Derren Brown is a bloody bugger. I wanted to use stronger language than that… but something stopped me. Probably his psychological suggestion or something. Anyways, he’s got a new show called Derren Brown: Trick or Treat (Channel 4, 10pm, Friday) which sees him taking up the mantle of subliminal jackass. Now, when I say jackass, I don’t mean he’s suddenly gone foolwards… rather, he’s starting playing cruel tricks on people… and all for my entertainment! Ace!

Basically, this show revolved around one thing (with a couple of deviations for interest) and that was a huge elaborate hoax played on a student with a terrible haircut. He woke him in the middle of the night, made him sign a contract in the dark (which basically said that he was willing to go along with anything that Mr Brown could come up with). Fool…

So from being woken up and then hypnotised back to sleep, this poor bugger with the dreadful hair finds himself being zonked out by a rigged photo booth and shipped off to Morocco. Yep. In the middle of a bloody riot in Marrakesh. This poor blinking bloke comes pawing out of this booth… he has no idea where he is… and how he got there and suddenly, he’s in the middle of a bustling street with men sticking snakes around his neck. You can’t help but assume that Brown put the snake charmers up to it. Usually, Derren Brown is fascinating. Not this time. He made something hilarious happen. I snorted with mean laughter throughout this stunt! It was fabulous!

Other than that, he did some David Blaine styled ‘street’ performance (which wasn’t as impressive as we’ve been previously spoiled with) and a marvellous hoodwink that had the League of Gentlemen cast narrowly avoiding a chow down on a razor blade. Sound a bit sick? Get with the programme bucko. Tune in next week where he’ll be doing more mean things to people. I’m all for it. [Mof Gimmers]