A holiday in other people's misery
Theroux first came to the public eye with his highly entertaining Weird Weekends series, in which he tagged along with white supremacists, female bodybuilders and swingers to find out what made them tick. As with When Louis Met..., his faux-naif style was both his trump card and his subjects' undoing, as they unravelled themselves in front of him for the audience's pleasure and his well disguised delight. Not for Theroux the sly glances to camera; he admirably managed to document a small selection of the world's grotesquery without irony or overt mockery.

Meetings of mindlessness
Among the luminaries Theroux picked for his When Louis Met... series are disgraced former Conservative MP Neil Hamilton and his hard-faced wife Christine. The repellent pair were chosen as a result of their alleged involvement in the cash-for-questions parliamentary scandal, but Theroux found himself right in the thick of another tabloid scandal during filming. Somewhat improbably, the couple were accused of rape at a swinger's party (they were subsequently found not guilty) and Theroux happened to be right there when they were arrested.

Father knows best
It was perhaps inevitable for Theroux to find fame in the field of journalism. His father is acclaimed travel scribe Paul Theroux, which no doubt fuelled Theroux Jnr's wanderlust. America seems to hold an abiding fascination for him, as evidenced by Weird Weekends. Even when confined to home ground, Theroux can often be found in Britain's obscure corners, ferreting around for the minute details that make up life's rich pageant.

You cannot be serious
The most common criticism levelled at Theroux is that he's just taking the piss. True enough, his stock in trade is that feeling of schadenfreude - a concept so English we had to steal a German word to describe it - with the added frisson that comes from knowing that the objects of his (and our) derision have little or no idea they're objects of mild ridicule. But Theroux, like his contemporary Jon Ronson, gives the impression that he's genuinely interested in getting down to brass tacks with his subjects. While we somehow know he's hoping for a little unwitting exposure, his composure remains implacable. What a pro.