Firing Blanks

‘WHILE football was busy shooting itself in the foot, illusionist Derren Brown was one bad guess away from blowing his brains out – live on Channel 4.

‘Are there caps in it?’

Or was he? The Star reports that the death-defying stunt, in which Brown played Russian Roulette in front of three million viewers was ‘a sham’.

Brown apparently used a blank bullet after police banned him from using real ammunition – and they were happy to confirm: ‘There was no danger involved.’

Of course, had Channel 4 alerted its audience to that fact, there would certainly have been many fewer sad voyeurs tuning in to watch a man kill himself for their gratification.

However, Brown’s spokesman Greg Day insists that the stunt was genuine.

‘What police mean is that they were satisfied that no one apart from Derren was in danger,’ he said.

As well as the issue of whether the bullet was a blank or not, there is also the small matter of the UK gun laws.

The Star confirms that filming took place on a farm in Jersey, where the gun laws are exactly the same as they are on the mainland.

And that surely means that Brown should have been arrested for illegal possession of a handgun – as well as being a self-aggrandising charlatan.’

Posted: 7th, October 2003 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink