5. Derren Brown - Seance
Channel 4The first of two paranormal programmes on this list and one of Derren Brown's early recipes for chaos, this 2004 show was presented as a real-life seance with twelve real-life participants. Under Brown's guidance, the amateur paranormal investigators contacted teenage victims of a suicide pact using an ouija board. Nearly all of them chose to communicate with a girl called Jane, becoming steadily more terrified as the dead teenager continued to 'speak' to them - until Brown revealed the entire thing had been a hoax and 'Jane' was, in fact sitting, warm and cosy and alive, in a trailer nearby. Eggy faces all around. Brown claimed he was simply trying to challenge people's susceptibility, but not everyone saw it that way. The programme caused controversy due to allegedly misleading both participants and viewers into believing that a real seance was being conducted, leading to hundreds of complaints - many of them rolling in before the show was even aired. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1XL4axxyGE