Louis Theroux to deliver MacTaggart lecture at 2023 Edinburgh TV Festival

Louis Theroux

Broadcaster and author Louis Theroux will deliver the MacTaggart lecture at this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival.

Theroux, who heads up the production company Mindhouse, is known for his incisive interviews and documentaries, including Weird Weekends and When Louis Met…, and more recently, Louis Theroux Interviews… and Forbidden America.

During his storied career, he has captured provocative interviews with the likes of former celebrities and sex offenders Jimmy Savile and Max Clifford and delved into the worlds of Scientology and the Westboro Baptist Church, as well as porn stars and neo-Nazis.

Theroux’s lecture will cover the challenges facing broadcasters in the multi-platform universe, how he has maintained longevity and relevance in broadcasting after 25 plus years, and the reasons for both fear and optimism in a world beset by populism, social media, AI, and virality in all its forms. 

“I am beyond thrilled to be asked to deliver this year’s MacTaggart lecture. The old Chinese curse runs, ‘May you live in interesting times.’ But I also believe interesting times – to those of us whose job it is to report on them and reflect them, while also providing an occasional distraction from them – can be a blessing,” said Theroux.

“The many years I’ve spent reporting on the fringes have been an ample education on the nature of human psychology and the strange place the world now finds itself in. I look forward to sharing some insight into what I think I’ve learned.”