Louis Theroux: America's Most Hated Family in Crisis
12:30 am - 01:40 am, Today on U&W (25)
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About this Broadcast
The reporter returns to Topeka, Kansas, to visit the Westboro Baptist Church, a notoriously homophobic organisation run by the Phelps family, whose activities he first documented in a 2007 film. On arrival, he discovers the members of the Church now regard him as a hate figure after watching his original documentary - and finds that increased scrutiny from the outside world has led to their practices becoming increasingly bizarre. He also meets two women who left the Church, and learns how their decision led to them being ostracised by their parents
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16x9
audio-description
Documentary
News/Current Affairs
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Did You Know..
Louis Theroux
(Presenter)
Born:
May 20, 1970
in
Singapore
Best Known For:
His controversial documentaries.
Early-life:
Louis Sebastian Theroux was born on May 20, 1970, in Singapore, to American writer Paul and his British wife Anne. He has an older brother, the broadcaster Marcel, and his cousin is actor Justin Theroux. After attending Westminster School, where he befriended comedians Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish, and politician Nick Clegg, Louis gained a first-class degree in modern history from Magdalen College, Oxford. He landed his first journalism job working for alternative free paper Metro Silicon Valley, and in 1992 moved to Spy magazine.
Career:
Theroux got his TV break as a reporter on Michael Moore's TV Nation. When that ended, he was snapped up by the BBC to make the series Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends. In 2001 he fronted When Louis Met…, featuring an array of celebrities who were shadowed by the journalist. Two years later, the BBC aired a series of one-off specials in which Louis explored various figures in America. In 2006, he signed a deal with the BBC to film 10 documentaries over three years, which aired sporadically. Among them were The Most Hated Family in America and Louis Theroux: Under the Knife. He continues to make acclaimed documentaries on a range of unusual subjects.
Quote:
"The subjects I'm interested in are quite extreme. They're so far beyond the pale of normal human interaction that you're never going to get a reality show on that territory."
Trivia:
He's won several awards and in 2005 published a book, The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures.
Emma Cooper
(Director)
Nick Mirsky
(Executive producer)
