Oh man, and there it goes. Louis Theroux, back in our lives for three weeks only has once more, packed up his camera, his beautifully dishevelled hair and headed off on his merry way; back to creating more excellent documentaries about the bonkers people that live in this crazy old world.
Since 2007, Louis has knocked a couple of documentaries out a year (except for 2013, that was a hard year), normally with a 12-month or so gap in between. By our powers of deduction (hire us Louis, please) this means we’re looking at mid-2016, at least, before Louis returns again with yet more TV gold.
So, until that point, let’s hop in the old TV Time Machine and head back to the heady days of the late 90s and early 00s to revisit some of the docs that made Louis famous. That should tide you over.
When Louis Met The Hamiltons
Because when Louis Met Jimmy (Saville) is just too grim for words (the whole mother obsession thing is off the charts, red flag central). Stick, instead, to the time that Louis met Neil Hamilton, the former Tory MP, and his wife Christine. The whole thing is a shambles from start to finish for the Hamiltons, who unfortunately (for them) agreed to let the cameras in just as they were arrested over rape claims (which were later proved false). The toe-curlingly horrifying scene where Christine gets drunk, drapes herself over Louis and ‘flirts outrageously' (her words) while he sits there not quite sure what to do is worse than that time your mum showed up tipsy to parents’ evening and winked at your maths teacher. Poor Mr. Gibson.
Get it here.
Weird Weekends – Thai Brides
Louis is the master of creating cringe-tastic telly moments but Thai Brides is far and above the actual worst – mainly down to Lake Palmer, a man from Great Yarmouth who’s after a Thai Bride to offer his ‘love and affection’ to. Whether she wants it or not. Check out the below clip of Lake giving his new bride a candle so ‘the flame of (their) love will never die’, while she looks like she wants to hail a taxi and run as far away from the Khao San Road and every British person ever as fast as she can manage, and you’ll get the sort of level of social horror we’re talking about.
Get it here.
Weird Weekends – Porn
Perhaps the unsexiest doc about sex that’s ever been made. From the British girl who’s found the US porn industry an easier ride (sorry) than the UK (‘Here they don’t try and kill you, you don’t get injuries’), to the guy that can’t get it up (c’mon chaps, how’s an entire film set waiting for you to get hard measure up as pressure?), to Louis having his OWN turn in a porn film (check out the clip below) it makes a hilarious pre-cursor to his later, somewhat more sober look at the demise of the porn industry in 2012.
Get it here.
Weird Weekends – South Africa
Holy balls, what even was Eugene Terre’Blanche? In this doc, Louis meets the man who founded the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging party. Which, as well as being a word that is more unpronounceable than the Game Of Thrones cast list after a few drinks, is a white supremecist group that campaigns for a white Boer-Afrikaner republic in South Africa. For an insight into how darn racist Eugene was, check out the clip below. Watch out, too, for the douchebag in the documentary who believes ‘you shouldn't mix black and white kids in the same school’.
Get it here.
Louis And The Brothel
I mean, it doesn’t get much weirder than watching a prostitute undress Louis while telling him that he’s ‘probably very sexual’ all in the name of journalism. Either way this documentary set at one of Nevada’s brand new (in 2003) legal brothels is sad and uplifting all at the same time.
Get it here.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.