The various stage and television shows performed by the psychological illusionist Derren Brown.
Television series Mind Control (2000–03) Brown began his television work with three sixty-minute specials produced over two years. In 1999, he was asked by Channel 4 to put a mind-reading programme together. The six-part series Mind Control incorporated new footage with the best of his hour-long shows. Selected highlights from the first series were later made available on DVD as Derren Brown – Inside Your Mind.
Andy Nyman was originally intended to front the programme, but he wanted to concentrate on acting so Brown was recommended to the producers by comedian and close-up magician Jerry Sadowitz.
Trick of the Mind (2004–06) Trick of the Mind was the title for Brown's next series, which ran for three consecutive series. Unlike Mind Control it is all completely new material. The second series started on E4 on 11 April 2005 and was repeated on Channel 4. The third series started on 26 March 2006. Trick of the Mind series 1 and 2 are available on DVD.
Waking Dead episode In an episode first broadcast on Friday 6 May 2005, Brown claimed to have created a video game called Waking Dead which "is able to put roughly 1/3 of the people who play it into a catatonic trance". The video game is then placed in a pub. Brown then "kidnaps" the catatonic "victim" and places him in a real-life recreation of the video game, having him fire a paintball marker at actors pretending to be zombies and outfitted with explosive squibs.
Trick or Treat (2007–08)
Trick or Treat started on Channel 4 in 2007. The focus of the show is on one volunteer who receives either a good experience or a bad experience. The experience the volunteers receive is decided by which card they choose. If they choose the card that says 'Trick' they receive a bad experience, and if they choose the card that says 'Treat' they receive a good experience. In the first series of Trick or Treat, the volunteer had no choice over the matter as the cards were ambigrams; however, in the second series, they were replaced by two more clearly defined cards that were no longer ambigrams.
Episodes of Trick or Treat are not preceded by Brown's usual claim that no actors or stooges were used in the filming of the shows. Indeed, some participants (such as the ambulance crew in the last episode) are declared to be actors.
The second series of Trick or Treat began on 2 May 2008. The third episode showed a slight change from the previous format, as actor David Tennant became the first celebrity to be used for the show. The two had met at a party where Tennant expressed interest in Brown's work. While writing the second season Brown "thought it would be fun if one of the participants was well known".
The final episode of the second series featured all of the volunteers from the series who had previously received a trick or treat. This episode highlighted belief in superstition and the degree to which it can be applied.
Mind Control with Derren Brown (2007)
On 26 July 2007, the US based SCI FI Channel began showing six one-hour episodes of a series titled Mind Control with Derren Brown. Andrew O'Connor and Anthony Owen were executive producers, and the show was produced by Simon Mills who had produced the two previous series of Trick Or Treat as well as The Heist and The System for Objective Productions. Journalists in New York at the press announcement were shown preview clips of Brown "manipulating human behaviour" and given the promise of more surprises to come. Sci Fi's press release described the show as an "original US produced version". The show was a mix of new segments filmed in the US and older clips shown in earlier UK TV shows.
Derren Brown: The Events (2009)
Filmed for Channel 4 in front of a live studio audience, this new series, airing in September 2009 was made up of four one-hour specials, during which Brown attempted what he described as "some of the most incredible feats to date". The show consisted of a mixture of pre-recorded location pieces connected by theatre-based segments, with each of the four one-hour programmes building up to a major stunt performance. The first teasers broadcast were shown backwards. When played forwards, Brown explained that in his new series he would be revealing the "inner workings" of his tricks and showing the viewer "how to get away with it".
The stunts included a live TV broadcast in which Brown suggested that he had successfully predicted the winning National Lottery numbers, and another in which Brown played a subliminal video suggesting that viewers at home would feel that they had become stuck to their sofas. Brown also projected an image into viewers' minds and asked them draw it on paper. The series' final event was an attempt to predict the outcome of a roulette wheel, staking £5,000 of a chosen viewer's money on the outcome. The ball landed in the pocket numbered 30, adjacent to Brown's choice of 8.
Derren Brown Investigates (2010)
Derren Brown Investigates began a run of three programmes on Channel 4 on 10 May 2010.
During the first program, Brown met with British psychic medium Joe Power.Wormwood Scrubs and Derren Brown Investigates, Sam Wollaston, The Guardian, 11 May 2010 A second programme concerned a Ukrainian system of human development that claims to teach people to see without the use of their eyes, and in a third he met a "ghosthunter" from the United States. With these people he discussed their claims to have evidence of the paranormal.
