0/5

Louis Theroux on ABC2

If you have missed many of Louis Theroux 's wonderful documentaries, ABC2 will be rescreening a number of them soon.

If you have missed many of Louis Theroux‘s wonderful documentaries (and really, why have you?), ABC2 will be rescreening a number of them soon.

It begins with one of his most famous, The Most Hated Family in America.

Theroux recently told TV Tonight about revisiting the family for a follow-up doco, however ABC2 will screen his original visit.

Louis Theroux is back and he uncovers the inside story of America’s most controversial family the Phelps from the Westboro Baptist Church.

Is there more to this tight knit group than appalling picketing slogans?

Chanting slogans like, ‘thank god for dead soldiers’ and ‘f*gs die God laughs’, it is easy to comprehend why the Phelps have become the most hated family in America. These eccentrics will stop at nothing to get their message across, picketing any newsworthy event year round even soldiers’ funerals.

The family, all 71 of them, live on a single block in a wealthy suburb of Topeka, Kansas and Louis moved right in! Louis uncovers the peculiar and intense dynamics of this family with their unwavering moral beliefs. Along the way we meet: Fred, the loving grandfather and husband who leads his grandchildren on ten pickets a day; Shirley, his daughter, who enrages viewers by thanking the Lord for 9/11 and dead soldiers; and Margie, another daughter, who pickets furiously but then weeps about her own sin.

As the Phelps become more vocal their enemies are becoming more violent: 3,000 people rioted against them at a funeral, their car was smashed, one family member was beaten, they received telephone threats, and have even had a bombing at their compound.

For Louis living with these people was tough: “As individuals they are hard to dislike but as a group they hard to stomach”, he says.

8:30pm Wednesday September 7th on ABC2.

9 Responses

  1. That’s great news, these docos are well worth a second viewing.
    Seven ran them at midnight, so at 8.30pm and without ads, sheer bliss!
    Thanks ABC.

  2. One of my favourites is when he goes to Las Vegas to join the high rollers , that was a great episode.He looked to be having a great time near the end.

Leave a Reply