Review: Louis Theroux faces dad's critique of Aberdeen as 'miserable' on first visit to city

Press and Journal

15-05-2025

Louis Theroux is an effortlessly entertaining raconteur.
He had the audience at Aberdeen Music Hall captivated, and occasionally roaring with laughter, as the veteran interviewer became interviewee on Wednesday night.
The TV legend went from discussing his experiences with real-life monsters like Jimmy Savile and Fred Phelps to opening up about his ambitions to write his own sitcom during the near-two-hour tour de force.
Fans of the 'complete misfit in every way' certainly got their money's worth, treated to a range of insights and observations on everything from the rise of the Far Right to 'cancel culture' – as well as a few pretty decent impressions.
But Theroux maybe got more than he bargained for when interviewer Fiona Stalker went back through the generations, bringing his dad's words back to haunt him.
Paul Theroux, a famed travel writer and novelist, apparently once deemed Aberdeen the 'most miserable and unfriendly place' he had ever lived. Much worse, in fact, than London.
Taking it in good spirits, Theroux vowed to tell his dad he 'was so wrong', while explaining that this sort of put-down was the author's 'brand' at the time.
He added: 'He's quite a nice man a lot of the time.'
Perhaps still eager to atone, the TV star would later make sure to commend Aberdeen-born singer Annie Lennox too.
'What a great voice, a great ambassador…', he mused earnestly.
But there was, of course, much more to the show than this.
My earliest memories of Louis Theroux include him being slammed to the mat in the WCW training camp as he explored the world of American pro-wrestling during one of his Weird Weekends in the late 1990s.
I've watched pretty much everything of his since then, read his books and listened to his podcast in lockdown. I've even listened to the All The Way Theroux podcast, which goes through his catalogue of shows in detail.
So yes, I am a fan.
And there was a welcoming buzz in the air, with the sense that so many in the sold-out audience were happy just to spend some time in the great man's company.
Theroux revealed how he initially hoped to become a sitcom writer before becoming a documentary-maker, and it appears that, even decades later, the dream is still alive.
When asked how he sees his career evolving in the next 25 years, Theroux said he could see himself spending more time behind the camera… Maybe as a drama or sitcom writer.
Avid Theroux followers like myself will have heard him discuss his time with Jimmy Savile a few times by now.
He has his doubts over whether he managed to show what sort of man the predator really was during a Weird Weekend with him.
But it's still a fascinating subject to hear him elaborate on, as he tells us how he and his crew managed to capture at least a hint of the steely TV presenter's dark side.
Even all these years on, there's still some regret that he might have been 'hoodwinked'.
Theroux was in Aberdeen as part of the Ultimate Masterclass Festival, which tonight brings comedian James Corden to the Music Hall.
Host Ryan Crighton explained these events had been arranged not to 'bring celebrities to Aberdeen and slap them with a bus gate fine', but to usher folk into the city centre.
They had been hoping for 'busy bars and restaurants' as people made a night of it.
Having combined the show with a first visit to the amazing new Filipino restaurant Kultura on Belmont Street, I think it must have worked!
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