Main content

Louis Theroux

Louis Theroux shares the eight tracks, book and luxury he would take with him if cast away to a desert island. With Lauren Laverne.

Louis Theroux is a television documentary maker. He has received two BAFTAs and a Royal Television Society Award for his work which includes the series Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends and When Louis Met…

Born in 1970, and brought up in south London, he is the son of the American writer Paul Theroux and the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service radio producer Anne Castle. He was privately educated at Westminster School and read History at Oxford, graduating with a first. He moved to the USA where he was introduced to the American documentary maker Michael Moore and started making segments on unusual subcultures for Moore’s show TV Nation. He was given his own series – Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends – by the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ in the late 1990s and, after three series, he went on to present two series of When Louis Met…, which included Neil and Christine Hamilton, Max Clifford, Chris Eubank and Jimmy Savile.

Since then, he has made dozens of documentaries, many of them in the USA. In 2016, he revisited his encounters with Jimmy Savile in the wake of Savile’s death and the surfacing of allegations of child sexual abuse. The same year, his only feature-length film, My Scientology Movie, was released. His most recent documentaries dealt with sexual assault on American campuses, mothers with post-natal mental illness, and escorting.

BOOK CHOICE: Remembrance of things Past – Marcel Proust
LUXURY: 40,000 piece Jigsaw puzzle
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: β€œHeaven on their Minds” from the album Jesus Christ Superstar

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Cathy Drysdale

Available now

51 minutes

Last on

Fri 17 May 2019 09:00

Music Played

  • Marvin Gaye

    All the Way Around

    • I Want You.
    • Tamla.
    • 7.
  • Murray Head

    Heaven on Their Minds

    • Jesus Christ Superstar.
    • Decca.
    • 2.
  • The Smiths

    Panic

    • The World Won’t Listen.
    • Rough Trade.
    • 1.
  • Eric B. & Rakim

    Paid in Full (Seven Minutes of Madness - Coldcut Remix)

    • 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Eric B. & Rakim.
    • Universal-Island.
    • 4.
  • Bob Dylan

    Don't Think Twice, It's All Right

    • The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.
    • Columbia.
    • 7.
  • Fat Joe

    What's Luv? (feat. Ashanti)

    • What’s Luv.
    • Warner Music.
    • 1.
  • Joni Mitchell

    California

    • Blue.
    • Reprise.
    • 6.
  • AntΓ΄nio Carlos Jobim & Herbie Mann

    One Note Samba

    • The Brazilian Scene.
    • Cherry Red Records.
    • 1.

Broadcasts

  • Sun 12 May 2019 11:15
  • Fri 17 May 2019 09:00

The Desert Island Discs podcast

The Desert Island Discs podcast

Subscribe or download individual episodes.

Listen to over 2,000 programmes

Click above to browse castaways, from 1942 to today.

Articles

Read the surprising things we've learned about some stand-out castaways.

Podcast