Harry Roselmack’s new TV show: reporting from the French ghettos

Harry Roselmack will present the TV program “derrière les murs de la cité” (behind the walls of the city). The most popular French journalist, according to a recent small survey, will plunge himself in the troubled French suburbs for a full month.

The concept is English: a journalist will take part and submerge himself in the daily live of a community. For the BBC it’s Louis Theroux, who is best known for his Gonzo style journalism, which is a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become central figures of their stories.

Roselmack’s program will cover the daily live in the French suburbs. He will first visit the Paris suburb Villiers-le-Bel, the place where the riots started in November 2007. Through the testimonies of the residents, he will will attempt to decipher the functioning of a notoriously difficult city.



Rémi Pernelet, editor-in-Chief of TV 1, is thrilled: "This show will find its public because it provides a different look at life in the suburbs." It will be a success."

The program will be aired by the commercial station TV1, starting on 24 November.

I hope Roselmack will make a program that will change the perspective about people of the 'banlieues'. I don't hope he will become the new black Louis Theroux. That would just make the program look like an urban safari tour.

The film La Haine (The hate) of 1995 had to be a the wake up call!