3. Derren Brown: Apocalypse (2012)
This two-part Channel 4 special was aired on the two Fridays either side of Halloween 2012 (beginning on Friday the 26th of October and concluding on Friday the 2nd of November), with each instalment being an hour long. Apocalypse focused on a man called Steven Brosnan, who had been described as suffering from a "lazy sense of entitlement" and was said to be "irresponsible". He was said to have lost his sense of family and his mother claimed that sometimes she felt like he didn't love her anymore. The show was, supposedly, an opportunity to give Steven a second chance at life by making him realise how important his life - and life in general - really is. Derren Brown set up a series of events that eventually led to Steven being caught up in a fake meteor shower while he was on a bus going to see The Killers in concert. Brown was on the bus at the time and, as the faux meteor shower was taking place (which Steven apparently believed was real), he put Steven in to a hypnotic state. Steven was then placed in an abandoned military hospital and awakened, supposedly two weeks later, to find that the meteor shower brought about the apocalypse. Upon exploring the new world, Steven found that it was a zombie wasteland with actors placed in situations that were meant to test him, and he was led through a carefully planned storyline - all while supposedly thinking that the situation was real. In typical Derren Brown fashion, the show was not without controversy, with many sceptics thinking that Steven himself was an actor (apparently having appeared in an advert for noodles). Brown strenuously denied this and had Steven publicly claim it to be untrue. Regardless of whether or not you believe it was a real set-up that Steven fell for (I don't), it was still a very entertaining watch and a highly original idea.