Entertainment

BBC Two documentary series to shine spotlight on Louis Theroux’s career

Life On The Edge will feature unseen footage and new interviews with some of Theroux’s past subjects.
Life On The Edge will feature unseen footage and new interviews with some of Theroux’s past subjects.

Louis Theroux’s career will be the focus of a new documentary series on BBC Two.

Life On The Edge, airing in four hour-long episodes, will see the Bafta TV Award-winning documentary maker look back on his 25 years in the industry.

Theroux, known for films exploring subcultures, mental health and people living on the fringes of society, used lockdown to get back in touch with some of his interviewees.

New Louis Theroux documentary
Louis Theroux in his documentary Surviving America’s Most Hated Family (BBC/PA)

He also unearthed unseen footage from older series such as Weird Weekends, which ran from 1998 to 2000.

The series will also feature interviews with Theroux himself.

He said: “For years I’ve wanted to go back and make sense of the programmes I’ve made, find out what happened to some of the contributors, update their stories, and see what all these many hours of making TV might add up to.

“Lockdown gave me the time and space to do this. It’s been a strange and fascinating couple of months working on this, and especially fun to dig through old episodes of Weird Weekends – programmes I made in the mid-90s, when the world was a very different place.

“I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to do with this new series. I think we’ve been able to make the whole add up to more than the sum of the parts and to bring out surprising themes and commonalities.

“And, if nothing else, it was an interesting review of how my haircuts and glasses have changed over the years.”

Savile sex abuse investigation
Theroux interviewed Jimmy Savile (PA)

Theroux has tackled topics including Jimmy Savile, US neo-Nazis, Michael Jackson and Scientology in his series and TV specials.

Last year, he published his autobiography titled Gotta Get Theroux This, which charted his career from fledgling journalist in the early 1990s to BBC regular.

BBC commissioning editor Emma Loach said: “Underpinning Louis’s journalism is a personal touch to his documentaries – an ability, using humour, to get past people’s outer layers and to discover their underlying vulnerability, grief and humanity.

“This personal, introspective series will allow viewers to see Louis as they’ve never seen him before as he reflects on his fascinating and varied career.”