Four hours of Theroux gold.
Louis Theroux is a national treasure and the utter master at making serious issues interesting and accessible. And this evening there’s a full marathon showing everything that makes him great.
Really (Freeview channel 17/ Sky 155/ Virgin 129) is showing four Theroux docs back to back tonight from 9pm, and it’s the perfect way to end your week.
First up is 2016’s Louis Theroux: Drinking to Oblivion, a rare Theroux documentary set in the UK. It’s a brutal, affecting, but also uplifting film about the devastating effects of alcohol addiction, based around the specialist liver centre at King's College Hospital.
That’s followed at 10pm by By Reason of Insanity, focusing on the mental patients of two state psychiatric hospitals in Ohio.
Then at 11.20pm, there’s a classic episode of Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends. This one’s the episode about UFO enthusiasts, and it’s always good to mix some of the funnier Theroux docs in with the more serious, recent films.
Finally, at 12.20pm, there is Law & Order In Johannesburg, where Louis travels to the largest city in South African to investigate the terrifying levels of crime.
(Alternatively, there’s loads of Theroux on Netflix, but that will require using a minimal amount of effort to select the episodes yourself. It’s Sunday, take the easy option).