Derren Brown: The Experiments (2011)
Derren Brown: The Experiments was announced on 4 October 2011 on his official blog. Brown said that each special was an "ambitious sociological experiment, in which the unwitting subject is a single person, a crowd, or even an entire town". Brown stated that 'Three of [the episodes] are relatively dark, looking into the darker side of human behaviour, and one of them is rather positive and jolly' on his blog.
The first episode, entitled "The Assassin", aired on 21 October 2011 and consisted of Brown successfully hypnotising an unwitting member of the public to 'assassinate' a celebrity revealed to be Stephen Fry. This technique was used as a comparison to theories regarding the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan, who claims to have no memory of the event.
The second episode called "The Gameshow" aired on 28 October 2011. Brown hosted a show purportedly called "Remote Control", asking a masked audience to vote for the escalating fate of a contestant in an attempt to demonstrate the effect of deindividuation. The audience were repeatedly given two choices, positive and negative, that would affect the life of a man named Kris. The choices grew increasingly darker but they continued to embrace the negative options. It reached the point where the audience were happy to see Kris' television destroyed and Kris kidnapped by masked thugs. In the end, Kris was hit by a car, although it was revealed that it was a stunt performer. While that stunt was fake, all other things that happened to Kris were real. The theory is that taking away people's individuality and encouraging them to regard themselves as just part of a crowd makes them act in a way that will sometimes conflict with their personal morality.
The third episode, "The Guilt Trip", aired on 5 November 2011. Brown attempted to find out if he could convince someone through association to admit to a crime he or she had not committed. He worked through tricking a participant into distrusting his own memory and having excessive feelings of guilt, to the extent that he confessed to the murder of an actor with whom he had interacted and was later reported murdered.
In the fourth episode, "The Secret of Luck" which aired on 11 November 2011, Brown spread a rumour of a lucky-dog statue throughout the entire population of a town and documented the consequences.
The trailer for "The Experiments" was released on 11 October 2011. It is notably creepy, cutting between different people who ask what it takes to make someone behave out of character. All of them have been edited digitally so that they have mouths similar to ventriloquist dummies. It ends with a large group of people including Brown altogether, asking if we are in control of ourselves, before Brown tilts his head and walks off looking at his phone, with the others following his movements.
The Experiments won a BAFTA for Best Entertainment Programme at the 2012 awards in May 2012.
Derren Brown: Incognito (2026) Announced on 12 February 2026, Derren Brown: Incognito is an upcoming six-part Channel 4 television series fronted by Derren Brown, described as a social experiment disguised as a reality show. In the programme, ten strangers from different backgrounds live together for seven days in a “mysterious institution” while concealing identities that may prompt instant judgements from others, with the format designed to explore prejudice, labels and first impressions. The series is produced by Brown’s Vaudeville Productions for Channel 4. An air date for the series has not yet been announced.
Television specials Derren Brown Plays Russian Roulette Live (2003)
On 5 October 2003, Brown performed Russian roulette, live on Channel 4, which was watched by over 3.3 million viewers. The stunt was performed at an undisclosed location, later revealed to be in Grouville, Jersey, due to laws in mainland Britain prohibiting private ownership of handguns. Most of the show involved the selection of a volunteer to assist Brown, who apparently would risk firing a live round into his own head, in a game of Russian Roulette. Twelve thousand people applied for the task and these were whittled down to five men, who were given additional psychological testing and trained to load a revolver. On the day of the stunt, James was chosen to be the only person in the room when Brown performed. James was required to load a single shot into a revolver with six numbered chambers. Brown aimed the revolver at his head and fired chambers 3 and 4, then fired chamber 5 while aiming at a sand bag hanging nearby; they were all empty. The tension mounted as Brown paused, then fired chamber 6 aimed at his head and then quickly fired chamber 1 towards the sand bag; the sand bag appeared to have been pierced.
The programme was initially condemned by senior British police officers, apparently fearful of copycat acts. In addition, Jersey police stated that "There was no live ammunition involved and at no time was anyone at risk" and "There is absolutely no way that the States of Jersey police would allow anybody to put themselves at risk and shoot themselves dead."Jersey – Have your say – Derren Brown – Russian Roulette Stunt. BBC (8 October 2003). Retrieved 16 February 2011. When asked about the possible use of blanks in the act Brown responded, "But the frustrating and kind of ironic part of it was that even if it had been a blank that wouldn’t have made it any less dangerous. You shoot a blank next to your head and it will still kill you."Interviews. Derren Brown Info. Retrieved 16 February 2011.
Brown himself defended the programme, saying, "It probably sounds odd. But as a magic-related performer, to have that even being asked: Was it real? Was it not real? That lifts it to a level that I'm very comfortable with. What's left is the fact that it was a terrific piece of television."
Derren Brown: Séance (2004)