Oh man, you have just opened up yourself one hell of a can of worms finding Louis theroux, please look up his documentaries and react to them 🙏🏼 love your work ❤
Louis is a legend. I understand him questioning why he never saw what Savile was...but Savile had spent his entire life hiding who he really was from everybody.
Yes, and there IS such a thing as 'hiding in plain sight'. His very oddness and creepiness was in a way his protection, because nobody took it seriously. It seemed like just an amusing persona he was portraying - a 'character', in the way many celebrities portrayed slightly exaggerated 'characters', which may or may not have been close to their off-stage character, for entertainment purposes and to get themselves noticed. I used to watch him on Top of the Pops as a teenager and although I found him creepy, it was difficult to admit to it for fear of appearing unhip or uptight, since he was generally so well-accepted, and seemed harmless enough. I don't think anyone in the general public ever imagined he was doing the things he was doing. And I also see no reason why journalists and charity workers like Prince Charles - who gets so much flak for having fallen for Saville's schtick, and consulted with him as a presumed representative or intermediary with the younger generation - should be expected to have seen through it when they were among millions of people who didn't. I think it's a truth of human nature in general, that pointing the finger retrospectively at certain individuals, saying 'of course they should have/ must have known' is maybe a way for people to shift the attention away from the fact that few if any people who were not in a position to know any better, simply didn't twig what was going on. And if they did feel something or suspect something, they may like myself have pushed away those feelings since they were at odds with the common view of the man, which at the time (well before there was much public awareness of sexual abuse of minors as almost systemic in many institutions and power structures) was to simply see him as an entertainer with an amusingly weird/zany character act.
I worked and socialised in Catford between 1983-2003 and don't remember any flowers and I am a Hortyciltur,Hawtycultore,Horteecultur,I like Gardens....
The best thing about what Louis does is attempting to understand why people act/ believe in things outside of societal norms. Without this understanding how can things improve or change. He is without question my favourite documentary maker. The subjects often appall me but the insight is important. Thanks for this reaction
Socratic irony: The ancient philosopher Socrates would pretend that he wasn't smart enough to understand someone's view point, so they would explain it to him clearly and truthfully. That's Louis.
The great thing about Louis , imo, is that he doesn't just investigate facts, but investigates the psychological, sociological and emotional state of the participants . One realises that only our own minds are responsible for this crazy world.
Louis style is a breath of fresh air...It can be frustrating when he's building rapport during the first half of his documentaries but once he's there his questions become fascinating and his interveiwees don't take offence...He always seems genuinely interested and non-confrontational which gets him closer to the source of what you want to hear...He becomes like a mole
If you’ve never seen any of Louis Theroux documentaries I can strongly recommend literally any of them! Weird Weekends is fantastic. He also did a great one on post partum mental illness and psychosis. Also the Westboro Baptist Church. I’m honestly so jealous of anyone who has never seen Louis Theroux because you have so many amazing new documentaries to watch! Would make great reactions for you or even for Patreon, just putting it out there 👀 Lots of his old stuff is in America too, so you can react to a Brit reacting to US madness. There’s an interesting one about medicated children in the US which really doesn’t happen here (like kids medicated for bipolar etc) super interesting!
The sweet clip of Louis helping that elderly lady to put on her jacket was from his documentary on Dementia. I think it’s called “Extreme Love: Dementia” and it’s extremely heartwarming in places and sad in others.
One of the craziest things that happens in the series of Westboro Baptists documentaries is that in the first doc there was also another journalist (Steve Drain) who was doing his own story completely independent from Louis. When Louis did his follow up doc some years later that journalist was still there as he had joined the church. In fact the guy Louis calls Brainiac is that journalist. He actually took over running the church for a while and actually excommunicated Fred Phelps the founder. Drain was later excommunicated.
I love watching your videos, because instead of guessing what something means when you haven’t heard of it, you do research into it. So you learn and so do I. I haven’t seen any other channels that does this. ❤
I bumped into Louis Theroux at a hospital while his wife was in labour in about 2005 and was telling him about my mum’s massive crush on him. Not one of my finest moments 😂you should check out some weird weekends. They are so so good. On one he hung around (pardon the pun) with some swingers and attended a swinger’s party. The follow up he made to his Saville doc is worth watching also.
Times have changed over the years and he has probably subconsciously had to do that too. And no matter how professional anyone is, if you see a lot of disturbing stuff it will change you over the years. And living with guilt is a heavy burden. Love the guy
The topic it hasn’t covered is his documentary on Scientology which is amazing. I don’t think he’s become more confrontational, but those he interviews have.
I think it’s partly because he’s much more well known now. People know his style and what he does, so it’s a lot more difficult for him to present himself as innocent or naive. The OG weird weekends and early work was so fantastic because people didn’t know who he was.
Louis Theroux has a disarming charm that lulls the subject into relaxing and revealing more than they intended. Micheal Moore is one of the best documentary, investgative and creative content makers ever. He amazingly won an Oscar for Bowling for Columbine and the producers tried to drown out his speech with recorded boos as they were desperate to appease the corporations, gun lobby and government. The mainstream media and corporate hacks try to silence him but he is a very important voice in the world and is needed more than ever.
The Jimmy Saville episode was really disturbing to watch. There's a scene at the end where Louis eventually decides to very passively, subtly address the rumours about Saville to his face. Saville dismisses them and I got the feeling that Louis knew they were true but, because his career depended on the culture of denial and cover-ups, he decided to stay relatively silent. I'm saddened by his lack of action but I don't hold it against him. The real monster was Saville and learning more about him can help us to understand him and stay vigilant about it happening in the future.
