Theroux answers call of the weird for Auntie

“Too many documentaries, frankly, do no more than shock and titillate, to thrill,” said Richard Klein, the head of commissioning for BBC Knowledge, in a commendably frank recent speech. So eyebrows may be raised by faux-naïf interrogator Louis Theroux’s return to BBC Two with Law and Disorder, twin films shot in the crime-ridden ghettos of Philadelphia and Johannesburg. Theroux will be “shaking hands with gangsters and killers” and chats to a self-confessed murderer – himself shot dead last month – who claimed to have microwaved a baby.

“I see him as a somewhat tragic figure, notwithstanding the terrible things that he’d done,” Theroux tells Broadcast magazine. The BBC says there is no question of the films glamorising the violent lifestyle of its subjects. Louis was “shocked by what he saw and heard but knew he needed to show what he witnessed”, a spokesman added. Klein says he is a big supporter of Theroux, who has signed a new ten-film BBC contract. The presenter is puzzled, though. He asked: “What is BBC Knowledge?”

“For three years you YouTubers have been ripping us off, taking tens of thousands of our videos and putting them on YouTube,” the surviving members of Monty Python complain on the video-sharing site. The troupe have now set up a free channel. There is a catch of course: “We want you to click on the links to buy our movies and TV shows.”

Having a billion in the bank is no protection from the credit crunch. Even Sir Paul McCartney checked with his accountant. He told The Stool Pigeon music paper: “I actually did phone my guy up and say, ‘How exposed are we?’. He said, ‘You’re as exposed as everyone. If the banks all go broke . . .’. But, as far as the way we do business, there’s not a huge speculative exposure.” The ex-Beatle, now recording in experimental mode as The Fireman, blamed the global economic meltdown on the “irresponsibility” of yuppie debt culture.

Was it a foxtrot, a waltz or a quickstep? Twinkletoed Lord Mandelson pressed his Strictly Come Dancing credentials by sweeping lobby correspondent Sunita Patel off her feet at his Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform drinks party at Westminster. “He was really very good,” says the Wolverhampton Express and Star reporter. “He asked me if I could dance and I said yes, though in fact it was actually my first time. Let’s put it this way, he didn’t tread on my toes.” Can his Cabinet colleagues say that?

Alex James, the Blur bassist-turned-cheese-producer was told: “Your cheese stinks – but I like it,”at a tasting in London for Sense, the charity for deafblind children and adults, where he unveiled Blue Monday, his latest offering. “It’s creamy, salty and named after my favourite song. In the Alsace, you can’t take the smelliest cheeses in taxis,” said James. “The top ten cheeses have been stale too long. It’s like the album charts in the 70s when it was all Pink Floyd.”

Postscript

Cheryl Cole is too thin to be a feminist icon, Germaine Greer tells Gordon Ramsay on his Channel 4 Cookalong Live. “A healthy girl is a fat-bottomed creature,” she rules. Funny how we already know what’s in tonight’s live show.

“It’s obvious why women were called the weaker sex, because you can hardly breathe in a corset,” says Keira Knightley. “It’s a fight just to get oxygen to your brain.”

Operatic pop quartet Il Divo will be togged up by Giorgio Armani outfits for their forthcoming UK tour. The designer promises a “dark and austere look” for their tearjerkers.

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