What do you get when you cross a lion with a tiger?

It’s not the set up to a joke. It’s reality!! Tigers and lions are breeding in relatively large numbers at a zoo in Oklahoma owned by a unique individual named Joe Exotic. The answer, by the way, is a liger. Ligers are also breeding with tigers and producing a new even rarer creature called ti-liger.

It’s part of a plan to re-create a sabre-tooth tiger at Joe’s zoo. I’d go into more detail but a) I don’t want to bore you and b) I don’t want to preempt the show I have coming up on Sunday night (Oct 30).

Entitled “America’s Most Dangerous Pets”, it’s a romp through the strange world of exotic animals and the Americans who keep them.

I was promoting it on Day Break this morning. You can see that here (probably only for a limited time): http://www.itv.com/daybreak/entertainment/tv/louix-theroux/

I also wrote a short article about my experiences: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15475636

Hope you enjoy the programme!

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Here are some clips for the upcoming show:

America’s Most Dangerous Pets

Clip 1

Clip 2

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Apologies for not blogging more regularly. I am still getting to grips with the technology and had trouble logging in. There are simply too many passwords in my life.  I keep locking myself out of various bits of software by putting in the wrong username and then have to invent new identities for myself and new passwords which I promptly forget.

It’s like The Net with Sandra Bullock crossed with Awakenings.

Anyway, here I finally am and the exciting news is that we have a new DVD compilation coming out soon. It’s called The Odd, The Bad, and The Godly.  It features our six most recent shows, those being: America’s Medicated Kids, Law and Disorder in Lagos, America’s Most Hated Family in Crisis, The Ultra-Zionists, and Miami Mega-Jail parts 1 and 2.

I’m really pleased with the product: the 2entertain art department have done a bang-up job on the sleeve art, complete with the appropriate Sergio Leone imagery, and also the menus. And it feels like a strong selection of shows.

I would try to attach a jpeg of the sleeve but that really would be stretching my limited technical faculties.

That’s about it from BBC Towers. I will try to blog again soon, but given my ongoing password/memory issues it may well be under an assumed name.

EDIT: Picture now included.

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Hi, I’m Louis’s series producer and I also directed the two Miami Mega-Jail films, Part 1 and 2.

I know many of you have been asking about two of the people who featured in the second episode.

I’m in contact with Robert Shaw (accused of triple murder and in solitary confinement.) He’s still awaiting trial, but he’s not facing the death penalty anymore. He’s still writing and tells me that an editor is currently considering his books for publication. Once I know more I will post.

Brenton Smith (the 14 year old who left Boot Camp) has just been returned to Boot Camp to try a second time to complete the course.

I’ll keep you all posted with any further developments once I hear them,

Thanks

Emma Cooper

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Thanks for all your comments about the Mega Jail show. I’m sorry to say I’ve been away all this week so I haven’t been around to soak up a lot of the positive feedback. Anyway, Part 2 is coming this Sunday.

A lot of people commented on how bleak the first installment was. Part 2 offers some glimmers of hope. Every few months the jail system chooses thirty or so of the younger inmates who are guilty of serious usually violent crimes and offers them a second chance: a place in a boot camp programme for four months instead of a long custodial sentence. We follow a cadet troop over the first few weeks, including a guy from the sixth floor of Main Jail called Patrick who’s been in all kinds of trouble.

We also go back to Main Jail and experience more of the weird gladiatorial code, courtesy of an inmate called Johnny Jackson who we meet just as he’s been removed from his cell for beating up a cellmate who “went psych”; and we go to another jail facility in the Miami system, called “TGK”, where we visit the “Special Management Unit” including a guy who’s been in solitary for years and is possibly facing the death penalty for an alleged triple murder. I think my encounter with him, in particular my second visit to his cell, is my favourite section of the whole two hours of Part 1 or Part 2.

I can’t write much more because I have to get to work. If you’re interested in a little more background on my time in Miami there is an interview for the Radio Times website here:

http://www.radiotimes.com/blogs/1314-louis-theroux-on-his-return-to-the-us-penal-system/

And there’s an article I wrote for the BBC website here (featuring a nifty sketch of the cell lay-out):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13457576

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Here is the trailer for Louis’ upcoming documentary “Miami Mega-Jail”.

Enjoy!

Please find additional information about this programme here – Louis Theroux – Miami MegaJail

Trailer

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So we have a new show coming up this Sunday May 22, the first installment of a two-parter entitled Miami Mega-Jail. It’s about life in one of America’s toughest and most violent jails, in particular the two floors of the Main Jail in which many of the most volatile and unmanageable inmates reside. Some of you may recall that we made a documentary about San Quentin prison a few years ago. Believe it or not, what we experienced in Miami was even more extreme. Unlike prisons, the inmates of jails are mostly pre-trial. They have not been convicted and are technically innocent. Something about this atmosphere of uncertainty, as well as the sheer scale of the place (7000 inmates), makes it all the more chaotic and volatile – at least, in the areas reserved for problem inmates.  On the fifth and sixth floors there are up to 24 men per cell and a gladiatorial code exists in which inmates are expected to fight to prove themselves. We taped the two episodes over the course of a couple of months, starting late last year. I’ll post a bit more about it when I have time. That’s it for now!

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