BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.

Hello, I'm Tina Dehealy.

Welcome to Beyond Today from BBC Radio 4.

Every now and then we invite a guest into the studio and today it's someone I'm a huge fan of Louis through you don't need

the head votes it's up to you like the way they feel on my head but it feels like

something's hugging my head I wanted to talk to Louis about how he's become one of the most well-known, well-loved, and widely-meamed

journalists in Britain.

You'd never take for granted that people appreciate what you do even in the form of

mugs with me with tits.

Louis's been making documentaries for more than 20 years now and has reached cult status. His latest film is

called Surviving America's Most Hated Family. I've been to Topeka, Kansas

to do a follow-up on a cult.

Well, I shouldn't call them a cult.

I call them an extreme religious group called the Westboro Baptist Church.

Louis went back to find out how they've dealt with the death of their leader

and how 13 years on the world has changed around them and also for the rest of us. They are a very anti-gay evangelical Christian group, largely composed of one family, the Phelps family. I've made two previous documentaries

about them. They are notorious in America for their pickets, where they hold

homophobic placards, and I spent time with them trying to figure out why they feel the need to do

this hateful practice.

In previous years I spent time with the head of the group, Pastor Fred Phelps. He died a couple of years ago and that's one of the reasons I went back.

This time, I tend to like spending time with the younger members because I sort of feel that they are the least ingrained in it in a way.

I like to talk to the members of the church in whom I see some possibility of reform or a change of heart.

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