"It was fun going back and seeing how far I've come": Louis Theroux looks back in new series

From dorsetecho.co.uk

Louis Theroux is back on screen with a look back at his body of work spanning 25 years

Louis Theroux is taking a trip down career memory lane. Or as he likens it, he says, in his head to, "climbing a mountain and then you take a pause after you've had a decent interval of walking and then you sit on a bench and you're like 'Wow, we're a long way up'".

And he is not wrong.

The TV star's career over more than two decades is a colourful and impactful one.
His latest project, a BBC Two series titled Louis Theroux: Life On The Edge, shines a spotlight on it with a look back on 25 years in the industry.

Four hour-long episodes, each with a different theme, Beyond Belief, Family Ties, Law And Disorder and The Dark Side Of Pleasure, will see him revisit some of his most memorable stories.
Theroux, 50, also unearthed unseen footage from older series such as Weird Weekends, which ran from 1998 to 2000.
"It was really fun going back and opening up the treasure chests of old programmes and seeing how far I've come in a way," he says during a Zoom video interview.

"I think in general what I'm struck by is, how many, because I still feel like a novice in some respect, I still feel like I'm learning how to do this, I still have a lot of professional anxieties whenever I'm starting a new project or just continuing an old project, and so to see how many programmes I've made and how many of them still hold up is really pleasing".
He has tackled topics including Jimmy Savile, US neo-Nazis, Michael Jackson and Scientology in his series and TV specials over the years.
But still, looking back, there were small elements of surprise.

"I didn't expect, but in the first three episodes, is how much they are portraits of America, and all the stories being about America, and the themes", he says, listing them, adding: "All sort of say something, you know, I've always made a lot of programmes in America, but I've never made it explicit what they say about America and here I feel like we're able to do that. It's made me feel like I'm maybe a more serious documentary-maker, which is a good feeling, something I'm not used to".

Last year, he published his autobiography titled Gotta Get Theroux This, which charted his career from fledgling journalist in the early 1990s to BBC regular.
Off screen he hosts a podcast called Grounded With Louis Theroux, which according to BBC Sounds, has been their biggest hit on the service during lockdown.
Featuring interviews with stars including Helena Bonham Carter, Sir Lenny Henry, Boy George, KSI and Miriam Margolyes, Theroux says working on it has been "one of the pleasures" of lockdown.

"Being able to have long form chats with people like Boy George and Lenny Henry via Zoom, and these are people who back in the day I tried to get for When Louis Met, a celebrity series, and who probably very sensibly turned me down and now I'm at place where I feel I can tell those stories of interesting people in the public eye.

"That's another area of enquiry I'd like to go further down, he says, "just the idea of long form chats in which you are getting to the truth with people in a way that's comfortable for them and just connecting with people in different spheres of life in a way that feels unforced and unformatted and free form".

The podcast is part of our conversation in response to asking him what story he still wants to tell.

He explains: "What I have never done is a story about radical Islam and the issue of Islamic extremism. I've tried a couple of times and not got that far down the road. I thought for a while there may be a way of telling the story from the perspective of Isis returnees and I even proposed that about a year ago at the BBC and for one reason or another it got pushed back. I would still like to tell that story.

"You know the Shamima Begum type of story, the world of people who were caught up in Islamic fundamentalism... and how we deal with that now and the world of that ideology. I think all of that is massively interesting and obviously socially important, and really upsetting as well".

Begum is one of three east London schoolgirls who fled to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State in 2015, and is fighting a legal battle against the UK after she was stripped of her British citizenship.

And what about lockdown and the last few months of life ever-changed for people across the world due to the coronavirus pandemic, is that a story he thinks he will document one day?
"The short answer is I think I might do, but it would be probably in print. I've been keeping a diary, I've had so little time in the last few weeks, I've started to think I'm not keeping enough of a diary," he explains.
There may be, he muses, a "glut of books" written in the next year or year thereafter about this all.

"If I did anything on lockdown I think the only way for me of telling the story would be through the medium of a book or print in which I would excavate the weird tensions... you know in lockdown I was just here with my family, working, but just trying to get through the day, without one of us losing their minds due to this feeling of there not being enough hours in the day, kids being home-schooled or not home-schooled, would be more accurate.

"We have three boys and my wife (Nancy) and I both work, and had professional commitments and you know we're trying to get meals, get everyone fed, keep the house in some semblance of order, get clothes cleaned, do two jobs that are very demanding and then make sure the kids aren't on screens the whole day, it was extremely stressful.

"I think a lot of people had different lockdowns, that was our lockdown, and so, the nature of the arguments we had was kind of interesting, so I started keeping a journal which I talked about (earlier)."

