Louis Theroux’s Forbidden America –

Sunday, February 20, BBC Two

I’m a big fan of Louis Theroux, he’s facilitated some of the most memorable television documentaries of the last 25 years, but he slipped into repetitive self-parody with his latest report from the troubled fringes of American society. A belated sequel of sorts to his 2000 documentary about gangsta rap, it found him looking concerned as he met various rappers from disadvantaged backgrounds who were engaged in futile and often violent feuds: victims of a culture based on macho posturing. While I appreciate the point he was making – nothing has changed for the marginalised youth of America – the programme itself was Theroux on autopilot. A well-meaning yet insubstantial exercise, it sighed sadly, frowned then ended.