Gotta Get Theroux This: My Life and Strange Times in Television

· Macmillan · Narrated by Louis Theroux
4.6
31 reviews
Audiobook
13 hr 21 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook

From much-loved documentary maker Louis Theroux comes a funny, heartfelt and entertaining account of his life and weird times in TV.

The audio edition is read by the author and contains an exclusive additional chapter.


The Sunday Times Bestseller.

'Honest and soul-searching' - Sunday Express
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In 1994 fledgling journalist Louis Theroux was given a one-off gig on Michael Moore’s TV Nation, presenting a segment on apocalyptic religious sects. Gawky, socially awkward and totally unqualified, his first reaction to this exciting opportunity was panic. But he’d always been drawn to off-beat characters, so maybe his enthusiasm would carry the day. Or, you know, maybe it wouldn’t . . .

In Gotta Get Theroux This, Louis takes the reader on a joyous journey from his anxiety-prone childhood to his unexpectedly successful career. Nervously accepting the BBC’s offer of his own series, he went on to create an award-winning documentary style that has seen him immersed in the weird worlds of paranoid US militias and secretive pro-wrestlers, get under the skin of celebrities like Max Clifford and Chris Eubank and tackle gang culture in San Quentin prison, all the time wondering whether the same qualities that make him good at documentaries might also make him bad at life.

As Louis woos his beautiful wife Nancy and learns how to be a father, he also dares to take on the powerful Church of Scientology. Just as challenging is the revelation that one of his old subjects, Jimmy Savile, was a secret sexual predator, prompting him to question our understanding of how evil takes place. Filled with wry observation and self-deprecating humour, this is Louis at his most insightful and honest best.

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'Funny, engaging' - Sunday Times

'Gripping' - Daily Mail

'Absorbing and surprisingly candid' - Telegraph Magazine

Ratings and reviews

4.6
31 reviews
Christy L
October 16, 2019
Funny audio book. Louis's impersonations of characters in the book are hilarious. Dominated largely by his relationship with Jimmy Savel and the impact Jimmy had on Louis and modern culture as a whole. Louis also attempts to give us a glimpse of what behind the bumbling, caught in the headlights, character that manages to conjure a spell over anyone with a story worth telling. If not the full monty, Louis, at least, stands before you in only his boxers.
12 people found this review helpful
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Ashton Pope
December 31, 2019
A truly remarkable and funny book by the most entertaining presenter on TV for the last 25 years, this represents a once in a lifetime bargain, you will not be disappointed mark my words. A laugh a paragraph, from sex to drugs with everything in between...
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Julie Bowley
November 13, 2019
Love hearing stars I admire reading their own story. It really adds a special something to the experience
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About the author

Louis Theroux is an award-winning journalist and documentary film-maker whose programmes are shown all over the world. In twenty years of working, he has spent time with inmates at San Quentin prison and Miami Jail; gambled with high-rollers at a Las Vegas mega-casino; stalked game with trophy hunters on South Africa's wild animal farms, and spent time getting to know dementia patients and their families in Phoenix, Arizona. His feature-length documentary My Scientology Movie was released in 2016 and his television documentary series Dark States aired in 2017.

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