Louis Theroux: Life On The Edge airs on BBC Two on September 6 at 9pm

https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/18684159.fun-going-back-seeing-far-come-louise-theroux-looks-back-new-series/

VJ Day: How a Belfast doctor used Irish to keep WW2 secrets

From bbc.co.uk

He became known as the Belfast Doctor and his medical expertise, leadership and guile helped protect the lives of hundreds of Allied prisoners of war in Japanese prison camps.

Frank Murray was born above the family spirit-grocers shop on north Belfast's Oldpark Road, growing up in a nationalist area of the city in a family with a strong Catholic faith.
Like many of his contemporaries, as a schoolboy he spent the summer in the Gaeltacht in Donegal learning the Irish language, something he would later use to his advantage thousands of miles away in the Far East during a world war.

His son Carl recounts how his father and mother first met among the peaceful and picturesque rolling hills of County Donegal before the outbreak of World War Two.
"My father met my mother Eileen O'Kane in the Gaeltacht area in Ranafast when they were both school children in 1929," he said.

"She was from the Springfield Road and he was from the Oldpark Road in Belfast.
"He asked her to dance at a céilí and fell in love with her.
"They kept up contact thereafter and both went to Queen's University but in 1937 she broke things off and they had no further contact until he found himself in Rawalpindi in what was India at the time, where he was serving as an Army medical officer.
"He sent her a Christmas card with a picture of the officers' mess on it."

  Dr Frank Murray was an Allied prisoner of war in a Japanese prison camp during World War Two

'Secret diaries'

The two began corresponding again and this continued when he was sent to the British garrison at Singapore.
All of her letters were lost when Dr Murray burnt them just before the Japanese invaded and took him prisoner.

However, the family have all the correspondence he subsequently wrote to his sweetheart while he was in captivity and it is these "secret diaries" that make such a fascinating story.
Carl explains that his father kept writing to her in the form of a diary but in order that he didn't incur the wrath of the Japanese guards he did so in Irish, safe in knowledge that the chances of any of them being able to translate were slim in the extreme.

       Letters Dr Frank Murray sent were sometimes in Irish, and sometimes used Irish characters

"Sometimes he would write in English but disguising it using old Gaelic script.
"I remember when I did Irish at school there were text books that had the old script in it which meant there was that extra level that you had to translate from the script and then translate the Irish.
"And he would write about how the war was going but by doing so in Irish he knew that even if the Japanese found it, there was very little chance of them being able to translate that he was recounting events that were happening during the war."

'He never forgave'

Keeping diaries of this kind was strictly forbidden particularly as the enemy soldiers were wary of prisoners recording incidents of brutality or war crimes against them.
Prisoners caught in breach of the regulations were liable to severe punishment in many instances.

Carl says after the war his father would not have anything Japanese in the house.
"I know it's fashionable to talk about reconciliation and forgiveness but I don't really think he ever forgave the Japanese, not for what happened to him but for the way the prisoners were treated.
"However, he distinguished between the Japanese military and the Japanese people.
"You have to respect that having been through what he went through. My father couldn't forgive and I think that's important."

The Murray family has collated as much information as they can about their father's time as a PoW.

'He wanted to do his bit'

He was the medical officer in a number of camps eventually becoming the most senior officer commanding in one prison.
His ability to argue or negotiate with his captors about who was fit and who wasn't fit to join the work details meant the difference between life and death for many Allied captives.
His bravery and service during this time was later recognised with an award from the US military and an MBE.

So how did a Catholic nationalist from north Belfast end up a major in the British Army?
"As children we always wanted to know why he joined up," recalls Carl Murray.
"My father felt that the Nazis could easily have invaded Ireland at that time and later we discovered there was a plan to do that.
"He felt that as a northern Irish Catholic he wanted to do his bit in the war effort. I think he wanted to go to France but he ended up in India, the Malay peninsula and eventually Japan.
"It wasn't what he expected but he did his duty."
 
Astonishingly, the batch of almost translucent papers with tiny spidery writing that make up the doctor's daily diaries - which he kept right under the noses of his Japanese guards - was eventually delivered to Eileen at the end of the war.
When he was repatriated, the couple were married.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-53757121

Healthy habits to help you cope with health anxiety

From europeansting.com
By Ms. Ruth Yan

Since the news of the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in early January, newly arisen stressors have created a spike in fear and health related anxiety among the population. In light of the current situation, small-scale anxiety is actually instinctive as this is how our body tries to keep us safe from danger, however if you find yourself dealing with…

1. changes in sleep or eating patterns
2. difficulty sleeping or concentrating
3. changes in behaviour
4. excessive measures to stay clean and healthy
5. increase intake of alcohol, tobacco or food

…due to fears of getting infected or uncertainties of the future, then you might slowly be developing a problem. Just like exercising, eating healthy and getting a balanced amount of sleep are routines that keep us physically fit, it is important to introduce healthy habits to keep our mental health intact in demanding times like these as stress causes our immune system to be more vulnerable.

