Derren Brown: Apocalypse, Channel 4 10.30

This isn’t any old apocalypse, the four horsemen racing across the sky; this is a Derren Brown, apocalypse. Notice the word ordering. Derren Brown comes before the apocalypse. Derren Brown is the apocalypse. We know he can do anything, but this is just one more little thing in his armoury. But the reality is rather disappointing and voyeuristic. I don’t like big brother type shows. I don’t like listening in on innocent folks going about their everyday business. I don’t like shows in which the perpetrator of some vicious crime like cheating on his girlfriend, and kicking the friendly dog that lives next door, are brought on and excoriated by some studio bod getting paid large amounts of cash. What’s the difference between poor Colin who is duped by family and friends into believing that the apocalypse is real, a meteorite has hit London and he’s one of the few survivors in an affected zone and these other examples? The answer Derren Brown gives is it’s educational. Colin, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, will find out he has a heart and he’s brave and …smells like bullshit to me. I think Derren Brown really is amazing, but this had me hoping that Colin would actually murder one of the actors playing zombie, then Derren could have raised him or her from the dead.