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Occasionally, a TV programme is shown that really opens your eyes and lights the fire inside.
Louis Theroux's storming interview with the Westboro Baptist Church was one such programme.
Just once in a while, the broadcasters decide to stop filming reality TV shows of insipid morons and instead focus on interesting and in this case frightening lives of real people.
It was on a par with the recent Channel 4 documentary on the cult in America that believed in hardline Christian views albeit ones that were combined with liberal stances on incest and paedophilia.
Whilst that was arguably worse, the unparallelled access Theroux manages to secure with his subjects makes his films ten times more powerful.
Sometimes you had to gasp in astonishment, like when they picket lined a Synagogue with placards saying "Fag Jews" reasoning that Jesus was killed by them. Our reaction to this insanity was tempered when a small boy with the church was pelted in the face by a drink from a car as a result of these 'information drives'.
This prevents his documentaries from becoming complete one-sided treatments of some truly horrendous people and organisations.
When they can justify picketlining the funerals of soldiers as 'God hates America as they allow gay marriages', so if a person dies fighting for the USA they are fighting against God and are 'for fags', you realise you are looking at those who are not willing to compromise.
One of the few positive sides of their cult is the fact they are unlikely to perpetuate due to their views on sex. This is despite the family they featured having eleven kids.
All the older girls in the family unit did not make any friends outside of their family due to their views, they didn't want sex before marriage and had already declared themselves married to Jesus.
Despite that odd glittering pearl of comfort to be taken from the programme, the outright nastiness unashamedly displayed was staggering. The Church's web designer Steve coolly stating that he: "rejoiced every time a soldier died, someone gets run over or a child dies of cancer" as that is God's will and they were a sinner going to hell.
I doubt that there will be many more journalists staying with the Westboro Church as the leader Fred Phelps was sick of Louis long before the films stopped rolling.
Phelps was an abrubt, obnoxious man besides his disgraceful opinions, he refused to answer certain questions and made clear in a patronising way that he wouldn't be questioned.
Like one of the elder girls "My time for rebellion and questioning has passed"- everything is set in stone like The Ten Commandments.
As a journalist, my admiration of the self control Theroux showed in talking to such a horrid man was huge and a credit to himself and his art.
The one thing that would have made it perfect and I would have loved him to ask any of the followers, especially Phelps, was the one question I doubt he would ever dare to utter:
"So, what if the Bible was written by man not God?"
For more info, go to: www.godhatesamerica.com
Louis Theroux's storming interview with the Westboro Baptist Church was one such programme.
Just once in a while, the broadcasters decide to stop filming reality TV shows of insipid morons and instead focus on interesting and in this case frightening lives of real people.
It was on a par with the recent Channel 4 documentary on the cult in America that believed in hardline Christian views albeit ones that were combined with liberal stances on incest and paedophilia.
Whilst that was arguably worse, the unparallelled access Theroux manages to secure with his subjects makes his films ten times more powerful.
Sometimes you had to gasp in astonishment, like when they picket lined a Synagogue with placards saying "Fag Jews" reasoning that Jesus was killed by them. Our reaction to this insanity was tempered when a small boy with the church was pelted in the face by a drink from a car as a result of these 'information drives'.
This prevents his documentaries from becoming complete one-sided treatments of some truly horrendous people and organisations.
When they can justify picketlining the funerals of soldiers as 'God hates America as they allow gay marriages', so if a person dies fighting for the USA they are fighting against God and are 'for fags', you realise you are looking at those who are not willing to compromise.
One of the few positive sides of their cult is the fact they are unlikely to perpetuate due to their views on sex. This is despite the family they featured having eleven kids.
All the older girls in the family unit did not make any friends outside of their family due to their views, they didn't want sex before marriage and had already declared themselves married to Jesus.
Despite that odd glittering pearl of comfort to be taken from the programme, the outright nastiness unashamedly displayed was staggering. The Church's web designer Steve coolly stating that he: "rejoiced every time a soldier died, someone gets run over or a child dies of cancer" as that is God's will and they were a sinner going to hell.
I doubt that there will be many more journalists staying with the Westboro Church as the leader Fred Phelps was sick of Louis long before the films stopped rolling.
Phelps was an abrubt, obnoxious man besides his disgraceful opinions, he refused to answer certain questions and made clear in a patronising way that he wouldn't be questioned.
Like one of the elder girls "My time for rebellion and questioning has passed"- everything is set in stone like The Ten Commandments.
As a journalist, my admiration of the self control Theroux showed in talking to such a horrid man was huge and a credit to himself and his art.
The one thing that would have made it perfect and I would have loved him to ask any of the followers, especially Phelps, was the one question I doubt he would ever dare to utter:
"So, what if the Bible was written by man not God?"
For more info, go to: www.godhatesamerica.com
