Louis Theroux talks about his latest documentary on Steve Drain and the Westboro Baptist Church

English broadcaster Louis Theroux has made two documentaries on the Westboro Baptist Church for the BBC. The first, in 2007, was titled The Most Hated Family in America, a sort of introduction to Fred Phelps and his picket-happy congregation. His follow-up, America’s Most Hated Family in Crisis, premiered in April and focuses on  the multiple defections from the church.

I met Theroux in 2006 while writing a profile of Phelps’ daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper (“The New Fred“). This morning, I caught up with Theroux. In a phone interview from London, Theroux shared his thoughts on Steve Drain (the subject of this week’s feature story, “The Believer“; Drain compares Theroux with Pontius Pilate, calling him “one of the chief workers of iniquity in the whole history of man”); Drain’s exiled daughter, Lauren; and the church’s multiple defections. He says: “For all of their quirks and strange behavior, I have an affection for the family.” Read the interview and watch Theroux’s documentary after the jump.