Louis Theroux discusses ‘atmosphere of anxiety’ in TV industry during MacTaggart lecture

Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Louis Theroux has called on TV producers to “take risks” amid an “atmosphere of anxiety” in the industry. During his talk, Theroux said that he felt it was harder to make his brand of programmes “investigating worlds viewed as stigmatised or controversial” because broadcasters wanted to “play it safe”. The 53-year-old suggested there is an “atmosphere of anxiety” in the TV industry, leading broadcasters like the BBC with a “temptation to lay low”. That the very laudable aims of not giving offence have created an atmosphere of anxiety that sometimes leads to less confident, less morally complex film-making.” Presenter gave the MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival “As a result, programmes about extremists and sex workers and paedophiles might be harder to get commissioned… There is a temptation to lay low, to play it safe, to avoid the difficult subjects.” Theroux continued: “But in avoiding those pinch points, the unresolved areas of culture where our anxieties and our painful dilemmas lie, we aren’t just failing to do our jobs, we are missing our greatest opportunities.