Derren Brown: 5 Best TV Specials and Secrets Of How They Were Done

By Simon Humphries /

1. Hero at 30,000 Feet

The Premise Stuck at 30,000 feet with nowhere to go, how would you react when asked to land the plane?? How It Was Done Yes, I know you€™re thinking it€™s ridiculous. No one would end up trying to land their plane (unless their name was Jack Bauer). Fortunately for Derren, when in a stressful situation (or when you have incredibly low-IQ€™d specimens like we saw in Channel4€™s €˜Space Cadets€™) humans have a habit of ignoring illogical information. After picking a particularly susceptible down and out guy who€™s not reaching his full potential, numerous stunts are setup throughout the show (for example an armed robbery)- supposedly highlighting the participant to certain parts of his personality, and opening him up for the final stunt. While on a plane for the first time in years to film a TV game show, turbulence leads to further problems. Cue a shady Derren Brown creeping up and sending him to sleep. He€™s then taken off the plane and into a flight simulator, where he is expected to land the plane. 'Hero' was very similar to last week€™s Apocalypse in that Derren€™s involvement was pretty much the same, with the only change being the surroundings. It€™s a tried and tested method of build someone up, then put them in a mad situation to see how they€™ll react- and we can all revel in the knowledge that we€™d blatantly react in a much better way than any of these chumps, wouldn€™t we??