Derren Brown returns to our screens with “The Experiments”, a brand new four part series for Channel 4. Each stand-alone episode asks and answers a single question featuring the usual inventive and jaw dropping Derren Brown mixture of stunts, suggestion and thought-provoking entertainment combined with tried and tested psychological experiments to illustrate how easily our behaviour can be manipulated.
In “The Assassin”, the first show in the series, Derren Brown investigates hypnosis and asks if someone could be hypnotised into a killing a celebrity. Is this really possible? And who will be the celeb?
The Experiments – The Assassin, airs Friday 21st October at 9pm on Channel 4.
Tags: The Experiments
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Excited much?
This. Will. Be. Awesome. So awesome, it’s making me turn words into sentences.
I LOVE Derren and am very much looking forward to this new series!!
Can I put forward the suggestions of A: Justin Bieber or B: Jedward as the intended targets. That way, if things go at all wrong you will still be hailed as a hero!
If the first episode is about trying to manipulate someone to kill, what the hell is the final (and presumably the most ambitious) episode going to be about? :-O
I don’t have a hit list of celebs but I I did, I guess I could have helped choose the target. *awaits comments from others listing the celebs they would target*
On my birthday!! what more could you ask for!!??
Has this not been done before? Or have i merely read of the possibility?
Let’s hopr it’s Robbie Williams. Or Jordan.
can I vote for ALL of them? – that is celebrities who are that before they are a musician/writer/comedian whatever
please, the world could do with such a favour – to discourage any further insanity. (and bankrupt Hello)
Ohhh yes! A nice televised celebrity assassination. Just what I’ve been waiting for!
Isn’t this the plot to Zoolander?
OMG WOW! Super excited now!
yay! and I agree with the suggestions by Murray. x
amazing
so exiciting xx
David Cameron’s a celebrity, right?
The Title alone has me eager to watch this, I’d also like to see a book about this too.
I bet the celebrity will be Derren Brown himself.
Literally cannot wait. jizz-in-my-pants excited!!!
*meep* (that’s the noise I make when I’m excited.)
Didn’t anyone get the impression that I did — that the celebrity in question is most likely to be Derren himself? I mean, it could be a friend of his, but for a random celebrity you’d have to get consent to air the material if the ‘sleeper agent’ (hehe) actually comes close enough for the celeb to be on film. Which would cut into the budget quite a bit, I’d imagine. Or, well, they could of course have hired an impersonator. That’s a distinct possibility as well.
Can’t think of a celeb. They’re all annoying at one point or another …. except DB!
I agree with Patrick… culling of a few tv celebs won’t go amiss! Fabulous I look forward to being thrilled!
Murray says:
05/10/2011 at 2:35 PM
Can I put forward the suggestions of A: Justin Bieber or B: Jedward as the intended targets. That way, if things go at all wrong you will still be hailed as a hero!
LMAO…love it:-))
Mythbusters (U.S. Discovery Channel show) has already looked at subliminal implants via hypnosis in an episode a while back, they tried making one of the staff (Grant) do something whenever a certain word was mentioned. Same again with a different staff member who was asked to do something they wouldnt normally do whilst under hypnosis (and also not aware that they were going to be used in such a manner) I’ll not spoil the outcomes.
will it be able on channel 4 oD?
i am guessing this is something to do with the email i had a few weeks ago to invite me to watch a certain famous person being filmed. email came from objective so seems likely……….
The celeb in question is Derren! What’s next THE PSYCHIC & THE STALKER. Very exciting!
Tony: I saw that episode, but they gave the suggestion in a very awkward way. Compare The Heist and you’ll see that subtlety is key here.
This show definitly features Micheal Jackson’s docter!
CHANGE. OF. UNDERWEAR!
Haha, this’ll be great TV! Can’t wait!
