Louis Theroux brings law to the mean streets of Philadelphia
Posted by: Chris Hails in TV Add comments
I love Louise Theroux. For me he’s the embodiment of the modern British gentleman, a combination of incisive wry wit and a laid back attitude to the cultural oddities of 21st century living. It’s his ability to put interviewees at ease that has led to some sensational TV over the years.
He writes on the BBC website about his new programme, Louis Theroux: Law and Disorder in Philadelphia and confesses at the start “I’m not the most macho guy in the world. I am not what you would call a ‘man’s man.”
With this in mind, Louis has boldy stepped into the role of shadowing modern day lawmen who patrol the mean streets of Philadelphia.
The sixth largest city in the US was no wild west outpost even way back in the 19th century. Whilst intrepid pioneers made the long trek west by covered wagon to seek riches in the gold fields of California, Philadelpia - once the second largest city in the British Empire after London - had been the social and geographical center of the original 13 American colonies and can claim such American treasures as Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and the house where Betsy Ross stitched the original stars and stripes.
It turns out though that The City of Brotherly Love nowadays has one of the worst homicide rates in America and so Louis risks life and limb to document gang warfare and the perils of the drug trade:
My only issue with the finished film is the huge flak jacket I’m wearing throughout. It does make me look a bit of a wally, especially when I’m interviewing a man holding a small child (neither of them wearing flak jackets). But there you are - I’m not a man’s man and now the world will know.
The programme will be shown on BBC Two on Sunday, 30 November, at 9pm