Also, I think that the level of power that Savile wielded is not to be underestimated, either. JS was a terribly litigious individual, and any hints of accusation being levelled at him were swiftly met with threats of being sued - Jimmy's very offhand "See you in court!" comment was probably more than enough to make Louis think twice about pursuing a more incisive line of enquiry.
@@VelvetVoice Also worth noting that having suspicions and hunches is not the same as evidence and knowledge. It’s a very big accusation to make about someone outright when you don’t actually know, and the world doesn’t work like that. It’s really easy to say now “it was obvious look at xyz signs” but when you don’t know, you don’t know. I want to live in a world where victims feel safe and secure to speak up and come forward, but it’s more complicated to live in a world where all suspicions are taken as true. That’s how we end up with these vigilantes who end up attacking or “punishing” innocent people. There’s definitely people high up who knew about Saville and enabled him, but I don’t think every single staff member at the BBC was totally aware or had enough evidence to say one way or the other.
I saw Louis being interviewed recently at a live recording of the Adam Buxton podcast (He's an old school friend of Louis' and one half of Adam & Joe and can be seen in the old home videos on this video). He came across as a really likeable and a very intelligent and funny guy. Actually he was talking about his alopecia that night come to think of it.
Another person who is very good at disarming horrid people is Jamali Maddix in Hate Thy Neighbor a Viceland series. If you haven't seen them, definitely worth a watch.
👏 Great to hear a reactor support the attempt to understand extremism and those with distasteful outlooks, opinions and practices. As Louis has shown, it is only through doing so that we will ever change things for the better. Marginalising and dismissively condemning will only ever lead to exacerbation in the long rum.
It's worth checking the films of Nick Broomfield - most of which are great and a big "influence" on the work of Theroux. Theroux's work is interesting, but it's remarkable the lack of curiousity he's shown towards his employer.
As Marge Simson would say "you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" You will never get the truth if you can't gain a persons trust, and that's what Louis does best. Your friends will tell you anything you ask, your enemies certainly won't. I love his work and hold nothing against him with the Jimmy incident, i too have been fool by a wrong un.
Great to see some old school footage of Louis with pals Adam & Joe - on that note, JJ, if you want to seek out more Louis Theroux content, I can strongly recommend you check out his interviews (aka: 'ramble chats') on the most excellent Adam Buxton Podcast.
about the height of Jimmy's TV career, i was climbing the tourist path up Ben Nevis with my parents. about 1/3 of the way up tits very steep and pretty much all steps. who should come running down towards us but mister fix-it himself, cigar in hand, gold dangly bling, and one ball hanging 2 inches out of his tighty-whitey nylon shorts. its an image ill take to the grave and im sure it took 10 years off my mums life. they are about to demolish his house in Glen Coe because it has been trashed so badly
I was a 'fan' of his Dad's writing, especially back in the 70s/80s. The ones that stand out for ne are "The "Great Railway Bazaar" and "The Old Patagonian Express". In the first, he sets out without a plan to take regular rail services from London, across Europe, the Middle East, the Indian Sub-continent and South East Asia, and then makes the return trip on the Trans-Siberian railway. The book covers four months and makes it clear that Louis inherited his father's ability to talk to strangers easily. The second book covers travelling by local services from his home in Massachusetts down across North America and then across Central America and down to Patagonia.
Louis is a national treasure. Many years ago i worked in PR for a sports and golf resort in Spain. The Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends team rang up wanting to do a doc about it. I was THRILLED I would get to go out there and spend time with the man himself. However, the staff at the resort did some research and feared he would take the piss. They vetoed the idea 😢. Very sad.
In a recent generally inoffensive series, “Louis Theroux Interviews”, Theroux interviews Canadian born but London based comedienne Katherine Ryan. During the interview Ryan talked about an English comedian who was a predator, however, would not name this comedian. Ryan words had opened ‘a can of worms’ which quickly began to focus on Russel Brand.
Oh..was that who she meant? I have always got the "ick" vibe from another British comedian and thought it was him she was alluding to as she had been on panel shows with him. 🤔
@@nolaj114 The programme Louis Theroux meets Katherine Ryan is still available for free on BBC I player. To my knowledge Katherine Ryan has neither confirmed or denied that she was talking about Russel Brand. However, this interview set the ball rolling, especially with the voracious British tabloid press, who quickly focused on Russel Brand. What better to asses the character of Brand than to work with him on various shows.
Before Louis Theroux and John Ronson, there was Nick Broomfield. He pioneered the likeable and apparently non-threatening reporter. His The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife documentary was genuinely groundbreaking when it came out in the early 90s. He interviewed Eugene Terre' Blanche, leader of the far right AWD, at the end of apartheid and made him look as ridiculous as he was abhorrent. He's created some great work included Ghosts, which is poignant and affecting too. Broomfield, Ronson and Theroux are all brilliant but Broomfield is the OG.
"How is he supposed to know?" There's the rub. Louis Theroux has a brilliant approach, to extremely controversial characters, but that opens him up to being historically matched with some seriously diabolical things. I'm not sure Jimmy Saville can ever be viewed sympathetically. It's possible to see flashes of humanity in even the darkest people but Jimmy Saville might have been a soulless void. No spoon is long enough to sup with that devil. Does instinct never stand in the way of the job description? A lot of people had a very bad feeling about Jimmy Saville. Saville didn't put a huge amount of effort into hiding the fact that he was hiding something huge. Most people will pick up on that and shy away. I really like Louis Theroux but I'm not sure that was one of his better decisions. I suspect he was a victim of his own hype ('I can talk to anybody.') Maybe, in fifty years, his time filming with Jimmy Saville will be seen as vitally important and epoch defining (damn the BBC for always trying to vanilla wash themselves) but for a while it may still be viewed as a blunder. I watched it when it was first broadcast. I was very uneasy but, yeah, I like Theroux and I thought it was important to watch it. I'm glad I did. Actually, I came out of it thinking even worse of Jimmy Saville than I already had as he came across as not only dodgy but also a savage monster. More than just a creep but an actual thug. Maybe, some day, Louis Theroux will be extolled for the sort of Saville self assassination that he facilitated. But I think (probably from watching Louis Theroux talking to Richard Herring on UA-cam) Louis Theroux is very troubled that he felt kindly towards Saville at the time.