LC x
Please please please let it be Jedward or TIm Wonnacot!
ohmygodohmygodohmygod, can.. not… wait..!
hey, I live in Norway and I don’t have channel 4 so I wonder if anyone know how to watch the show without watching it on c4. And btw you are awesome Derren.
Wow, Derren still manages to shock/surprise me after 10 years – I will be watching through my hands. Well done Derren
X
Murray – I must disagree with your second suggestion. Jedward, like marmite, are either hated or loved, and I happen to love both, though I would not put the former on toast.
This will be interesting.
Ohhhhh this looks very interesting!
Di xx
derren already tried it with himself & didnt succeed. maybe he figures somebody else will have better luck?
Hello, Bee, yes it has been done before, once by the Amazing Kreskin, but I think the series is about revisiting and re-envisioning previous experiments. It will be given an entirely new and wonderful twist by the absolutely amazing Mr Brown.
I had to get all of the “holy sh*ts” out of my system before writing a comment. Well, almost all of them.
Holy shit!!
This is going to be a crazy series. Reminds me of a pumped up version of The Events, which were a lot of fun to watch.
Elias: There are streaming video providers that have British channels, google for one of those maybe?
……….WTF! How on earth will this be done?! I can’t wait to see! Now I’m even more excited….which I didn’t think was possible. My jaw hit the floor when I read this, lol! Like…..WHAT?
You should have called it “The Manchurian Candidate” !
I can’t wait!
Absolutely Jedward should be the target. I sincerely hope its successful
It will be great entertainment, sit back and enjoy it!
Mr. Brown, I am very excited for this. It’s only 388 hours away!
Yes, I’m counting in hours.
No I’m not crazy.
I’M EXCITED.
X
Good stuff derren can’t wait!
xx
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE! Ahem…
I think (hope) Derren is too humble to base the plot on his own status as a celebrity to be the victim. Plus he’d have to be the one doing the hypnotising so that would play as a really convoluted scene.
Really pleased to hear he’s back to the edgy stuff!
Wouldn’t miss this for the world! Derren is de BEST! =D ^_^
Derren my good man!
)<
Greetings from Seattle
Live long and prosper in all good things.
I know my screaming an annoying celebrity’s name is not going to influence the choice in any way (besides, it’s already been made,) and the celeb in question if probably going to be Derren, but…
KATIE PRICE, KATIE PRICE, KATIE BLEEPING PRICE!!!!
(Joke
)
….OR, failing that, the entire cast of ‘The Only Way is Essex.’
Am now even more excited than I was yesterday. May wet oneself in the minutes before the show, but that is 16 days away yet
Will it be shown in the USA???
not much of a challenge to kill jedward. i mean, you wouldn’t to hypnotise me or give me a weapon to do jedward. just a sack next to a swimming pool, a couple of bricks and a mars bar. chuck the mars bars and the bricks in to the sacks before you tie the sack up. they’d jump in to the water themselves. while they were sinking they’d be singing “isn’t this ice, ice baby?”.
The woods are lovely, dark an deep ….
OMG sounds good
think it should be Sean Batty off the weather…… or mabye the gocompaire man, ovious choice tho:/
joking, but sounds interesting
It has to be Jedward, two for the price of one!
I can’t imagine why a concept as horrible as murder should be used as light entertainment. I really don’t think anyone would be excited if Derren were creating a show where he actually gets someone (even if it’s only just to agree) to rape a celebrity. Why is murder any different and how do you think families of people who have actually been murdered feel when they see things like this?
Derren is clearly an exceptional fellow. There’s no doubting that. I just find this concept distasteful.
Bubba: I don’t think it should just be considered light entertainment. The medium is entertainment, sure, but from what I’ve read, I think there will be a deeper layer. It sounds like an exploration of human nature. I’ve always disliked the way society dehumanises killers by branding them ‘monsters’ or ‘inhuman’. That’s a cop-out. People turn their backs, saying ‘THAT is a monster, I’M not like that’.
