Louis Theroux: “Atmosphere Of Anxiety” Has Led To “Less Confident Filmmaking” – Edinburgh TV Festival MacTaggart

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Louis Theroux has warned in his Edinburgh TV Festival MacTaggart address that an “atmosphere of anxiety” is leading to “less confident, less morally complex filmmaking.” The celebrated documentarian reflected on a three decades-long career during which he has made shows about a wealth of topics pertaining to the fringes of society including on far-right extremists, sex workers and paedophiles.

He wondered aloud whether these programs “might be harder to get commissioned” today as he considered how populists and viral social media influencers have created a two-tier system of content when compared with impartial broadcasters like the BBC, a situaton that he likened to “an Olympics event where half the athletes are allowed to dope.” “We’re in a time of two parallel realities,” said Theroux. “The old world with our cherished values of ‘editorial policy’ and balance.

And a new digital frontier where anything goes.” While thanking the UK’s biggest public broadcaster for “giving me the latitude to pursue my interests,” Theroux said “lately there have been changes in the broader culture.” “We are, I’m happy to say, more thoughtful about representation, about who gets to tell what story, about power and privilege, about the need not to wantonly give offence,” Theroux said, as he became the 37th MacTaggart lecturer. “I am fully signed up to that agenda. “But I wonder if there is something else going on as well.

That the very laudable aims of not giving offence have created an atmosphere of anxiety that sometimes leads to less confident, less morally complex filmmaking.” Theroux considered how the “precepts of sensitivity have come into conflict with the words inscribed into the walls of [BBC HQ] New Broadcasting House,” which