Us Brits generally pronounce Louis as Loo-ee, probably because of all those French Kings. In fact most people over here say Loo-ee Armstrong, which is kind of terrible :-)
The Westboro documentaries are I think his best work. He visited them over a number of years and got them to really open up, and they have a weird friendship even though they don't admit it to each other.
If you can find it, watch the original Jimmy Savile doc. It's not as kind to Savile as Jimmy the giant said. Louis (pronounced Louie) was very close to uncovering him, Savile appeared like a weirdo throughout the episode, and they secretly filmed him saying some awful things. It uncovered a lot, it was a mini masterpiece.
@@slytheringingerwitch He was, he did everything he could to reveal him, and was very close. If he had we wouldn't have seen it anyway, Savile would have seen to that.
Not sure if you know the full extent of Jimmy Savile’s ‘wrongdoing’ but it’s actually unforgivable. The fact that he never faced justice for his horrendous crimes is difficult to accept.
Frustrating that whenever a liberal or leftist personality is confrontational, it's considered to be 'elitist' or 'part of the problem', but conservatives seem able to get away with it with impunity.
Americans tend to pronounce "Louis" as "Lewis", which is really very confusing. I kept hearing people in US shows refer to a Prince "Lewis" as one of Royals. I'm not a follower of what royalty is up to, but still, never having heard of this 'Prince Lewis' I finally went and looked through all the royal progeny - and nary a Lewis appeared. It took a while for the penny to drop. I finally realised they were mangling the name of the boy who might one day be King. They obviously are unacquainted with the fact that 'Louis' is pronounced "Loo ee"/Loo-wee". And boy, we all have vast amounts of "Prince Loo-wees" all through Europe's past. What I want to point out is that we pronounce it that way because we see it immediately as a French name. We know that's because there's a lot of French words in our vocabulary - we come across familiar patterns (eg 3 vowels in a row) and unconsciously learn how to pronounce that. By 'simplifying' spelling Webster robbed words of their history, their value...& if that sounds too fanciful - it leaves so many people not being able to pronounce words properly. And sometimes, as here, there are some words you can't simplify. "Simplifying" Louis gets you "Lewis". But that's a whole, other name. Geez I hope US commentators learn how to say the kid's name before he actually gets crowned. 'Cos to many of the people it's either lazy journalism or totally disrespectful because these botoxed beauties have a) never listened to ANY British commentaries at all. We all know how to say it. b) could not be bothered to tap a key to hear how it's pronounced? Not because of his position, but because everybody has a right to their own name, especially when people are churning out bulldust about them to send all over the world.
@@letitiakearney2423 Well yes - many wonder if William will even make it, don't they? The point I was trying to make is that he's not some one-hit-wonder singer or actor whose name is going to be forgotten a few months down the track. He's gonna be around for a while, so not bothering to find out how to say his name, for those who have set themselves up following the Family, is hardly the sign of a reliable source.
For using the IPA on Wikipedia, hover over each letter and it will give you an example of each symbol. His is ru, r as in rye, and u as the 'oo' sound in goose. Interestingly, Justin Theroux does follow the pronunciation that you use, so there must be different Anglicisations of the French name on different sides of the pond.
With names that come from French, they often get Anglicised in a number of different ways, but th way you say his name would be spelled Thoreau in French, not Theroux. Indeed, Henry David Thoreau is so famous, he might be influencing your instincts here.
helping the old lady with her jacket was from a totally different documentary, about people with dementia and how it affects their partners. A great documentary, worth watching. Louis is worth watching for full episodes if you fancy branching out somewhat. This format is getting a little stale, and UA-cam s killing reactors right now. This video had about 9 ad breaks, just too much.
Well that's suspicious.By which I mean the disappearance of my comment pointing out one way of not getting 9 ad breaks. Heck, I'm amazed you're still watching if you're getting ads every 5 minutes - I certainly wouldn't.
History has shown time and time again that you stop harmful and DEADLY ideologies by deplatforming them and not giving them a voice or empathy. And I massively disagree that even Pedo sex offenders deserve a voice. That being said, Louis cannot be blamed for the Savile interview as he obviously had no ideas, can't blame the lad for not being a mindreader. And yes, generally he is lovely, entertaining, insightful and a joy to watch. My favourite episodes of his are the gambling one in Las Vegas, the rap one, the prison one and the porn one. He is a national treasure. But I disagree with the idea that platforming Nazis and incels is generally harmless, or even good. I think his shows cultivate amusement over empathy for his subjects in all honesty, so it's one of the least harmful ones, but generally it's a very bad idea. That being said, his shows are absolutely worth a watch, as are his recent celebrity interviews.
