Louis Theroux: Drinking to Oblivion BBC 2 Sun 24th April 9pm

tinpib

Might be worth starting a thread here on this.

Love Louis Theroux and I prefer his newer more serious ones rather than his slightly sneery, taking the piss earlier ones.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07952b1

The flying mouse

Thanks hope to catch it later.

ncmc

Just finished watching it. Absolutely heart breaking stuff. Just wanted to give Joe a big hug. I think the Telegraph summed it up nicely, somewhere between unmissable and unwatchable.

Drexel

Watched this myself.

Was hard to watch. Felt very sorry for nearly all of them. Your ones boyfriend was a right prick though.

tinpib

Joe is the one I could relate to most, similar age, background etc. What was frightening there was the depths he sank too after being sober for 4.5 years.

He was like a child in hospital, his voice, manner he needed nurturing and I was glad at the end to see him in Brighton where he had family. I think he has a chance of staying sober if he is there with them.

My friends watched it and a mate reckoned that his family had washed their hands of him? I didn't think that I might have missed it.

He just seemed like a lost child.

I'd really like to know the time difference between Joe in the hospital and him in Brighton, a few weeks? months?

Jesus, that Gary guy is a total prick but Orealy doesn't have the self respect to not be with him. She didn't seem to want to give up drinking which was sad and I sensed a very troubled family situation.

On the surface that South African guy was a success story where anxiety was his problem and his alcoholism was a symptom of that and now his anxiety and other mental issues are being dealt with the alcoholism is less of a problem.

I've seen that draining of liquid in Stuart's situation in other alcoholism docs I've watched in 2016, but I had to actively search them out. I think a good point of this is that Louis Theroux appeals to quite a wide, intelligent, audience, I'll be interested to see the reaction to it over the coming days.

Not many people will watch docs on alcoholism on a Sunday night like I have done this year

ncmc

Oh Jesus he was something else wasn't he. All the main people in the show were lovely though, you were rooting for them to get better. How low must Aurelie's confidence be to stick with that arse hole. She had such a lack of self worth.

Drexel

ncmc wrote: »

Oh Jesus he was something else wasn't he. All the main people in the show were lovely though, you were rooting for them to get better. How low must Aurelie's confidence be to stick with that arse hole. She had such a lack of self worth.

I was shocked to hear she was 45. I would have put another ten years on her.

From the sound of the doctors, she won't even be around in ten years.

tinpib

Drexel wrote: »

I was shocked to hear she was 45. I would have put another ten years on her.

From the sound of the doctors, she won't even be around in ten years.

But she doesn't seem to want to stop, she seems resigned to her situation.

tinpib

Also although Joe was drunk he was absolutely delighted to see Louis when he was outside the hospital having a cigarette.

Shows you how Louis gets on so well with his subjects but also how much Joe just wanted a friend.

bridgettedon

I thought it was very interesting. It was heartbreaking. I really did feel though that the hospital would of left Joe go after he went there after falling off he wagon. They would not have gone out searching for him. The fact that he left a few days later shows he wasn't in the mindset to get better at that point.

That boyfriend was an absolute scumbag. I actually felt deep hatred for him. The look on the woman's face, I can't remember her name, just showed her pain and hurt. It was awful.

Drexel

tinpib wrote: »

Also although Joe was drunk he was absolutely delighted to see Louis when he was outside the hospital having a cigarette.

Shows you how Louis gets on so well with his subjects but also how much Joe just wanted a friend.

Joe just seemed to want someone to support him.

I'd imagine being that bad and stoping and staying off drink would be very hard without family / very good friends

It felt like Louis was Joe's only friend when he met him outside the hospital.
Couldn't help but feel Joe wanted Louis to get him to stay in the hospital.
I can see why Louis didn't tho.

bridgettedon

tinpib wrote: »

Also although Joe was drunk he was absolutely delighted to see Louis when he was outside the hospital having a cigarette.

Shows you how Louis gets on so well with his subjects but also how much Joe just wanted a friend.

I know. Did you see the big hug he give Louis. He really was like a little boy.

ncmc

BrownFinger wrote: »

It felt like Louis was Joe's only friend when he met him outside the hospital.
Couldn't help but feel Joe wanted Louis to get him to stay in the hospital.
I can see why Louis didn't tho.

