Louis’s latest TV series about weirdness – the one involving the American far right, home-grown jihadis, and SoundCloud rappers – has been unexpectedly derailed by the onset of a global pandemic. Now he finds himself locked down in a location even more full of pitfalls, surprises and hostile objects of inquiry: his own home.

Theroux the Keyhole is the candidly honest and hilarious diary of a man attempting to navigate the perils of work and family life, locked down in Covid World with his wife, two teenagers and a Youtube-addict fiver year-old. Why is his wife so intolerant of his obsession with Joe Wicks’s daily workouts? Can he reinvent himself as a podcast host? Why has the internet gone nuts for his old journalistic compadre Joe Exotic? And will his teenage sons ever see him as anything other than ‘cringe’?

This is Louis at his insightful best, as month-by-month he documents his year of unforeseen new challenges – and wonders why it took a pandemic for him to learn that what really matters in life is right in front of him.

Like millions of others, Louis’ plans were mothballed by the onset of Covid. Unable to escape to the porn sets, prisons and maximum-security psychiatric units that are his usual journalistic beat, he began reporting on a location even more full of pitfalls and hostile objects of inquiry: his own home during a pandemic.

Theroux the Keyhole is an honest, hilarious and ultimately heartwarming diary of the weirdness of family life in Covid World. A wife intolerant of his obsession with Joe Wicks’ daily workouts. Two teenage sons, inseparable from their videogames, for whom he is increasingly ‘cringe’. A five-year-old happily spamming out videos on his own new TikTok account while on holiday with his oblivious family.

Louis also describes how he launches his podcast, Grounded, finally gets to the US to film a new Joe Exotic documentary and aims his sights on the latest incarnation of the far right in a world becoming radicalized by social media. Theroux the Keyhole is Louis at his insightful best, as he faces unforeseen new challenges and wonders why it took a pandemic for him to learn that what really matters in life is right in front of him.

‘Honest and soul-searching’ – Sunday Express

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

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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

On a journey that took him from the porn sets of Los Angeles to the gangsta rappers of Memphis, from a convention of UFO contactees in Arizona to Northern Idaho for a festive get-together of neo-Nazis, he asked what ‘weird people’ have to tell us about our own secret natures. Had he learned anything about himself by being among them? Do we choose our beliefs or do our beliefs choose us?

Louis Theroux’s first book is a hilarious, thought-provoking and at times surreal voyage into the heart of weirdness.