@MsPeabody1231 Catford covers quite a large area, it's not just Rushey Green which runs out from Lewisham High Street at one end, through to Bromley Road at the other, which itself leads through to Downham and Bromley. It goes from side to side by Catford Bridge, and Catford train stations, by one end of Ladywell Rec, (parkland through which the River Ravensbourne' flows down from Keston ponds from Caesar's Well, into Catford, Ladywell, Lewisham - where it joins the Quaggy and the Poole, then heads into Deptford Creek and onward to the Thames) along one side, and up towards Verdant Lane and Hither Green on the other side. Don't be so ready to diss Catford...it has a fair-sized population of all sorts of people,
I always had a feeling that there was something dishonest about Jimmy Savile, even back in the early 60s when he was a DJ. I was only in my early teens and I thought it was that he was only pretending to like rock music. I never thought about paedophilia, as I didn't know about it then. Probably he was pretending to like the music because it got him close to very young people. Then he started doing charity things and that got him close to older vulnerable people and Prime Ministers, the Queen and other royalty, and the Pope were all fooled by him so it's not surprising that Louis Thoroux was fooled too. He shouldn't be blamed for it, because the whole world was fooled. I never liked him, but I had no idea how bad he was until it all came out a couple of years after his death. His family knew something about it though.
I don’t think it’s fair to dunk on Louis for not getting the full scoop on Saville. Louis made Saville seem creepy and was suspicious of him. I don’t think he enabled him at all, unlike so many in the British establishment definitely did.
Louis went to school with Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish, Joe is now a filmmaker and Adam has one of the top podcasts in the UK, The Adam Buxton Podcast and even Christmas they all meet up for Adams pod and it's usually very funny.
THERE IS A RHLSTP (RICHARD HERRINGS LEICESTER SQUARE THEATRE PODCAST) INTERVIEW WHERE LOUIS DISCUSSES SAVILE DOCS (BOTH OF THEM) AT SOME LENGTH , WORTH LISTENING TO
A couple of the women from that hated family escaped and are still in contact with him. After Saville he beat himself up more than anyone. People who say he promotes bad groups need to watch his programmes. His very latest shows were just interviewing famous people. The KSI interview is worth a watch JJ
I was 24 when I watched TV Nation and 2 years later I was 'in the machine' as a Software Engineer. I lasted 8 years as a 'product'. I'm all better now 😀
Everyone knew full well that Savile was a wrong’un. Johnny Rotten said so decades earlier, but he was a powerful man, and the BBC chose to protect him. Savile was prolific. He had hundreds of victims. Theroux knew too, but was beholden to his employer. It’s a question of pragmatism over principle.
1:32 not Google pronouncing "Louis" like "Lewis" lmaoo reminds me of a kid I went to school with. His name was Lewis, but his parents thought "Louis" was an alternate spelling and they liked it better; they had no idea that they aren't pronounced the same. Poor kid spent all his time correcting(?) people when they called him "Louis" instead of "Lewis"
Louis Theroux docs are easily some of the greatest TV of all time. So insightful, so interesting, and also always engaging.
Oh man, you have just opened up yourself one hell of a can of worms finding Louis theroux, please look up his documentaries and react to them 🙏🏼 love your work ❤
Louis is a legend. I understand him questioning why he never saw what Savile was...but Savile had spent his entire life hiding who he really was from everybody.
Yes, and there IS such a thing as 'hiding in plain sight'. His very oddness and creepiness was in a way his protection, because nobody took it seriously. It seemed like just an amusing persona he was portraying - a 'character', in the way many celebrities portrayed slightly exaggerated 'characters', which may or may not have been close to their off-stage character, for entertainment purposes and to get themselves noticed.
I used to watch him on Top of the Pops as a teenager and although I found him creepy, it was difficult to admit to it for fear of appearing unhip or uptight, since he was generally so well-accepted, and seemed harmless enough. I don't think anyone in the general public ever imagined he was doing the things he was doing. And I also see no reason why journalists and charity workers like Prince Charles - who gets so much flak for having fallen for Saville's schtick, and consulted with him as a presumed representative or intermediary with the younger generation - should be expected to have seen through it when they were among millions of people who didn't.
I think it's a truth of human nature in general, that pointing the finger retrospectively at certain individuals, saying 'of course they should have/ must have known' is maybe a way for people to shift the attention away from the fact that few if any people who were not in a position to know any better, simply didn't twig what was going on. And if they did feel something or suspect something, they may like myself have pushed away those feelings since they were at odds with the common view of the man, which at the time (well before there was much public awareness of sexual abuse of minors as almost systemic in many institutions and power structures) was to simply see him as an entertainer with an amusingly weird/zany character act.
Your show me on a map cracked me up. "Flower, flower, flower, assasin, flower, DUCKS." 😂😂
"Say it with me, y'all...."
I worked and socialised in Catford between 1983-2003 and don't remember any flowers and I am a Hortyciltur,Hawtycultore,Horteecultur,I like Gardens....
The best thing about what Louis does is attempting to understand why people act/ believe in things outside of societal norms. Without this understanding how can things improve or change. He is without question my favourite documentary maker. The subjects often appall me but the insight is important. Thanks for this reaction
Socratic irony:
The ancient philosopher Socrates would pretend that he wasn't smart enough to understand someone's view point, so they would explain it to him clearly and truthfully.
That's Louis.
The great thing about Louis , imo, is that he doesn't just investigate facts, but investigates the psychological, sociological and emotional state of the participants .
One realises that only our own minds are responsible for this crazy world.
Louis style is a breath of fresh air...It can be frustrating when he's building rapport during the first half of his documentaries but once he's there his questions become fascinating and his interveiwees don't take offence...He always seems genuinely interested and non-confrontational which gets him closer to the source of what you want to hear...He becomes like a mole
If you’ve never seen any of Louis Theroux documentaries I can strongly recommend literally any of them! Weird Weekends is fantastic. He also did a great one on post partum mental illness and psychosis. Also the Westboro Baptist Church. I’m honestly so jealous of anyone who has never seen Louis Theroux because you have so many amazing new documentaries to watch!
