Louis Theroux: Surviving America's Most Hated Family returns to BBC 2 tonight

Theroux returns to Kansas to spend time with the controversial Westboro Baptist Church (Photo: BBC)

Thirteen years after Louis Theroux headed to the US and met one of America's most notorious hate groups, the documentary filmmaker makes his third return to Kansas for a long-awaited catch up with the clan.

Theroux is back to spend time with the Westboro Baptist Church - a hugely controversial Christian ministry - with his follow-up visit set to be even more explosive than the first.

The Westboro Baptist Church

On his previous visits, Theroux met the devotees of the pathologicaly anti-gay Kansas-based church.

His two earlier films (in 2006 and 2011) showed members of the church picket the funerals of US servicemen and women, while yelling abuse at mourners, along with other high-profile events where they held deliberately provocotive and homophobic placards.

The controversial 'church' also views spree-shootings as the will of God, and insist that their version of God is vengeful and not forgiving.

Theroux returns to discover there have been defections in the church and it's founder and leader, Pastor Fred Phelps, is believed to have been excommunicated shortly before his death in 2014.

He meets some of the elders who now run Westboro Baptists, all of who are defensive, angry and hostile men, with the women of the church expected to be subservient.

He also speaks to Pastor Phelps’ granddaughter Megan, who has left the church to lead a normal and happy life. In the hour long documentary, Theroux explores what happens when a hate-group that is largely populated by one family loses its patriarch.

When is it on TV?

If you missed the documentary when it aired on Sunday (14 July), you can catch it again tonight (18 July) on BBC Two.

Louis Theroux: Surviving America's Most Hated Family returns to BBC 2 tonight - here's what's in store