Louis Theroux

Adam Buxton at Eventim Apollo review

Effortless comedy and chemistry with special guest Louis Theroux.

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Katherine Ryan tells Louis Theroux about 'open secret' of alleged sexual abuser

Canadian comic refused to name the alleged perpetrator.

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A Ventriloquist's Story: Her Master's Voice was centred on a perfect Louis Theroux-equse subject, a vents' convention in Kentucky to which Nina Conti travelled with the puppets left to her by her mentor and lover, Ken Campbell. In its way, this too was a study of the psychological tolls of performance and self-exposure, with Conti musing on the odd business of out-sourcing part of your consciousness to a glove puppet. But it was a lot of other things besides - an odd, often uncomfortable film that dared to go to some very dark places.

Conti lay in bed at one point talking to herself about an abortion she'd had, delivering one half of the conversation in the person of her dead lover. At another she staged the "death" of her own sidekick monkey, dissolving into alarmingly plausible grief. I'm not convinced she'll ever be a great ventriloquist, but there was a risk and rawness here that I think would have made Ken Campbell proud.

The venerable try-out series returns with two quite funny sketch show pilots. The first, iCandy, comes from Irish comic Liam Hourican, whose Louis Theroux impression is a gem. This Louis's Weird Weekend involves meeting Adolf Hitler in his bunker ("I kinda feel like you're hectoring me now, Adolf"). Other characters include a mouthy, string-vested Irish PM ("Oi'll fight every man that wants!") and a community-minded Peter Stringfellow. Hourican is a talent to watch.

A hidden and unexpected gem in last year's schedules was The Convention Crasher, in which Justin Lee Collins did his best at being Louis Theroux, if Louis decided to hang out with Clowns and Magicians rather than Bloods and Crips. Surprisingly, this worked and gave JLC a little bit of cred, a little bit of "he's alright actually". So with Al Murray dipping his toe into the sharky waters of the sketch show (awful) ITV1 had room for a bit of light-hearted Friday chat. What does it tell us that Justin has been shovelled onto ITV2, on a Thursday? It means it's all back to default JLC: big beard, ironic retro t-shirt and shouting.