Would make great reactions for you or even for Patreon, just putting it out there 👀 Lots of his old stuff is in America too, so you can react to a Brit reacting to US madness. There’s an interesting one about medicated children in the US which really doesn’t happen here (like kids medicated for bipolar etc) super interesting!
Looee Theroo - in cooking, a roux is a base for a sauce and pronounced "roo".
Love Louis. 👏 And white sauce.
That's a very saucy comment. Let's hope you don't 'rue' it in the future...
His shows with the Westboro Baptist Church are phenomenal
I honestly think Louis might have played a part in the deconstruction of some of those Phelps grandchildren like Megan.
The sweet clip of Louis helping that elderly lady to put on her jacket was from his documentary on Dementia. I think it’s called “Extreme Love: Dementia” and it’s extremely heartwarming in places and sad in others.
Louis Theroux is a legend!
One of the craziest things that happens in the series of Westboro Baptists documentaries is that in the first doc there was also another journalist (Steve Drain) who was doing his own story completely independent from Louis. When Louis did his follow up doc some years later that journalist was still there as he had joined the church.
In fact the guy Louis calls Brainiac is that journalist. He actually took over running the church for a while and actually excommunicated Fred Phelps the founder. Drain was later excommunicated.
I lived in Catford for years and it does NOT look like that!!! 😵💫
More Louis Theroux please!!!! He came up briefly in one of your videos a while ago and I thought you would love him, and you do which makes me happy
Louis basically discovered The Tiger King too.
He's a legend.
Ha! What?! 😂
@@JJLAReacts yeah, he did an investigation into wild animal dealers in the US and spent a while with Joe Exotic, a few years before Netflix.
Yes!..that is the first I had seen of Joe Exotic - on a Louis Theroux doco.
I love watching your videos, because instead of guessing what something means when you haven’t heard of it, you do research into it. So you learn and so do I. I haven’t seen any other channels that does this. ❤
I bumped into Louis Theroux at a hospital while his wife was in labour in about 2005 and was telling him about my mum’s massive crush on him. Not one of my finest moments 😂you should check out some weird weekends. They are so so good. On one he hung around (pardon the pun) with some swingers and attended a swinger’s party. The follow up he made to his Saville doc is worth watching also.
Times have changed over the years and he has probably subconsciously had to do that too. And no matter how professional anyone is, if you see a lot of disturbing stuff it will change you over the years. And living with guilt is a heavy burden. Love the guy
The topic it hasn’t covered is his documentary on Scientology which is amazing. I don’t think he’s become more confrontational, but those he interviews have.
I think it’s partly because he’s much more well known now. People know his style and what he does, so it’s a lot more difficult for him to present himself as innocent or naive. The OG weird weekends and early work was so fantastic because people didn’t know who he was.
Louis Theroux docs are fantastic. Throughly enjoy watching his stuff and a big fan of him. Wrote my dissertation on him for uni
Louis Theroux has a disarming charm that lulls the subject into relaxing and revealing more than they intended. Micheal Moore is one of the best documentary, investgative and creative content makers ever. He amazingly won an Oscar for Bowling for Columbine and the producers tried to drown out his speech with recorded boos as they were desperate to appease the corporations, gun lobby and government. The mainstream media and corporate hacks try to silence him but he is a very important voice in the world and is needed more than ever.
The Jimmy Saville episode was really disturbing to watch. There's a scene at the end where Louis eventually decides to very passively, subtly address the rumours about Saville to his face. Saville dismisses them and I got the feeling that Louis knew they were true but, because his career depended on the culture of denial and cover-ups, he decided to stay relatively silent. I'm saddened by his lack of action but I don't hold it against him. The real monster was Saville and learning more about him can help us to understand him and stay vigilant about it happening in the future.
Everything is always much clearer in hindsight.
Fantastic insightful comment, thank you.
Also, I think that the level of power that Savile wielded is not to be underestimated, either. JS was a terribly litigious individual, and any hints of accusation being levelled at him were swiftly met with threats of being sued - Jimmy's very offhand "See you in court!" comment was probably more than enough to make Louis think twice about pursuing a more incisive line of enquiry.
@@VelvetVoice Also worth noting that having suspicions and hunches is not the same as evidence and knowledge. It’s a very big accusation to make about someone outright when you don’t actually know, and the world doesn’t work like that. It’s really easy to say now “it was obvious look at xyz signs” but when you don’t know, you don’t know. I want to live in a world where victims feel safe and secure to speak up and come forward, but it’s more complicated to live in a world where all suspicions are taken as true. That’s how we end up with these vigilantes who end up attacking or “punishing” innocent people.
There’s definitely people high up who knew about Saville and enabled him, but I don’t think every single staff member at the BBC was totally aware or had enough evidence to say one way or the other.
@@VelvetVoice Not only that but being powerful met he could have a word with the right people and end someone's budding career,..
You'll love his documentaries, he's wonderful. I read his book a few years ago and it was surprisingly moving too. His podcast is great too!!
his jimmy saville one and the west bapist church ones (think theres 3) are MUST WATCH if u aint seen them
Yeah the original Jimmy Saville one is nuts, it’s really disturbing but a must watch.
He knew Jimmy was a weirdo but I don’t think he understood what a monster he was until Saville died.
I think Google is CATfishing us with those photos of Catford 😂
Well, JJ.. you have been a great "listener" to me and I am grateful you have been there.
