Gotta Get Theroux This

In 1994 a young Louis Theroux was astonished to be given a job as correspondent on Michael Moore's satirical TV Nation. With zero experience, he was soon discussing the end of the world with a bible-bashing preacher and a couple of millenarian neo-Nazis. It was the start of a career that has lasted over two decades.

In Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind, Louis takes us behind the scenes as he films his own Weird Weekends series, from a calamitous first shoot with the Aryan nation, to stripping off with porn stars and spectacularly failing to make the cut as a wrestler. Immersed in strange and often dangerous worlds, he still managed to find the humanity in the people he interviewed.

Riding high in his career, Louis then moved on to celebrities. His interviews with Jimmy Savile and Max Clifford, both manipulative predators, thrust Louis himself into the limelight when the truth was finally uncovered. Knowing he too was fooled caused him soul searching and a change in direction, leading to powerful and sometimes heartbreaking documentaries on subjects like autism and dementia. Filled with wry observation and gloriously offbeat characters, this is an entertaining and ultimately uplifting book by a much loved star.