Louis The Roux's new series

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Why did he choose Joshua? Presumably they pre-interview and double check the interviewee is interesting enough to hang a programme on? Eubank raised the bar for eccentricity in English boxers.

I really get the feeling that Theroux wanted to interview Tyson Fury, but Fury either flat out didn't want to do it, or demanded more money than the BBC were prepared to offer, so we got the fall back man.

I mean, say what you want about him, but at least Tyson Fury is a bit odd and interesting, and would have made for a good 45 minutes of television.

[frajer]

Watched the Doherty one and found it enjoyably odd, but quite depressing. I'd forgotten that he blatantly (* allegedly) caused that actor's death and his evasive ramblings made for miserable viewing.

Also despite having an apparently lovely home and family, he didn't seem very happy and came across like a ghost haunting his own life.

I did enjoy that he carried a cane because he would somehow use it when the grim reaper came calling. That and the sea wrestling made it worth a watch.

[PaulTMA]

TBH he looks just like your average 44 year-old in the 1970s

[thugler]

Still watching these but they are by far the worst thing louis has done.

There's no sense of him being genuinely interested in poking holes in their public image and getting to something real. Nor even a pretence of getting a level of access that isn't heavily controlled and made up for the cameras.

I got the sense that Doherty would have quite happily continued with his heroin addiction, and was just barely managing to stay away from it. You could see how much he missed it. Always thought their music didn't live up to the endless hype and 'outrageous' antics, which always put me off. Listening to the libertines stuff now I do think it's a little better than i remember having hated it at the time. But they look like a nostalgia act now, despite only making a couple of records anyone cares about.

[Noodle Lizard]

But they look like a nostalgia act now, despite only making a couple of records anyone cares about.

All the footage from their various reunion shows makes them look borderline incompetent as well (Theroux implies as much in the documentary). I'd imagine they don't see each other outside of turning up for gigs or recording the odd single, not many rehearsals or anything like that. The rift between Doherty and the other members doesn't seem mended, rather glued together with Pritt Stick on an as-needed basis.

I think for audiences it just reminds them of a time when they were into that sort of thing rather than the music itself having any significant lasting value (not that all their music is bad).

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

I think I was the target audience for The Libertines at the time, being a twenty something, but they always seemed a bit naff, like a sixth form band that got inexplicably elevated above their station. I think I heard some solo Doherty stuff he did afterwards but it was just unbelievably twee and shite that I tuned out immediately.

They were a bit crap really weren't they? Just painfully average crap.

[sevendaughters]

two or three good songs but leaning into your own myth when you've not actually done anything is dangerous

but enough about Louis Theroux!

[LynnBenfield69]

For all the focus on Doherty, Carl Barat looks completely fucked in this, I'd be far more interested in knowing more about his story.

[Red82]

For all the focus on Doherty, Carl Barat looks completely fucked in this, I'd be far more interested in knowing more about his story.

That's what i thought.  Apparently he's in therapy and is a heavy sufferer of Depression.

[AllisonSays]

I found the Doherty one unseemly and kind of horrible. Just felt like transparent 'oh are you going to cry now' tabloid bear-poking of a genre I'd thought LouThou was slightly better than.

[checkoutgirl]

Nor even a pretence of getting a level of access that isn't heavily controlled and made up for the cameras.

Same thing happened to Dennis Pennis after a couple of years. They could see him coming a mile off and would scarper.

Louis high watermark was the Met and Weekends programmes but following them he usually managed to crank out something half decent intermittently. I'm thinking of the L.A jail one and maybe the Scientology one. Stuff like that.

He's clearly not going to put the genie back in the bottle with these interviews although I admit I haven't seen them yet.

[non capisco]

I like the one where he tried to meet Michael Jackson and got as far as a sit down with Jackson's horrible dad, via the conduit of Jackson's dad's mate who was some bargain basement magician called something like Majestic Magnificent who he meets in a car park. My memory is of Louis seemingly deliberately tanking the motel room "interview" by suggesting that MJ might be gay, which causes Joe Jackson and this magician prick to stomp off in high dudgeon. Also good for the archive footage of Michael Jackson bowling up on an open top London tourist bus to shout at Sony Music's offices, you can see my old workplace directly behind him and someone I know looking out the ground floor window thinking "is that....Michael Jackson?!"

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

The thing I liked about the Weird Weekends ones was when he'd get stuck in and actually help out with whatever it was that people were doing. You could tell that people found it very disarming that this rather effete Englishman was helping them set up a wrestling ring in a community centre, or strip a car down for Demolition Derby, and I think it led them to open up more to Theroux in the interviews.
You didn't see him having a sparring session with Joshua, or lug a few amps around for The Libertines, did you? Maybe he'll surprise me and drink his own piss on a mountainside with Bare Grillz or something though. I live in hope.

[thugler]

Even the radio version of the interviews format he does now was a lot better. Way more interesting conversations and not stage managed fluff

[ollyboro]

Doherty looks like Ian Lavender playing Dr Richard Cartwright in Yes Minister.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080306/mediaviewer/rm1830615297?ft0=name&fv0=nm0491874&ft1=image_type&fv1=still_frame&ref_=ext_shr_lnk

[checkoutgirl]

I think his start was a roving reporter for Michael Moore in the late 90s on TV Nation or something like that. The Weird Weekends would almost be an extension of that. He actually took part in the demolition derby, didn't he?

He said wrestling was fake to a psycho wrestling trainer so the trainer retaliated by making Louis do press ups until he puked.

But that was 25 year old Louis. He's pushing 50 now

[touchingcloth]

Tame.

John Stossel got punched in the face by David Schultz.

Richard Belzer got choked out by Hulk Hogan.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Yes, come on BBC. We want to see Louis get a good twatting off somebody.