I saw Louis being interviewed recently at a live recording of the Adam Buxton podcast (He's an old school friend of Louis' and one half of Adam & Joe and can be seen in the old home videos on this video). He came across as a really likeable and a very intelligent and funny guy. Actually he was talking about his alopecia that night come to think of it.
Louis Theroux is a national treasure.
Another person who is very good at disarming horrid people is Jamali Maddix in Hate Thy Neighbor a Viceland series. If you haven't seen them, definitely worth a watch.
👏 Great to hear a reactor support the attempt to understand extremism and those with distasteful outlooks, opinions and practices. As Louis has shown, it is only through doing so that we will ever change things for the better. Marginalising and dismissively condemning will only ever lead to exacerbation in the long rum.
Well, if an AI pronunciation guide with no human intervention says it's Loo-uhs Thr-ow then it must be. No way that could be wrong.
Louis is pronounced _Lew-ie_,
Thru-oh is how his last name is pronounced.
@@brigidsingleton1596 Yeah, I was being sarcastic.
Lol.
@AlexByth you can never make a joke or be sarcastic on youtube without explaining it. that is a rule.
You so make me laugh…. Don’t stop🤣🤣
Louis’ father Paul Theroux wrote The Mosquito Coast, which was adapted for film and TV
It's worth checking the films of Nick Broomfield - most of which are great and a big "influence" on the work of Theroux. Theroux's work is interesting, but it's remarkable the lack of curiousity he's shown towards his employer.
All of Louis’ documentaries from the first half of his career are excellent. I would recommend his “Gambling in Las Vegas” as a good starting point.
Lol, they were nice pictures of Catford, I can't believe Loius grew up there❤
Great video and I love your point of view on it mate
The Indian gurus episode of weird weekends is fantastic. In fact that whole series is amazing.
Since Louis Theroux started on British Tv, I have watched all his programmes.
They are very informative and interesting.
"Flowers. Flowers. Tower. Flowers. Flowers? Architecture! An Assassin! Flowers..." 😆
As Marge Simson would say "you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar"
You will never get the truth if you can't gain a persons trust, and that's what Louis does best.
Your friends will tell you anything you ask, your enemies certainly won't.
I love his work and hold nothing against him with the Jimmy incident, i too have been fool by a wrong un.
He’s great, love his documentary’s
You are in for such a treat.
'raised in catford, area of south london'
10 seconds later
'it's in london apparently'
would have never of guessed.
Great to see some old school footage of Louis with pals Adam & Joe - on that note, JJ, if you want to seek out more Louis Theroux content, I can strongly recommend you check out his interviews (aka: 'ramble chats') on the most excellent Adam Buxton Podcast.
about the height of Jimmy's TV career, i was climbing the tourist path up Ben Nevis with my parents. about 1/3 of the way up tits very steep and pretty much all steps. who should come running down towards us but mister fix-it himself, cigar in hand, gold dangly bling, and one ball hanging 2 inches out of his tighty-whitey nylon shorts.
its an image ill take to the grave and im sure it took 10 years off my mums life.
they are about to demolish his house in Glen Coe because it has been trashed so badly
I was a 'fan' of his Dad's writing, especially back in the 70s/80s. The ones that stand out for ne are "The "Great Railway Bazaar" and "The Old Patagonian Express". In the first, he sets out without a plan to take regular rail services from London, across Europe, the Middle East, the Indian Sub-continent and South East Asia, and then makes the return trip on the Trans-Siberian railway. The book covers four months and makes it clear that Louis inherited his father's ability to talk to strangers easily.
The second book covers travelling by local services from his home in Massachusetts down across North America and then across Central America and down to Patagonia.
Louis is a national treasure. Many years ago i worked in PR for a sports and golf resort in Spain. The Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends team rang up wanting to do a doc about it. I was THRILLED I would get to go out there and spend time with the man himself. However, the staff at the resort did some research and feared he would take the piss. They vetoed the idea 😢. Very sad.
In a recent generally inoffensive series, “Louis Theroux Interviews”, Theroux interviews Canadian born but London based comedienne Katherine Ryan. During the interview Ryan talked about an English comedian who was a predator, however, would not name this comedian. Ryan words had opened ‘a can of worms’ which quickly began to focus on Russel Brand.
Oh..was that who she meant? I have always got the "ick" vibe from another British comedian and thought it was him she was alluding to as she had been on panel shows with him. 🤔
@@nolaj114 The programme Louis Theroux meets Katherine Ryan is still available for free on BBC I player. To my knowledge Katherine Ryan has neither confirmed or denied that she was talking about Russel Brand. However, this interview set the ball rolling, especially with the voracious British tabloid press, who quickly focused on Russel Brand. What better to asses the character of Brand than to work with him on various shows.
I've been saying "Show me on a map" randomly for awhile now! You need it on merch! 😂
Before Louis Theroux and John Ronson, there was Nick Broomfield. He pioneered the likeable and apparently non-threatening reporter.
His The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife documentary was genuinely groundbreaking when it came out in the early 90s. He interviewed Eugene Terre' Blanche, leader of the far right AWD, at the end of apartheid and made him look as ridiculous as he was abhorrent. He's created some great work included Ghosts, which is poignant and affecting too.
Broomfield, Ronson and Theroux are all brilliant but Broomfield is the OG.
"How is he supposed to know?" There's the rub. Louis Theroux has a brilliant approach, to extremely controversial characters, but that opens him up to being historically matched with some seriously diabolical things. I'm not sure Jimmy Saville can ever be viewed sympathetically. It's possible to see flashes of humanity in even the darkest people but Jimmy Saville might have been a soulless void. No spoon is long enough to sup with that devil.