This program seems to explore the fact that every human does, in fact, carry that ‘monster’ inside and given the proper circumstances, it can be brought out. I expect this show, in some ways, to shed light on the phenomenon of suicide bombers and similar ideologically brainwashed murderers.
If it can make people aware of the fact that killers ARE human like them, I think that’s a good thing.
Berber, I understand your point that killers are human and I agree that it is not helpful to demonise people. I don’t think the points I submitted have been addressed:
Would you feel the same if Derren was influencing a person to make them want to or believe they want to or attempt to or believe they were attempting to rape someone instead of murder them?
How do you think people who have a close friend or family member who has been murdered will feel when someone is (for entertainment’s sake) playing with the deep dark layers of a person’s psychology or nature or whatever you like to call it to make it appear they could murder?
My best hope is that this is all handled with extreme care.
If a murder is achieved, who is criminally liable? Is Derren the murderer or the murderer the murderer?
Is the murderer also a victim of Derren?
How far does this call into question our laws on criminal responsibilty?
Do we have our own free will?
I will watch with intrigue.
Susan
Forensic Psychologist
Yes, I’d feel the same about that, but I suspect the network wouldn’t. Rape is also not as poignant as murder, it makes less of a point (some sick people would probably even expect rape porn if they saw a show like that advertised). And I’m not sure, but I have a feeling it’s somehow safer to make someone attempt murder than it is to make him attempt rape. Murder is so rare and such a violation of social norms that it might be easier to ‘deprogram’ the subject. It’s often a more overt crime, too, so you’d be more able to verify that the subject has been deprogrammed (won’t react murderously to his target anymore).
(cont.)
As for friends and family of murder victims, I think that would depend entirely on their personality, and I can’t speak for someone else. Personally, while I’d be hurt by the reminder, I’d be interested in the mechanisms behind the act. If it was too raw a subject, though, I just wouldn’t watch the show.
I have no doubt it will be handled with a lot of care. Derren’s shows are a lot of things, but they don’t tend to be callous.
I do hope you’ve got a good way of showing that the person didn’t actually want to kill the celebrity anyway.
noone can be made to do something against their beliefs.
but you can change what they believe in…
E:-)>
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I agree with vicci d, I got the same email from Objective and thought it was a bit fishy…
Makes you wonder, if someone is arrested for murder but says they were hypnotised – do they have the ‘mens rea’ or ‘malice aforethought’ which would make them a criminal…? Can’t wait for this!
I think it is safe to say that Justin Beeber will not be the target. Frankly I hope the target is made up.
Bubba/ Berber Anna
You both make interesting points, but I think it is relevant that the title chosen is The Assassin’, not ‘The Murderer’. In a sense an assassin is someone who has been persuaded (or persuaded themselves) that the act of taking a life is morally justifiable because it somehow serves ‘the greater good’. A murderer may be motivated by anger, envy, resentment, personal advantage or profit, revenge etc. but, I suggest, in all cases it is deeply personal.
This show, as far as we can see so far, seems to be about asking if an ordinary, non-murderous person can be persuaded to kill someone against whom they have no personal antipathy.
Omg will be awesome! i cant wait… would be funny if the celeb was derren himself ;D
I know who the celebrity will be! It’s Bill Bailey!!! I Need someone to recognize this, because if it is Bill Bailey then I will at least have proof that I did in fact call it.
I can’t wait, Derren’s mind is super dooper!
@Thomas Leyland Torr – Is that from the fact they did the Radio 4 show the other day? If it’s Bill, not only would that would be great, but I will buy you a pint!
When will this program b repeated?
“a levered action rifle such as every American child is issued with” lol this guy is so flucking funny,..
Derren is a genius, I was blown away last night.
Why did the audience at the end just stand and watch as Mr. Fry got shot before their very eyes? Loved the show but I can’t just explain that last part… you’d think they would of reacted differntly to a “national treasure ” being shot….
Great. i really want 2 hipnotise people because i want my nanna 2 stop smoking