Who knew that Ashley Walters owned a stick insect called Barry? And that Libertines frontman Pete Doherty is a secret fan of niche Eighties hip-hop artist Derek B?
The second season of Louis Theroux Interviews… drops soon on BBC 2. And as might be expected, the line-up is stellar, along with the revelations.
At a recent Q&A, we were shown an advance preview of Theroux’s episode with boxer Anthony Joshua, as well as clips of him interviewing Dame Joan Collins, Top Boy alumnus Ashley Walters and even whistleblower Chelsea Manning.
The latter featured a highly-charged exchange between the pair about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. “There were a few moments like that, moments of either conflict or high emotion,” Theroux said, speaking at the Q&A. “She has been through a lot. And she herself would tell you that she bears the scars of not just her upbringing, but the experience of being incarcerated for seven years and kept in solitary confinement for a lot of that, and so that's still near the surface.
“I think she's at best ambivalent, and perhaps more than ambivalent, actively opposed to her own sort of celebrity, the idea of her having a public profile.”
Theroux, of course, is a staple of British television: on the go since the Nineties, he’s produced documentaries on everything from Mormonism to prisons life and Nazis, and has interviewed everybody from Helena Bonham Carter to Stormzy.
But when it comes to the latter, even he gets starstruck sometimes. Take this year's Glastonbury, where he was spotted filming the latest series of his interview documentary with signer Raye with a huge grin on his face by host Clara Amfo. “I think I prefer it when I’m sort of respectful, appreciative, 'it's so nice to meet you,'” he says. “Not like a weird gurning fanboy… my face gives me away and sometimes my face looks too excited.”
Despite the odd slip, he’s also famous for his noncommittal interviewing style. “I prefer a slightly more ambiguous, slightly more withholding presence, so that I can project a bit more,” he says.
“I'm not going to name names, but sometimes you see presenters and they’re just hugging and ‘Oh, bless,’ and are ‘You're so brilliant.’ And I'm like, ‘Calm down,’ you know… I’ll decide whether I think they're brilliant or not.”
That said, it’s hard not to root for Theroux’s sit-down with Joan Collins, during which the pair look at her old Playboy magazine cover and talk about her seven-decade career in showbiz. Collins is ninety, not that she looks it.
“She doesn’t like talking about her [age]. I said to her, ‘I don't think it's any secret job that you are…’ [And she said] ‘Stop it. No, stop… I don't want you to say it!’”
“But she's like an old school star from the Hollywood golden age of the 50s. And with that toughness, and someone who, in her current incarnation is sort of... it’s almost part of her brand now to be impatient about the excesses of what she considers to be woke or the Me Too movement… what I like about her [is] in addition to talent, of beauty, resourcefulness, her survival instincts in the industry, it's also this feeling of bringing a kind of spice to the conversation.”
There’s also Theroux’s interview with Ashley Walters – he confesses that he is a huge fan of Top Boy and So Solid. “[I felt] that he represented something about - both in Top Boy, and more generally - something about black masculinity and the struggles of finding your way through cliches of black authenticity, about also being true to yourself,” he said.
“He had his well-publicised run in with the law, and he struggled in the world of showbusiness as a child actor, but also was hanging out with people who were more involved in the politics of the streets. That tension of thought [was] something he had spoken about sensitively and I thought he would be willing to talk it about with me.”
With two seasons under his belt, who is Theroux hoping will feature in season three? Tom Cruise, naturally – “the door’s always open” – and Scientologists, “current or former.” John Travolta, and “Dave Chappelle would be a big get. Bit controversial, what do you think?”
And good news for fans of Theroux the musical artist: the infamous ‘Jiggle Jiggle’ track from his interview with Amelia Dimoldenberg, which spawned a TikTok dance craze, also makes an appearance here.
“It's become a little bit of a motif – no, I mean, that's too strong a word, but it I think it pops up in the Raye one, and then possibly in the Ashley Walters one,” he says, adding that Pete Doherty "definitely wasn't on the Jiggle, Jiggle train. He doesn't even have a mobile phone."
“Jiggle Jiggle is forever,” host Clara Amfo joked. “Hopefully not,” Theroux replied.