                                                      (Aarón Blanco Tejedor, Unsplash)

After strenuous research, here are a few recurring tips from different psychologists, as well as therapists that could help anyone going through a difficult time right now.

1. Have an intentional morning routine

Try setting up a sleeping routine and adding meditation exercises into your mornings like noticing 3 things you hear, see or feel this can help keep your feelings in check & connect with the environment.

2. Journaling

Keeping a diary helps you understand your feelings more and provides you with a space to let your thoughts and worries flow out naturally.

3. Avoid information overload

Getting constant notifications throughout the day can leave you feeling stressed. Restrict yourself to checking your newsfeed once a day and stick to reliable sources such as WHO or CDC as the media tends to make click-bait titles or entirely false news to get you to visit their sites, however all this does is induce panic.

4. Breathing Exercises

If you ever find yourself feeling overwhelmed take a moment to do a simple breathing exercise like for example, “box breathing”, this leaves you feeling more calm and collected after you are done.

5. Stay connected

Humans are social beings, we thrive on interactions with other people, therefore using social media to your advantage is key at times like these. Call up your friends,  bond with loved ones or even talk to a co-worker, it will help release those feel good hormones.

6. Establish your control

Instead of focusing on things you can’t control, shift your vision to things you can do as an individual and are in your control.

7. Exercise

Studies show regular exercise can have a significant effect on depression, anxiety, ADHD. It also relieves tension and stress, boosts physical and mental energy and enhances well-being through endorphins.

8. Embrace your worries

Lastly, don’t try to bottle up your worries, push it down or act like it doesn’t exist. It’s normal to be tense in the current situation. Embrace your feelings and talking it out would hopefully help you get through this soon.

https://europeansting.com/2020/08/07/healthy-habits-to-help-you-cope-with-health-anxiety/

Remembering and analysing your dreams: 5 tips for starting a dream diary

From dailycal.org
By Elysa Dombro

More often than not these days, I find myself waking up in the morning to a quickly fading memory of a super strange dream. I don’t know if it’s because of stress over the global pandemic we’re in the middle of, or if there’s just too much light in my room when I’m sleeping. There’s a lot we don’t know about dreams, such as what they mean or why we have them. But what we can do is track them and analyse them. Not only is this practice fun, but it can also help you realize patterns and different moods you may be having. Here are five tips to help you start a dream diary.

                                                     Micaela Lewis/Creative Commons

Do it right when you wake up
If you don’t do it right away, you’re going to forget. Even if it’s the most vivid dream you’ve had in a year, sometimes it just slips away. The remedy for this is to write your dreams as soon as you wake up, though this requires a bit of commitment on your part. If you set an alarm to wake up every morning, you can label the alarm to remind yourself to journal your dreams. You can also agree to keep dream journals with your roommate and hold each other accountable. The more you actually write down your dreams on time, the better results you’ll get, and hopefully the more likely you’ll be to keep it going in the future.

Mood tracking
If you’ve been feeling pretty down during quarantine, you’re definitely not alone. The gloom you’re feeling might be manifesting in your dreams, and what better way to try to track it than to record the strange dreams you’ve had. If you notice you keep having dreams that make you anxious, record them! See if there are any patterns in your dreams, or in days when you have stressful dreams. It might help you evaluate parts of your life that are stressing you out when you’re awake, so you can better address them.

Use a paper journal
Though this is slightly less convenient than just typing dreams into the notes app on your phone, writing in a physical journal can be a great way to describe your dreams more holistically. You can jot down a few words without the brightness from your phone screen jogging you awake, or you can draw a full-blown picture of what was going on. Sometimes, a dream might be easier to capture with a mix of words and images! And there’s a bonus pro to this tip: Keeping a paper journal next to your bed is a great way to remind yourself to actually use your journal.

Analyse at the end of the week
The science is iffy on what certain things in dreams mean, but it can be a lot of fun to take time to analyse your dreams. It’s as easy as Googling “purple dinosaur in dream” and seeing what pops up! Sure, it might be all garbage, but maybe you’ll have a realization about something that is bothering you in real life and has translated to your dreams. Even if you don’t feel like taking the Google route, you can take time at the end of your week to see if you draw any connections between things that happened to you that week and dreams you had. This can be a great way to figure out if you need a change in your life or if something’s been bothering you.

OK, you don’t have to trust everything in your dreams. Maybe they don’t mean anything at all, and tracking them is more misleading than enlightening. At the very least, tracking what you think about at night is a pretty cool practice and a good way to practice mindfulness right when you wake up. And having a record that you can look back on and laugh at is a ton of fun. Happy dreaming!

https://www.dailycal.org/2020/08/03/remembering-and-analyzing-your-dreams-5-tips-for-starting-a-dream-diary/