Louis Theroux investigates the extremes of life in LA in new BBC2 series

(Image credit: PA Archive/Press Association Ima)

Louis Theroux will put Los Angeles under the spotlight in a new BBC2 series, Louis Theroux's LA Stories.

The series will see Louis explore some very different aspects of the Californian city after living there with his family for a year.

The three-parter, which will screen in the spring, sees him investigate the plight of vast numbers of feral, neglected and dangerous dogs in south LA. He will also follow three terminally ill patients at Cedars Sinai Medical Centre in Hollywood to examine the US attitude to death, while the last episode will see him speak to sex offenders to profile how the state deals with them after they've been released from prison.

“It seemed a chance to explore different sides of a single place, by spending longer immersed in stories and going deeper with the subjects,” says Louis. “I have a love hate relationship with the city. It embodies the best and worst of America. It combines wealth and glamour with social breakdown and deep neglect. We’ve concentrated on stories that take us into the extremes of life and the extreme parts of one of the world’s great cities.”

Louis first examined American life in Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends, which ran between 1998 and 2000, and saw him get up close and personal with a range of different groups from born again Christians to porn stars.

Caren Clark

Caren has been a journalist specializing in TV for almost two decades and is a Senior Features Writer for TV Times, TV & Satellite Week and What’s On TV magazines and she also writes for What to Watch.


Over the years, she has spent many a day in a muddy field or an on-set catering bus chatting to numerous stars on location including the likes of Olivia Colman, David Tennant, Suranne Jones, Jamie Dornan, Dame Judi Dench and Sir Derek Jacobi as well as Hollywood actors such as Glenn Close and Kiefer Sutherland.


Caren will happily sit down and watch any kind of telly (well, maybe not sci-fi!), but she particularly loves period dramas like Call the Midwife, Downton Abbey and The Crown and she’s also a big fan of juicy crime thrillers from Line of Duty to Poirot.


In her spare time, Caren enjoys going to the cinema and theatre or curling up with a good book.