[popcorn]

I like the one where he tried to meet Michael Jackson and got as far as a sit down with Jackson's horrible dad, via the conduit of Jackson's dad's mate who was some bargain basement magician called something like Majestic Magnificent who he meets in a car park. My memory is of Louis seemingly deliberately tanking the motel room "interview" by suggesting that MJ might be gay, which causes Joe Jackson and this magician prick to stomp off in high dudgeon. Also good for the archive footage of Michael Jackson bowling up on an open top London tourist bus to shout at Sony Music's offices, you can see my old workplace directly behind him and someone I know looking out the ground floor window thinking "is that....Michael Jackson?!"

I have fond memories of that too. I like documentaries that are sort of about the failure to make a documentary. I love Kurt and Courtney for example.

[Lost Oliver]

When Adam Buxton interviewed Kayvan Novak, he was doing impressions of Louis Theroux which was mainly him putting on the vocal equivalent of a brow furrowed in concern and saying "are you OK?"

I counted it twice in last night's episode - once when Peter struggled with his heartburn, and a second time to his infant child.

Are you OK?

Are you OK?

[Red82]

I have fond memories of that too. I like documentaries that are sort of about the failure to make a documentary. I love Kurt and Courtney for example.

I love that documentary too. In fact I love practically every documentary Nick Broomfield has ever shot.

[Icehaven]

But that was 25 year old Louis. He's pushing 50 now

He pushed it 3 years ago.
Watched the Doherty one as a past Libertines fan and agree with what's already been said, he doesn't really seem over his old life so there's almost a grim inevitability that sooner or later he'll get bored and be right back at it. Like that bloke asking him if he was going to be partying after the gig, he must get approached like that constantly and he didn't exactly say no to him either.

[imitationleather]

I unashamedly loved The Libertines BITD but for years now I've been unable to shake off the feeling that Doherty is a full-blown murderer, which surely should be the most #cancellable crime of them all. Also he's had sex with loads of underage women*, which you think is something that is just inevitably going to hit the headlines at some point as he becomes ever larger, more unattractive and culturally irrelevant as he ages. I can do without the egg on my face caused by supporting yet another one of them lot, ta.

As for the series in general, I have absolutely zero interest in Theroux being Parky or whatever it is he's doing now. His last autobiography Gotta Get Theroux This was so achingly dull that I've really gone off the man and even when he does proper documentaries he somehow manages to find ways to make potentially really interesting topics an absolute fucking chore to sit through.

Great input to thread. Fuck it, post.

*I know this as a 100% solid gold fact, so I don't think it counts as libel.

[checkoutgirl]

Weird Weekends is still watchable even now. The look into the lives of people who are interesting for different reasons. The sense of comraderie when Louis gets involved in the activity and gets their respect. The way people justify their actions.

Often the success rests on how odd, funny or insane the people involved are. Maybe for Weird Weekends or Met he had different producers with a keen eye for who would make a good programme and now he has ones that think Anthony Joshua will do.

I nearly always give a new Theroux doc a go but the Joshua one I don't think I'll bother.

[Billy]

I like the one where he tried to meet Michael Jackson and got as far as a sit down with Jackson's horrible dad, via the conduit of Jackson's dad's mate who was some bargain basement magician called something like Majestic Magnificent who he meets in a car park. My memory is of Louis seemingly deliberately tanking the motel room "interview" by suggesting that MJ might be gay, which causes Joe Jackson and this magician prick to stomp off in high dudgeon. Also good for the archive footage of Michael Jackson bowling up on an open top London tourist bus to shout at Sony Music's offices, you can see my old workplace directly behind him and someone I know looking out the ground floor window thinking "is that....Michael Jackson?!"

Yep this is great, the whole thing is an entertaining disaster which he doesn't try to hide. Martin Bashir beats him to it with the actual MJ interview so he has to settle for Joe, who on the first attempt keeps him waiting for ages, and then within seconds of finally starting Joe suddenly calls in loads of other randomers into the room who take over the interview and stop it from being anything more than publicity for him.

There's a Derren Brown one called Miracle for Sale which is another nice example of a failure, where halfway through it becomes clear that the entire initial plan of the thing isn't going to work so they have to heavily scale it down, and you get the feeling that after all that preparation they just want to get it all over with and finish the thing rather than have to just cancel it.

[Icehaven]

There's a Derren Brown one called Miracle for Sale which is another nice example of a failure, where halfway through it becomes clear that the entire initial plan of the thing isn't going to work so they have to heavily scale it down, and you get the feeling that after all that preparation they just want to get it all over with and finish the thing rather than have to just cancel it.

Is that the one where he was setting himself up as a televangelist type religious healer or psychic or something and the plan was to get thousands of people to come to his new superchurch then reveal it was all a fraud, but they struggled to get more than a few people interested? I really like Brown usually but that was a disaster, the whole point was to show how religious Americans would believe in and throw money at any chancer but he actually ended up showing that in fact no, they won't. He should have cut his losses and given up, maybe got an article out of it but it certainly shouldn't have ended up on TV.

[checkoutgirl]

The Joe Jackson one was amazing. It was some girl group he was trying to promote and even he didn't seem to give a fuck about them. He died a few years ago and he probably somehow managed to turn his own funeral into a band promotion from beyond the grave.

[PlanktonSideburns]

Dominic Diamond jibbing out of getting crucified in the Philippines must be a candidate for this kind of thing

[curiousoranges]

"And as we said our goodbyes I couldn't help thinking...  what a waster."

[non capisco]

And as we said our goodbyes I couldn't help thinking.....if Pete Doherty went bald now he'd look like Dennis Franz from NYPD Blue.