Latest news with #WeirdWeekends
Press and Journal
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Press and Journal
Review: Louis Theroux faces dad's critique of Aberdeen as 'miserable' on first visit to city
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! Review: An Inspector Calls makes for a thrilling night of intrigue at HMT in Aberdeen Review: Rowdy Aberdeen fans celebrate Shane MacGowan as Christmas comes to city on Easter Sunday
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Settlers review – this vital film forces Louis Theroux to do something he's never done before
If you've even casually been tracking Louis Theroux's career, you will have detected a noticeable deceleration of late. For a while, after he shed the culty sheen of his Weird Weekends persona, Theroux emerged as a sober, probing documentarian who made films about drug addiction, sexual assault and postpartum depression. These films were, without exception, vital. Then lockdown happened, and the wheels fell off. After going viral for a self-consciously ironic rap he did 20 years earlier, Theroux settled into the low-stakes quicksand of a generic celebrity interview podcast. You were left with the feeling of an extraordinary talent being wasted. The Settlers lays all those worries to rest in an instant. By travelling to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Theroux is revisiting the subject matter of a documentary he made in 2011. That film, The Ultra Zionists, concerned a clutch of Jewish people who – propelled by religious nationalism – were infringing on international law by building their homes in Palestinian territory. But, 14 years on, he has returned to find that the settlements have accelerated. The settler ideology has found itself gaining political traction. What was fringe has now become mainstream. As such, The Settlers requires Theroux to alter his approach. Ever since Weird Weekends, his stock in trade has been the faux-naïf, lulling his subjects into a false sense of security with his bumbling charm. With everyone from Jimmy Savile to the members of the Westboro Baptist Church, he was able to lay traps they simply didn't see coming. But the situation in the West Bank is so dire that the kid gloves have to come off. This is partly because he and his crew repeatedly find themselves subject to many of the confrontations and intimidations that blight the lives of Palestinians on a daily basis. During a visit to a Palestinian home, settlers drive up and point guns with laser sights through the windows at him. More than once, he has to politely ask people to lower their guns while talking to him. In one especially tense encounter, he has to bark 'Don't touch me' at a pair of balaclava-wearing Israeli soldiers. In the early years, Theroux would gently attempt to convince his subjects that their worldview might not be the only one around. In the later, more serious films, he would leave long silences on which the viewer could project scorn on his behalf, saving his true feelings for the voiceover afterwards. In truth, there is some of this in The Settlers. When he meets Ari Abramowitz, a Texas settler in the West Bank who refuses to even use the word 'Palestinian', he holds his tongue. When he meets a rabbi who calls Palestinians 'savages' and 'camel riders', he manages to do the same. Then comes Daniella Weiss. A key member of the Israeli settler movement for 50 years, Weiss is Theroux's prime target. She is able to hide her extreme views behind a friendly smile, no matter how aggressively he plays cat and mouse with her. But, at the end of the episode, they both get to each other like never before. Theroux corners Weiss and presses her on settler violence against Palestinians. She says none exists. He says he has witnessed it, notably in a video of a Palestinian being shot. She claims the Israeli shooter was acting in retaliation, then physically shoves Theroux in the hope that he'll push her back. Instead, he does something he's never done before. He calls her a sociopath. I've been watching Theroux's films for more than three decades, since his days on Michael Moore's TV Nation, and watching him be this forthright feels like a true watershed moment in his career. This level of stridently editorialising just hasn't been in his toolbox until now. Whether it works or not is debatable – by the end of the encounter Weiss has recovered herself enough to taunt 'I wish you'd pushed me back' at him – but this new version of Louis Theroux feels like a deliberate adaptation to the ages. It suits him. As with everything, you wish certain aspects of the situation could be explored more. Most notably, the peripheral glimpses of Israeli activists who protest against the settlements probably need more airtime, if only to demonstrate that this is a problem of individuals rather than an entire nation. But that's by the by. It looks very much like we've got Louis Theroux back, and not a moment too soon. • The Settlers aired on BBC Two and is on iPlayer now
The Guardian
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Settlers review – this vital film forces Louis Theroux to do something he's never done before
If you've even casually been tracking Louis Theroux's career, you will have detected a noticeable deceleration of late. For a while, after he shed the culty sheen of his Weird Weekends persona, Theroux emerged as a sober, probing documentarian who made films about drug addiction, sexual assault and postpartum depression. These films were, without exception, vital. Then lockdown happened, and the wheels fell off. After going viral for a self-consciously ironic rap he did 20 years earlier, Theroux settled into the low-stakes quicksand of a generic celebrity interview podcast. You were left with the feeling of an extraordinary talent being wasted. The Settlers lays all those worries to rest in an instant. By travelling to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Theroux is revisiting the subject matter of a documentary he made in 2011. That film, The Ultra Zionists, concerned a clutch of Jewish people who – propelled by religious nationalism – were infringing on international law by building their homes in Palestinian territory. But, 14 years on, he has returned to find that the settlements have accelerated. The settler ideology has found itself gaining political traction. What was fringe has now become mainstream. As such, The Settlers requires Theroux to alter his approach. Ever since Weird Weekends, his stock in trade has been the faux-naïf, lulling his subjects into a false sense of security with his bumbling charm. With everyone from Jimmy Savile to the members of the Westboro Baptist Church, he was able to lay traps they simply didn't see coming. But the situation in the West Bank is so dire that the kid gloves have to come off. This is partly because he and his crew repeatedly find themselves subject to many of