From the very second that he walks into Queen’s Park’s Alice House on a Tuesday lunchtime, everything about Louis Theroux feels familiar. ‘How d’you do? I’m Louis,’ he says, in exactly the same way that I, and you, have seen him do countless times during his programmes (who else, I think at the time and long after, still says ‘How d’you do?’).
Our server approaches to take our order. ‘Is the romesco nice?’ Theroux asks. It’s pretty good, she says. ‘Only pretty good? What’s really good?’ he asks, with characteristic inquisitiveness, that inimitably wry smile starting to form. Well, the grilled cheese toastie, obviously, she enthuses. ‘Oh, that’s a classic, right?’ Our server nods. The grilled cheese toastie it is. It is perhaps an obvious first question, but how does one of the UK’s foremost interviewers feel about being interviewed? ‘Actually, I don’t mind it,’ he says, post-first bite of what does indeed look like a fine cheese toastie. ‘I have a slight tendency to overshare, so I have to be careful.’
