’s documentaries have been a huge hit, earning him something of a cult following on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2015 the BBC took the opportunity to sit him in front of a camera in a darkened room, and quiz him on the thoughts of his fanbase, by guessing the missing word from YouTube comments on his documentaries. The result is as typically charming, self-deprecating and awkward as you might imagine.

You gotta have faith

Back to the second series of Weird Weekends, and the episode ‘Off-Off Broadway’ in which Theroux travelled to New York to meet the many out of work actors and performers trying to establish a career on the stage. The episode sees Theroux audition for a job on a cruise ship, for which he seeks some last minute singing coaching from a professional Musical Director. But it’s ok, he’s brought the Grease vocal score with him, if that’s any help at all.

Yes sir, he can boogie

That short singing lesson may not have secured a career on the ocean, but it wasn’t wasted, as we would discover some 17 years later. In 2016 Theroux appeared on episode 29 of The Adam Buxton Podcast where the pair, friends from school, ended an entertaining meandering chat with a particularly unforgettable sing-song.

He really can boogie

Of course, we can’t talk about Theroux, Buxton and boogieing, without that clip. You know that clip right? As alluded to in the previous paragraph, the pair were at school together at Westminster, along with Buxton’s long-term comedy partner Joe Cornish. And even back then the three were not averse to testing the boundaries of expectations of what to see on screen.

Louis Theroux appeared at the Southbank Centre in September 2019 where he joined Adam Buxton in conversation to look back at two decades of groundbreaking television.