LOUIS THEROUX INTERVIEWS CONFIRMS SERIES TWO GUESTS

BBC announces six names that meet Louis Theroux for the second series of Louis Theroux Interviews, including cultural icons and industry trailblazers from across the worlds of sport, entertainment and global affairs.

Filmed across a number of locations, from New York City to Normandy, Glastonbury to the French Riviera, the upcoming series will bring viewers closer than ever to some of the world’s most well-known personalities and Louis’s most diverse range of guests yet.

They are:

• Two-time world heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua

• Actor and producer, Ashley Walters

• Whistleblower and activist, Chelsea Manning

• Hollywood icon, Dame Joan Collins

• Artist and musician, Pete Doherty

• Singer-songwriter, Raye

Combining one-on-one conversations with Louis’ signature immersive filming style, each of the six documentaries explore their subject’s lives and careers up to today, including those at pivotal moments in their careers.

Anthony Joshua

Louis comes face to face with two-time world heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua, at his local boxing gym in North London. Against the backdrop of AJ’s fight with American boxer Jermaine Franklin, Louis explores his success, set-backs and his sporting motivations, as well as spending time together in the Watford estate in which AJ was raised.

Ashley Walters

In the Kent seaside town of Herne Bay, Louis meets Top Boy actor and ex-So Solid Crew rapper Ashley Walters. Ashley tells Louis about growing up in Peckham, including run-ins with the police, his transition from music to acting, and life by the sea with his partner and children.

Chelsea Manning

Louis travels to New York City to delve into the mind of one of America's most polarizing figures, famous whistleblower and activist Chelsea Manning. In 2010, Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst, released the largest set of classified documents in U.S. history and was sentenced to 35 years in a military prison for her actions.

Joan Collins

Louis heads to the French Riviera to meet one of the icons of Hollywood’s Golden age, Dame Joan Collins. Welcomed into her holiday home near St Tropez, Louis and Dame Joan discuss the highs and lows of her multi-decade career, including her star turns in The Stud and as Alexis in Dynasty. Louis also hits the town with Dame Joan and her husband of over 20 years, Percy Gibson.

Pete Doherty

Louis meets notorious Libertines and Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty in Normandy, where he now lives with his wife and their baby daughter. Discussing music, drugs and his hopes for a bright future after a turbulent career, Louis also joins Pete on tour with the rest of the Libertines, and hangs out backstage at Secret Garden Party in Cambridgeshire.

Raye

In South London Louis meets the newly independent singer and songwriter, Raye. In a pivotal year that has seen her winning an Ivor Novello and nominated for a Mercury Music Prize, Louis and Raye unpack her journey from her record label split, to her number one single ‘Escapism’, and a new artistic freedom.

Louis Theroux says: "Working with the team on these six new programmes has been an enormous pleasure. The six guests are all distinctive and brilliant in different ways, all of them people who have endured setbacks and huge successes, and who have something to share with the world based on their journeys through life...

"We have tried to build on the success of the first six Louis Theroux Interviews, while pushing further this time into terrain that is gritty and difficult, exploring subjects like mental health, brushes with the law, and political controversy.

"Like the first six Louis Theroux Interviews, each show mixes stylish master interviews with behind-the-scenes moments and actuality shot on location, so viewers have the double pleasure of a thoughtful in-depth conversation alongside a revealing look into the lives of the contributors...

"In the locker room post-fight with Anthony Joshua, Raye's dressing room before her Glastonbury set, Joan Collins' house in the south of France. The tone of the shows is always open-minded and generous-hearted, while hopefully being funny, and always mindful of the need to keep viewers interested. I like them, and I'm notoriously hard to please."

Clare Sillery, BBC Head of Commissioning, Documentaries, says: "I am delighted that Louis is back with such an exciting and eclectic mix of new interviewees. Louis’s genuine curiosity and warmth mean that each of these meetings will bring us something very new and different and I can’t wait to see him take us deeper into the worlds of these hugely engaging cultural figures."

The first series saw Louis up close and personal with some of the UK’s biggest stars: Stormzy; Dame Judi Dench; Yungblud; Bear Grylls; Katherine Ryan; and Rita Ora, with an average audience of more than 2.1m tuning in* (*Consolidated viewing figures for the first four episodes) in the first 7 days.

Louis Theroux Interviews, a 6x45’ series from Mindhouse Productions for BBC Two and iPlayer.