An apology to Derren Brown

I feel I must now set right a wrong which was brought to my attention just this week.

Back in 2009, I wrote a series of posts describing popular magician Derren Brown as nothing more than a glorified troll. The claims stemmed from two particular shows --one 15-minute special with the trick itself and one explanatory hour-long follow-up-- in which the entertainer appeared to predict the outcome of a midweek National Lottery draw with stunning accuracy. Those who follow Brown's work will know it was, of course, an illusion and the man himself seemed to confirm this in his promise of revealing how the trick worked later that week.

In his subsequent show 'How to Win the Lottery', however, Brown went on to present an elaborate 'group prediction' theory supposedly explaining the stunt, with no suggestion of the real methods used. In actuality, a common camera trick was employed in the live Channel 4 broadcast, with a split screen freeze frame hiding off-camera help. Very impressive, but not flawless, which you can expect with live television from time to time.

Brown has built his reputation on being something of a debunker presenting 'Breaking the Magician's Code' type shows relating to mediumship and other such new age beliefs. His refusal to offer the blatantly real explanation on this occasion was out of character, and left a great number, including myself, disappointed. I managed to rationalise the whole thing and put my mind at rest, but resolved to give the rest of Brown's series a miss:

"In truth, why would, or even should he admit to it? After all, a good magician never reveals his tricks, so maybe I ought to shut up about all that. However, I ended up watching the show in anticipation of how he would get out of this potentially sticky situation, which ruined the whole thing slightly for me." -- Retro Yakking, 12 September 2009

In January of this year, Channel 4 screened a special documentary on Derren Brown in celebration of his tenth year with the network. 'Behind the Mischief' saw Brown admit the Friday night special in which the trick was explained makes him 'cringe'. According to Brown, he was set to reveal the draw to be 'fixed' (a rather humorous and presumably tongue-in-cheek twist), but due to mass media attention garnered by the stunt, was forced into presenting this 'slightly fishy' 'wisdom of crowds' explanation instead.

"It ended up feeling a bit disingenuous, I think, that I was expecting people to believe that's really how I did it ... It's the only thing I've done that I'm just not happy with at all." -- Brown, Behind the Mischief

We all know the effect television producers and viewing figures can have on a show's direction, and it seems the ill feeling surrounding this particular incident was a direct result of such influences. It isn't nice to be trolled, we get enough of that on the Internet, and now this man was doing so via television also? Evidently so, but it isn't Brown's fault. On the whole, I am a fan of his shows, which are educational as well as highly entertaining; I am inclined to chalk this one up as a mere blip, as he has gone on to present plenty of high quality shows since.

The most recent of Brown's specials, 'Miracles for Sale', saw a layman take on the role of faith healer, under the tutelage of Brown, with the idea of exposing the business as a scam supported by psychological tricks. It really was engaging stuff, perhaps his best work to date, and leaves you wondering where he may go from here. Fairground soothsayers? I hope so, because they've conned my mother out of too much money for my liking.