Derren Brown

TV To Die For - Derren Brown Plays Russian Roulette

I got back home on Sunday after a very pleasant holiday in Kos. I left the world behind me for a week, and instead focused on exposing white parts of my body to high dose radiation therapy. It would seem that the rest of the world has survived without me casting a glance at it. The room in Kos had the dubious pleasure of only two English language TV channels. BBC World and on seemingly random days BBC Prime. Neither of which set the blood racing too much it has to be said, but did at least have the benefit of being the TV equivalent of wallpaper or watching paint dry. Very relaxing when you find yourself at a loose end in the evening between a hot shower and bacchian indulgence at the trough of an all you can eat buffet.

The same it seems cannot be said for British TV. Dirty Den is back in Eastenders, we had a gay kiss in Coronation Street, and we have another would-be David Blaine in the form of Derren Brown, who for our delectation and entertainment thought it might be amusing to play Russian Roulette live on British TV. Fortunately, he had the good grace to time his shenanigans for the Sunday evening of the day before I returned to the land of the wage slave, and so I was able to cheer along as he put the gun to his head. Good clean fun no doubt, but whilst I must admit to being morbidly curious enough to watch; I doubt if I am alone in finding the way these performance magicians work slightly unnerving.

You will be pleased to hear (I am sure) that Derren Brown survived intact (apart from the hole in his head - obviously) and that the tabloid papers in pursuit of truth, justice and fairplay have taken glorious glee in exposing the stunt as circus fun. No animals being really put at risk, and a safety net in place at all times which came in the shape of the fact that a real bullet wasn't used. And that the gun might even have been a fake. No doubt it will emerge next week that it was actually made of chocolate all along. It apparently all went down in Jersey, and not the African fifedom which I had assumed routinely allowed folk to blow their brains out live on national tv. The explanation for this new liberality on the part of the Jersey police being that they really weren't being liberal at all.

"There was no live ammunition involved and at no time was anyone at risk," said Lenny Harper, Detective Chief Officer for the States of Jersey police.

"A prop company brought a number of props to the island and they included a quantity of blank ammunition. There is absolutely no way that the State of Jersey police would allow anybody to put themselves at risk and shoot themselves dead."