Does instinct never stand in the way of the job description? A lot of people had a very bad feeling about Jimmy Saville. Saville didn't put a huge amount of effort into hiding the fact that he was hiding something huge. Most people will pick up on that and shy away. I really like Louis Theroux but I'm not sure that was one of his better decisions. I suspect he was a victim of his own hype ('I can talk to anybody.') Maybe, in fifty years, his time filming with Jimmy Saville will be seen as vitally important and epoch defining (damn the BBC for always trying to vanilla wash themselves) but for a while it may still be viewed as a blunder.
I watched it when it was first broadcast. I was very uneasy but, yeah, I like Theroux and I thought it was important to watch it. I'm glad I did. Actually, I came out of it thinking even worse of Jimmy Saville than I already had as he came across as not only dodgy but also a savage monster. More than just a creep but an actual thug. Maybe, some day, Louis Theroux will be extolled for the sort of Saville self assassination that he facilitated. But I think (probably from watching Louis Theroux talking to Richard Herring on UA-cam) Louis Theroux is very troubled that he felt kindly towards Saville at the time.
Us Brits generally pronounce Louis as Loo-ee, probably because of all those French Kings. In fact most people over here say Loo-ee Armstrong, which is kind of terrible :-)
The Westboro documentaries are I think his best work.
He visited them over a number of years and got them to really open up, and they have a weird friendship even though they don't admit it to each other.
If you can find it, watch the original Jimmy Savile doc. It's not as kind to Savile as Jimmy the giant said. Louis (pronounced Louie) was very close to uncovering him, Savile appeared like a weirdo throughout the episode, and they secretly filmed him saying some awful things. It uncovered a lot, it was a mini masterpiece.
Louis was very freaked out by him.
@@slytheringingerwitch He was, he did everything he could to reveal him, and was very close. If he had we wouldn't have seen it anyway, Savile would have seen to that.
@@philjones45 well then maybe he actually did? i guess he would have made that clear by now then.
His documentaries are amazing.. he goes to stay with Cults n that in America.. very interesting topics he covers in them x
You should have a look at Ruby Wax's interview series.
Yeeesss!! Great choice
You need to react to his documentries
Not sure if you know the full extent of Jimmy Savile’s ‘wrongdoing’ but it’s actually unforgivable. The fact that he never faced justice for his horrendous crimes is difficult to accept.
Frustrating that whenever a liberal or leftist personality is confrontational, it's considered to be 'elitist' or 'part of the problem', but conservatives seem able to get away with it with impunity.
True, we don’t see many people criticising “Prince”, now “King” Charles being pals with Savile. Or Thatcher…
The whispered 'Free Luigi' sent me 😂😂😂😂
I’m not surprised he is getting tired dealing with haters all the time.
Americans tend to pronounce "Louis" as "Lewis", which is really very confusing. I kept hearing people in US shows refer to a Prince "Lewis" as one of Royals. I'm not a follower of what royalty is up to, but still, never having heard of this 'Prince Lewis' I finally went and looked through all the royal progeny - and nary a Lewis appeared. It took a while for the penny to drop.
I finally realised they were mangling the name of the boy who might one day be King. They obviously are unacquainted with the fact that 'Louis' is pronounced "Loo ee"/Loo-wee". And boy, we all have vast amounts of "Prince Loo-wees" all through Europe's past.
What I want to point out is that we pronounce it that way because we see it immediately as a French name. We know that's because there's a lot of French words in our vocabulary - we come across familiar patterns (eg 3 vowels in a row) and unconsciously learn how to pronounce that. By 'simplifying' spelling Webster robbed words of their history, their value...& if that sounds too fanciful - it leaves so many people not being able to pronounce words properly. And sometimes, as here, there are some words you can't simplify. "Simplifying" Louis gets you "Lewis". But that's a whole, other name.
Geez I hope US commentators learn how to say the kid's name before he actually gets crowned. 'Cos to many of the people it's either lazy journalism or totally disrespectful because these botoxed beauties have a) never listened to ANY British commentaries at all. We all know how to say it. b) could not be bothered to tap a key to hear how it's pronounced? Not because of his position, but because everybody has a right to their own name, especially when people are churning out bulldust about them to send all over the world.
Prince Louis is 4th in line to the throne so slim chance he will be king. He will be the spare like Harry. Lol.
@@letitiakearney2423 Well yes - many wonder if William will even make it, don't they? The point I was trying to make is that he's not some one-hit-wonder singer or actor whose name is going to be forgotten a few months down the track.
He's gonna be around for a while, so not bothering to find out how to say his name, for those who have set themselves up following the Family, is hardly the sign of a reliable source.
Louis Theroux is my number 1 choice guest for a fantasy dinner party.
For using the IPA on Wikipedia, hover over each letter and it will give you an example of each symbol. His is ru, r as in rye, and u as the 'oo' sound in goose. Interestingly, Justin Theroux does follow the pronunciation that you use, so there must be different Anglicisations of the French name on different sides of the pond.
Surreal seeing an American in LA looking up Catford on google maps. Catford is not a particularly nice area lol
FYI. the Fahrenheit 11/9 documentary is available on UA-cam.
Louis himself says that his American first cousin Justin pronounces it how you do "Therr-row" but that he (Louis) says Therr-ooh"
With names that come from French, they often get Anglicised in a number of different ways, but th way you say his name would be spelled Thoreau in French, not Theroux. Indeed, Henry David Thoreau is so famous, he might be influencing your instincts here.
