Derren Brown: The Events

Derren Brown: The Events
Title Card
Created by	Derren Brown Andy Nyman Iain Sharkey
Directed by	Simon Dinsell
Presented by	Derren Brown
Composers	Ken Bowlam Nick Foster
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	4
Production
Executive producers	Derren Brown Anthony Owen Andrew O'Connor
Producer	Hannah Dodson
Running time	One hour
Production company	Objective Productions
Original release
Network	Channel 4
Release	9 September 2009

Derren Brown: The Events is a Channel 4 television series featuring the illusionist Derren Brown. Filmed for in front of a live studio audience, this series is made up of four one-hour specials, during which Brown attempts what he has described as "some of the most incredible feats to date". The show consists of a mixture of pre-recorded location pieces connected by theatre-based segments, with each of the four programmes building up to a major stunt performance.

The first trailer broadcast included Brown speaking in reverse but walking forwards with events around him happening forwards. Seemingly cryptic messages were also hidden in the advert such as links to a "Manchester United" website. The advert was later played forwards (although now with Brown moving in reverse), and revealed the premise of the shows. Brown explains that in his new series he will be revealing the "inner workings" of his tricks and "showing you how to get away with it".

Event 1: How to Win the Lottery

The first show, a live event broadcast on Wednesday 9 September 2009, appeared to show Derren Brown predicting that night's lottery draw. This was conducted by a set of white balls lined up, facing a wall, next to a television displaying a live feed from BBC One as they aired the live draw. After the draw, Brown wrote the results on a piece of card prior to turning the white balls around, facing the camera, to reveal that both the numbers on the balls and the numbers on the card were the same. The winning numbers were: 2, 11, 23, 28, 35 and 39. The bonus was number 15, however, his predictions did not include the bonus ball. If the numbers were chosen at random, there would be a 1 in 13,983,816 chance of predicting all 6 numbers correctly.

On Friday 11 September at 21:00, a show aired, which stated three possibilities for winning the lottery. The first, faking a winning ticket, was quickly dismissed, and the majority of the programme described Brown's use of automatic writing and crowd psychology to appear to predict the numbers ahead of time. Through a series of experiments and attempts at explaining complex psychology, while avoiding the underlying maths, Brown suggested that he may have predicted numbers using a phenomenon known as the "Wisdom of Crowds". He revealed 24 volunteers who, after a number of previous sessions, were shown to apparently predict the correct numbers by perusing a board filled with previous lottery numbers and guessing that week's through automatic writing. The show concluded with a brief description of how the lottery results could have been rigged, with Brown firmly stating that this would have been illegal and that he would always claim the the stunt was simply a trick.

The "Wisdom of Crowds" explanation received considerable negative criticism from the press and leading academics with one journalist writing in The Times "Derren Brown turns from most intriguing man on television to the most irritating". Publicist Max Clifford remarked that the stunt would have "put millions on [Brown's] value in the years to come". Journalist A C Grayling wrote that "the hour-long 'explanation' was itself a trick, and not as good as the lottery trick itself." Camelot, the company who run the National Lottery, congratulated Brown on his "illusion", and reminded the public that it was "impossible to affect the outcome of the draw". This trick attracted widespread attention, and a number of alternative explanations were proposed, including the use of a split screen camera trick, or a false wall. The Daily Mail concluded that using a false wall seemed the most likely method, while a poll for the Guardian concluded that a split screen was most likely.

Event 2: How to Control the Nation

On Friday 18 September, the second event was broadcast where Brown attempted to control the nation by forcing an inability to get up and walk away from the show. Brown showed a short film, consisting of rotating lines, that was meant to produce a sense of physical inability to rise from one's chair. Approximately half of the live studio audience appeared to experience this effect, though Brown claimed that the percentage of viewers experiencing the sensation would be lower in the less optimal conditions of their homes.

Event 3: How to Be a Psychic Spy

Inspired by the CIA's top secret Stargate Project, Brown conducted a nationwide experiment in remote viewing - the ability to see and describe an object that is hidden from view. The curator of the Science Museum was asked to paint a simple picture on a canvas, which she then covered over and placed on display in the Science Museum for one week, where visitors could draw what they thought was on the canvas. Brown repeated this with an audience in the museum and viewers at home. The four main things both the visitors and audience drew were: trains, Stonehenge, horses and concentric circles. Near the end of the show it emerged that between 30% to 35% of people drew some form of concentric circles, this was then revealed as the design painted on the canvas. In an additional twist, the next most common drawing was of Stonehenge (around 10%), and it was revealed that the painter, who had been at a secret location for the duration of the show, was actually at Stonehenge.

At the end of the show, Brown revealed that the show was recorded three weeks previously, and that he had arranged for adverts influencing people to draw concentric circles would be placed into major newspapers on the day of transmission. Details of where to find these adverts were then given.

Event 4: How to Take Down a Casino

Brown attempts to beat the odds at roulette, betting £5000, but there is a twist. After hypnotising a member of the public and making him withdraw £5000 from his bank, they became the unwitting accomplice in Brown's mission to take down a casino and win up to £175,000. Filming with hidden cameras at a secret location in mainland Europe, Derren in fact places the money on the wrong number, on a number adjacent on the wheel to the actual winning number (number 30, but Derren bets on 8). The show was hastily ended after this had happened. Ben, the name of the accomplice, was quickly informed he would get his £5000 back.

External links

• http://derrenbrown.channel4.com/