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Movies & TV

12th Jan 2020

Louis Theroux’s new documentary on sex workers is on TV tonight

JOE

Louis Theroux

If you don’t fancy Love Island or Dermot Bannon, then this could be right up your street.

A brand new documentary from Louis Theroux will air on BBC Two tonight as the journalist and presenter looks at the exchange of sex for money in the UK.

Theroux will be meeting three women who legally undertake sex work to make a living or supplement their regular incomes.

Of course, Theroux is well-versed in this area having previously covered everything from brothels to the porn industry in his documentaries, but this is the first time he’s delved into the sex work in the UK.

“It’s impossible to deny that for many – maybe most – people, there is something unsavoury in the idea of accepting money for an act that is so intimate,” Theroux said when the show was first announced in August last year.

Throughout the documentary, he sees that these women are not selling sex on the streets or in brothels, but from their own homes or hotel rooms through the use of technology.

Theroux said he chose the topic because it is so divisive and controversial, but admitted he was surprised by how much technology has influenced the way the industry works.

“Once we started looking we discovered that the sexual economy seems to have been turbo-charged by the prevalence of new websites and social media that allow users to meet up more easily, to write reviews of each other, and swap information,” he said.

“What we ended up with was a very intimate look at three very individual women and the different paths that led them to this field of work.”

The documentary will be broadcast on BBC Two on Sunday 12 January at 9pm.

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