http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,955741,00.html
Brown bites bullet for Channel 4
Jason Deans
Wednesday May 14, 2003
Brown: 'I'm just going to have to get used to guns before I do this'
Channel 4 is to test the limits of taste and decency with a televised game of Russian roulette in which psychological illusionist Derren Brown will attempt to avoid shooting himself in the head.
The programme is part an exclusive two-year deal Brown has signed with Channel 4, which will also include a live seance special and a second series of his Montreux award-nominated show, Derren Brown: Mind Control.
In the Russian roulette special Brown will choose a member of the public to load a real bullet into a pistol and will guess which of the six numbered chambers it is in.
He will hold the gun to his head and, when the chamber he believes contains the bullet comes round to the barrel of the gun, Brown will fire it away from himself.
Channel 4 will broadcast a recording of the stunt rather than screening it live in case something goes wrong.
"It's just going to be me, the other person and a gun in a bunker," said Brown.
"If you put six items on a table and asked someone to pick one, I can always work out which one [they chose].
"As long as I don't think about the gun [I'll be OK]. I'm just going to have to get used to guns before I do this."
Brown will undertake a nationwide search for a member of the public, whom he will get to know and trust, to load the pistol.
The Russian roulette special will be filmed on the Isle of Man, Jersey or Guernsey because the gun laws in mainland Britain prevent Brown performing the stunt.
Brown bites bullet for Channel 4
Jason Deans
Wednesday May 14, 2003
Brown: 'I'm just going to have to get used to guns before I do this'
Channel 4 is to test the limits of taste and decency with a televised game of Russian roulette in which psychological illusionist Derren Brown will attempt to avoid shooting himself in the head.
The programme is part an exclusive two-year deal Brown has signed with Channel 4, which will also include a live seance special and a second series of his Montreux award-nominated show, Derren Brown: Mind Control.
In the Russian roulette special Brown will choose a member of the public to load a real bullet into a pistol and will guess which of the six numbered chambers it is in.
He will hold the gun to his head and, when the chamber he believes contains the bullet comes round to the barrel of the gun, Brown will fire it away from himself.
Channel 4 will broadcast a recording of the stunt rather than screening it live in case something goes wrong.
"It's just going to be me, the other person and a gun in a bunker," said Brown.
"If you put six items on a table and asked someone to pick one, I can always work out which one [they chose].
"As long as I don't think about the gun [I'll be OK]. I'm just going to have to get used to guns before I do this."
Brown will undertake a nationwide search for a member of the public, whom he will get to know and trust, to load the pistol.
The Russian roulette special will be filmed on the Isle of Man, Jersey or Guernsey because the gun laws in mainland Britain prevent Brown performing the stunt.
