The Theroux Boys

Louis & Jimmy

Paul Theroux’s (Malawi 1963-65) son Louis Theroux’s documentary on Jimmy Savile will be broadcasted on Sunday 2 October at 21:00 on BBC Two

Louis says, “I was at my wedding in July 2012 when I learned that the DJ and TV presenter Jimmy Savile was to be unmasked as a sexual predator in an upcoming ITV documentary.

At that time, I imagined I knew Savile reasonably well. I’d made my own documentary about him in 2000, filming with him for about two weeks at his various homes around Britain.

I’d stayed in contact for several years after the film went out, making occasional trips up to Leeds. There was always a professional pretext – a DVD commentary to record, a new series to promote – but the visits also had a social dimension.

They usually involved a meal at a local restaurant and sometimes an overnight stay at his penthouse overlooking Roundhay Park. We had a friendly relationship.

The Jimmy Savile I knew then was a contradictory figure. In some respects, he was enigmatic and slightly remote, hiding behind his show-business patter and anecdotes.”

Marcel Theroux

Louis’ older brother, Marcel, is like their father, a novelist. He wrote  The Stranger in The Earth and The Confessions 
of  Mycroft Holmes, for which he won the Somerset Maugham Award in 2002. His third novel, A Blow to the Heart, was published by Faber in 2006. His fourth, Far North, was published in June 2009. His fifth, Strange Bodies, was published in May 2013. Marcel’s mother is Anne Castle, and Marcel was born in Kampala.

Paul Theroux met Ann, his first wife, when she was teaching at a girl’s secondary school in Kenya. That secondary school was the setting for Paul’s 1984 novel, Girls At Play that featured a PCV woman as one of the central characters.Theroux at the time was teaching at the famous Makerere University.

By the way, Louis and Marcel’s cousin is Justin Theroux, the actor, who is married to Jennifer Aniston.

It’s a name-dropping family.