Derren Brown: Trick or Treat, Friday 10pm, Channel 4

Posted by Will Parkhouse

Our rating:

You can't fault Derren Brown's ambition. In this series opener, the psychological illusionist decides that he's going to turn his volunteer, 40-year-old aviation insurance specialist Glen, into the ultimate pub quiz champion.

But how? Derren tells his quarry he's giving himself a week "for me to show you how to learn everything". Glen laughs uproariously. "What, everything... ever?" he asks. "Pretty much," replies Derren. "Now take a seat."

Using his master's special memory trick, Glen then makes like Short Circuit's Johnny Five and flicks his way through thousands of books at high speed, spending mere seconds on each page. And it seems to work – after a few days he's given two questions at random and to Glen's surprise, he finds he can name the number of different types of hummingbirds in the Amazon rainforest (319) and the venue where the Camden Town Group of artists held their 1911 exhibition (the Carfax Gallery).

Fascinating stuff, and Brown's apparent openness about his techniques puts him endearingly to one side of the limelight. My only gripe is that the programme felt a bit scanty compared to previous shows, focusing heavily on Glen, with only one other proper trick – Derren identifying a chosen coffee bean from a packed tray – in there. Still, he did teach someone how to learn everything, ever, so it’s hard to complain.

Comments

[Eddee]

I think it's quite interesting that no-one has decided to use the techniques shown to the man for the pub quiz in schools. im sure that students approaching exams would appreciate it. it could improve our education sufficently of teachers recieved training in those sorts of things.