I said the same thing to my husband, but I suspect it would have been impossible to get him to stay. He was hell bent on getting another drink and I don't think anything was going to stop him. I suppose Louis's primary role there is as a film maker rather than a friend, my husband compared it to watching a nature programme, in that it isn't the film makers job to interfere. I personally found that part hard to watch though. Also when he said to peters GF, oh you were going to leave him, did you know that Peter? I felt it was slightly **** stirring.

tinpib

ncmc wrote: »

Also when he said to peters GF, oh you were going to leave him, did you know that Peter? I felt it was slightly **** stirring.

Ya, I agree completely. I'm surprised they left that bit in. Makes Louis look like a bollocks.

Confucius say

Heartbreaking stuff. I struggle with alcohol sometimes and I've been doing quite well lately but this just made me realise even more how destructive it can be.
Poor Aurelie, she seemed so sweet, and her boyfriend was just putting her down, as if she didn't feel bad enough about herself already.
I used to live by that park with the Ping Pong tables, and would see the drunks in there drinking strong beers and cider during the day. There but for the Grace of God go I.
It's a shame it was a once off program. Powerful from Louis.

JupiterKid

Really annoying that I missed this. Hopefully it will be shown again. Louis Theroux is really good at what he lends his name to. As someone who has struggled with alcoholism for a number of years now I would have been well to have watched this.

tinpib

JupiterKid wrote: »

Really annoying that I missed this. Hopefully it will be shown again. Louis Theroux is really good at what he lends his name to. As someone who has struggled with alcoholism for a number of years now I would have been well to have watched this.

It's on the BBC iPlayer, if you use the hola browser extension via hola.org and change your browsing country the UK you will be able to watch it.

Hola is playing up a bit for me lately and apparently there are security issues but you will get it working and then you can watch it.

If you have trouble getting Hola to work there are vids on youtube.

Samoa Joe

I missed this. Will be available anywhere to watch now?

bridgettedon

Came across this on the daily mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3557791/Alcoholic-32-left-hospital-buy-vodka-staggered-streets-covered-blood-Louis-Theroux-TV-film-sober-six-months.html.

I hope the others are getting on better as well.

Utah

I felt very sorry for Aurelie, she's all but given up. Her "boyfriend" was a horrible man.
Just out of interest I looked up the K cider she was drinking - it was 8.3%. Paint stripper.

bridgettedon

Utah wrote: »

I felt very sorry for Aurelie, she's all but given up. Her "boyfriend" was a horrible man.
Just out of interest I looked up the K cider she was drinking - it was 8.3%. Paint stripper.

I think that was possibly one of the saddest things I've ever seen in life. The fact it is actual life, not some drama, makes it just so unfair.

Straight Edge Punk

This is repeated on Thursday night.

When will they be showing the next episode?

tinpib

Straight Edge Punk wrote: »

This is repeated on Thursday night.

When will they be showing the next episode?

It's a one off documentary so that's it. No sign on the BBC website that I can see of when or what his next doc will be about.

Simply Red

Really glad Louis didn't try to intervene when Joe decided to leave, even if Joe wanted him too. They touched on it at the end of the doc with where the responsibility of care lies, must be so difficult for families and friends to watch someone go through alcoholism, as well as for the person them self.
Also Aurelie's boyfriend, what a d1ckhead

tinpib wrote: »

It's a one off documentary so that's it. No sign on the BBC website that I can see of when or what his next doc will be about.

Imagine it would be his documentary on Scientology

Straight Edge Punk

tinpib wrote: »

It's a one off documentary so that's it. No sign on the BBC website that I can see of when or what his next doc will be about.

Oh, I thought there would be a few because they showed an elderly man whose liver was obviously failing but it was only a quick clip which I assumed would be in a follow up episode.

Tranceypoo

I think it's a 2 parter

tinpib

Tranceypoo wrote: »

I think it's a 2 parter

It is but the second part is about brain injuries, found this here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/lois-theroux-announces-two-new-bbc-documentaries-coming-this-year-a6936076.html

lawlolawl

Well, that was a really hard watch.

I really identified with the young guy, Joe, because i'm only a year older, and while my drinking never got as bad as his, it followed his pattern of just "creeping up" on him in his late 20's until it had ****ed up a lot of his relationships and made him into an anxious mess who simply needed to drink regularly to feel some way right. That could have been me saying a lot of those things to Louis

The common theme i noticed was anxiety either being the reason that people started drinking or the reason that they continued to drink. I used it to cope with my anxiety as well.

HeidiHeidi

Straight Edge Punk wrote: »

This is repeated on Thursday night.

When will they be showing the next episode?

On what channel?

I can't see it listed anywhere on BBC 1 or 2.....

tinpib

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

On what channel?

I can't see it listed anywhere on BBC 1 or 2.....

It's on at 00:05 on Thursday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07952b1