the confrontations and intimidations that blight the lives of Palestinians on a daily basis. During a visit to a Palestinian home, settlers drive up and point guns with laser sights through the windows at him. More than once, he has to politely ask people to lower their guns while talking to him. In one especially tense encounter, he has to bark 'Don't touch me' at a pair of balaclava-wearing Israeli soldiers. In the early years, Theroux would gently attempt to convince his subjects that their worldview might not be the only one around. In the later, more serious films, he would leave long silences on which the viewer could project scorn on his behalf, saving his true feelings for the voiceover afterwards. In truth, there is some of this in The Settlers. When he meets Ari Abramowitz, a Texas settler in the West Bank who refuses to even use the word 'Palestinian', he holds his tongue. When he meets a rabbi who calls Palestinians 'savages' and 'camel riders', he manages to do the same. Then comes Daniella Weiss. A key member of the Israeli settler movement for 50 years, Weiss is Theroux's prime target. She is able to hide her extreme views behind a friendly smile, no matter how aggressively he plays cat and mouse with her. But, at the end of the episode, they both get to each other like never before. Theroux corners Weiss and presses her on settler violence against Palestinians. She says none exists. He says he has witnessed it, notably in a video of a Palestinian being shot. She claims the Israeli shooter was acting in retaliation, then physically shoves Theroux in the hope that he'll push her back. Instead, he does something he's never done before. He calls her a sociopath. I've been watching Theroux's films for more than three decades, since his days on Michael Moore's TV Nation, and watching him be this forthright feels like a true watershed moment in his career. This level of stridently editorialising just hasn't been in his toolbox until now. Whether it works or not is debatable – by the end of the encounter Weiss has recovered herself enough to taunt 'I wish you'd pushed me back' at him – but this new version of Louis Theroux feels like a deliberate adaptation to the ages. It suits him. As with everything, you wish certain aspects of the situation could be explored more. Most notably, the peripheral glimpses of Israeli activists who protest against the settlements probably need more airtime, if only to demonstrate that this is a problem of individuals rather than an entire nation. But that's by the by. It looks very much like we've got Louis Theroux back, and not a moment too soon. The Settlers aired on BBC Two and is on iPlayer now
Times
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
The 10 best Louis Theroux documentaries you can watch right now
Louis Theroux, whose latest documentary The Settlers, about Israeli settler communities in the West Bank, is on the BBC this week, is one of Britain's best-known and most-loved documentary makers. He started out in America presenting segments on Michael Moore's TV Nation series. In the late 1990s he rose to prominence in Britain with his first Weird Weekends series on BBC2. In these he embedded himself in communities and sub-cultures — usually in America — rarely seen on television. Theroux shed light on survivalists and porn performers, religious groups and UFO believers, with his unassuming and personal style of interviewing. Since those early days, he has made more than 50 documentaries for the BBC, as well as one feature film. In the infamous When Louis
Sky News
24-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Sky News
'I felt like a trespasser and imposter': Louis Theroux to be awarded prestigious NFTS fellowship
Louis Theroux will be honoured with the prestigious National Film and Television School (NFTS) fellowship next month. The renowned interviewer - who has been working in the business for over three decades, and whose Weird Weekends were the stuff of legend - admits he initially felt like "a trespasser" and "imposter" in his front-of-screen role. Never going to film school himself, the now world-famous presenter and documentarian got his first job as a print journalist in America after graduating from Oxford University. His big break came on Michael Moore's TV Nation series, as a roving reporter delving into offbeat culture, later striking up a deal with the BBC resulting in Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends. A first-person storyteller, who disarms his subjects with charm, Theroux's interviews frequently result in the unexpected. Commenting on his upcoming award, Theroux said: "I came into the industry more than thirty years ago, feeling like a trespasser, an imposter, in a role meant for someone else, worrying that I would be found out, hoping I could keep going for a few more months, since I was enjoying it so much. "All these years later, I've learned that 'keeping going' may be the best definition of success." Admitting that like those just starting out in the field, he too is "still figuring things out", he said he hoped the fellowship would give him the chance to "connect with younger people… sharing the few things I've learned, and more importantly learning from them". Theroux went on to interview a host of celebrities in When Louis Met…, including Jimmy Savile, who is now known to have been one of the UK's most prolific sexual predators. Haunted by the interaction, Theroux would go on to interview some of Savile's victims in a follow-up 16 years later. Theroux has also fronted various documentaries across BBC1 and BBC2 and released the 2016 feature-length documentary My Scientology Movie. The author of several books, he currently hosts his own podcast series. In 2019, he set up his own production company, Mindhouse, with his wife Nancy Strang and filmmaker Arron Fellows, producing documentary film and TV series, as well as his podcast. Theroux recently revealed he was suffering from alopecia, initially resulting in the loss of his eyebrows. In true Theroux style, the 54-year-old has been documenting his hair loss journey on social media, seeking advice and sharing updates with his followers. NFTS chair Sophie Turner Laing praised Theroux's "immense contribution" to the world of factual filmmaking, adding: "His ability to connect with audiences and uncover powerful human stories makes him a true icon in the industry." Previous recipients of the honorary fellowship include James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli, Wallace And Gromit creator Nick Park, director Sam Mendes and children's author Malorie Blackman. NFTS graduates have gone on to win 15 Oscars and 166 BAFTAs since the school opened half a century ago, with current graduates' work on show at the BFI Southbank from Monday 3 March to Thursday 6 March. The fellowship will be awarded to Theroux during the school's graduation ceremony on Friday 7 March.