I believe Henry Thoreaux is an ancestor of Paul, Louis and the rest of the family.
helping the old lady with her jacket was from a totally different documentary, about people with dementia and how it affects their partners. A great documentary, worth watching. Louis is worth watching for full episodes if you fancy branching out somewhat. This format is getting a little stale, and UA-cam s killing reactors right now. This video had about 9 ad breaks, just too much.
Not if you watch in Firefox with uBlock origin, it doesn't!
Well that's suspicious.By which I mean the disappearance of my comment pointing out one way of not getting 9 ad breaks. Heck, I'm amazed you're still watching if you're getting ads every 5 minutes - I certainly wouldn't.
You should watch Louis' documentaries. Fabulous stuff! 🇬🇧
History has shown time and time again that you stop harmful and DEADLY ideologies by deplatforming them and not giving them a voice or empathy. And I massively disagree that even Pedo sex offenders deserve a voice. That being said, Louis cannot be blamed for the Savile interview as he obviously had no ideas, can't blame the lad for not being a mindreader. And yes, generally he is lovely, entertaining, insightful and a joy to watch. My favourite episodes of his are the gambling one in Las Vegas, the rap one, the prison one and the porn one. He is a national treasure. But I disagree with the idea that platforming Nazis and incels is generally harmless, or even good. I think his shows cultivate amusement over empathy for his subjects in all honesty, so it's one of the least harmful ones, but generally it's a very bad idea. That being said, his shows are absolutely worth a watch, as are his recent celebrity interviews.
I live (& and have lived in) Catford since 1986. We have a _cat_ here too in the town centre.
They are _not_ "row houses".
They are _Terraced houses_.
I can't believe he grew up there. I wonder if my brother who has lived in Catford for decades saw him around.
@MsPeabody1231
Catford covers quite a large area, it's not just Rushey Green which runs out from Lewisham High Street at one end, through to Bromley Road at the other, which itself leads through to Downham and Bromley.
It goes from side to side by Catford Bridge, and Catford train stations, by one end of Ladywell Rec, (parkland through which the River Ravensbourne' flows down from Keston ponds from Caesar's Well, into Catford, Ladywell, Lewisham - where it joins the Quaggy and the Poole, then heads into Deptford Creek and onward to the Thames) along one side, and up towards Verdant Lane and Hither Green on the other side.
Don't be so ready to diss Catford...it has a fair-sized population of all sorts of people,
I always had a feeling that there was something dishonest about Jimmy Savile, even back in the early 60s when he was a DJ. I was only in my early teens and I thought it was that he was only pretending to like rock music. I never thought about paedophilia, as I didn't know about it then. Probably he was pretending to like the music because it got him close to very young people. Then he started doing charity things and that got him close to older vulnerable people and Prime Ministers, the Queen and other royalty, and the Pope were all fooled by him
so it's not surprising that Louis Thoroux was fooled too. He shouldn't be blamed for it, because the whole world was fooled. I never liked him, but I had no idea how bad he was until it all came out a couple of years after his death. His family knew something about it though.
Also really like his style. Dialogue is needed to increase understanding and resolve/challenge differences.
Louis is amazing.
I don’t think it’s fair to dunk on Louis for not getting the full scoop on Saville. Louis made Saville seem creepy and was suspicious of him. I don’t think he enabled him at all, unlike so many in the British establishment definitely did.
Louis went to school with Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish, Joe is now a filmmaker and Adam has one of the top podcasts in the UK, The Adam Buxton Podcast and even Christmas they all meet up for Adams pod and it's usually very funny.
Everybody at the BBC knew about Saville. It's still going on today.
Louis is a Legend. You need to assimilate EVERYTHING he's ever done. His autobiography 'Got to get Thoroux this' is brilliant.
THERE IS A RHLSTP (RICHARD HERRINGS LEICESTER SQUARE THEATRE PODCAST) INTERVIEW WHERE LOUIS DISCUSSES SAVILE DOCS (BOTH OF THEM) AT SOME LENGTH , WORTH LISTENING TO
He is a proper journalist, very rare indeed.
A couple of the women from that hated family escaped and are still in contact with him. After Saville he beat himself up more than anyone.
People who say he promotes bad groups need to watch his programmes. His very latest shows were just interviewing famous people. The KSI interview is worth a watch JJ
He also did a very good feature documentary on Scientology.
I was 24 when I watched TV Nation and 2 years later I was 'in the machine' as a Software Engineer. I lasted 8 years as a 'product'.
I'm all better now 😀
The BBC knew what Saville was doing, but they used to sweep it under the carpet.
Everyone knew full well that Savile was a wrong’un. Johnny Rotten said so decades earlier, but he was a powerful man, and the BBC chose to protect him. Savile was prolific. He had hundreds of victims. Theroux knew too, but was beholden to his employer. It’s a question of pragmatism over principle.
Louis Theroux was excellent at lifting the carpet, and its important society sees that!
You need to watch his documentaries....they are amazing!
1:32 not Google pronouncing "Louis" like "Lewis" lmaoo reminds me of a kid I went to school with. His name was Lewis, but his parents thought "Louis" was an alternate spelling and they liked it better; they had no idea that they aren't pronounced the same. Poor kid spent all his time correcting(?) people when they called him "Louis" instead of "Lewis"
Louis Theroux documentarys are great. ❤
A side note - Harry Chapin (..yes, that W.O.L.D. guy) started it all off - it always comes back to music...or money...or both! 🤔😂
Most people in tv knew what saville was , no one spoke up
his jimmy saville docs are utterly fascinating, prob the best thing hes ever done imo
Massive Louis fan!
I went to the Dog Racing at Catford a couple of times ! ....... I think the greyhound stadium is closed down now
Been houses for a good number of years now