Fantastic from Derren again this one. He even used the Milgrim experiment which nearly had me creaming myself, as a psychology student who's studied this experiment.

Great show and he continues to outdo himself.

What did you all think of it?

I was suprised only one of the candidates had heard of the Milgram experiment - I'm sure I've seen it mentioned on the telly in the last year.
I would have liked to have heard more from the 3 who did hold up the guard - what was going through their head? How on earth did they think they could get away?
Still interesting stuff & a reminder of how easy it is for a demagogue to take control...

They didn't appear to be entirely forward thinking though. The whole point was the 'moment'.

I agree, more time should be spent talking to the "victims" afterwards. Regardless though - the programme was excellent.

I was pleased that the people used were fairly normal and reasonably bright (ish)...
Derren could have used a bunch of numpties to improve his success rate - but I'm pleased he didn't.

I disagree using numpties would have furthered his success rate.

In fact, using idiots would probably have reduced it as they wouldn't have absorbed the seminars as effectively.

Remember, he uses the most suggestable people. Their intelligence rarely has anything to do with it.

The only 'iffy' aspect of the whole show was the heist itself. Would, as someone who's doing something with Derren Brown, you not suspect something when:

1: The usually crowded London streets are completely empty?
2: A single car drives past playing a song Derren's been using?
3:You're asked to bring a toy gun?
4: The biggest one of all; for what discernable reason could the candidates be believably dropped off significantly short of their destination without them thinking something was up?

A lot of it relied on a seriously manufactured situation, but for the re-enactment of Milgrim alone it gets my thumbs up.

Hey guys.

Well I have to say it was pretty shocking stuff that Heist. Now I'm no Mary Whitehouse, but boy that was some brainf**k he put those ppl thru I can't help think he went a little far.

It certainly takes a specific type of person to follow through pointing a gun at somebody, albeit a replica, you should check out some of the new laws coming in covering replica firearms and the seriousness of such crimes.
Given also the recent terrorism bombings and certain law types who shall remain nameless gunning people down on the London underground, it takes a type of person who spends so little time thinking about consequences. There are several consequence points here, not one entered the 3 ppls minds at ANY point -
-Uk law regarding armed robbery even with replicas
-Recent news regd law types anti-terrorism take-down policies.
-Thinking how they could possibly get out of the city ALIVE on public transport with two security boxes and a pistol.

Yes, it was about the moment, it goes to show how some ppl are so sucked into the moment. But what must the people have thought shortly after running off, before the crew surrounded them.

There are things also that don't quite add up -
This help seminar thing they attended, did not one person think about how this is a TV celebrity and be surrounded in cameras not smell a rat when he asked them to rob a sweet shop?
What was the trick with the blank 'subliminal' CD they were given, the guy asking whether it will go on his Ipod! "Yes, UM NO, um YES!".
Did not one of them think how strange to be put thru a Milgram experiment as part of a help seminar?
Did not one of em smell a rat when they heard the exact same music playing in a solitary passing car that the self help group played? What are the chances?

The guy who didn't do it, he said the key thing there - It's one thing stealing a chockie bar from a newsagents, it's another thing pulling off an armed robbery.

It would be very interesting to see the 'reverse' programming things they had to do afterwards, not to mention the psychiatric help they were given!

Stu

P.S. A thought for you - Something that was shown as being 75% effective here, MUST have been known about by certain governments decades ago, CIA or KGB. It is the perfect spy/assassin who knows nothing about his employers?!

On your p.s. Stu - in the James Bond books 007 lost his memory, at the end of Dr. No (I think - the one in Japan anyway) and he eventually ends up in the KGB's hands who brainwash him into trying to assasinate M.
The there is the rather excellent Micheal Cain film 'The Ipcress File' which again has brainwashed assasins - I'm sure theres lots of others in fiction, at least...

Well, there we go!
Fiction or fact, either way it's scary!
So who here thinks it was going too far?
TV is forever getting edgier. What next? Breaking peoples legs for live TV, WAIT, it's OK, we'll put them in hospital and rehab! All in the name of entertainment.
Derren Brown, if ur reading this, I hope you can 'mind-trick' yourself into believing this is all moral and above board.
All in all tho, I have to admit it was entertaining stuff, kept me glued to the screen and chatting about it throughout breaks at work.
We're all going to hell!
;-)

I would have to agree on the questioning of the morals.

I remember one show where he made a girl freeze in the middle of a crowded road as she crossed. I thought that was frankly irresponsible and put her in danger.

There was also the zombie game - it was frankly ethically dubious to say the least.

What all of this shows is that Derren has achieved what he set out to achieve - good tv that entertains people whilst also making them think about and question their beliefs. A refreshing change from the sea of junk television to which we're normally exposed. He picked a highly-controversial way of showing how frighteningly easy it is to make people act in a way that you want them to. A less controversial situation wouldn't have made the point anything like as strongly. The only down side of that is that now the debate soley surrounds the ethics of what he did and the point of the exercise - how, with a simple but carefully placed sequence of conscious and subconscious messages, people can be manipulated in extreme ways - has been lost. Let's have the debate about the ethical and moral issues around armed heists being staged during prime tv time in the name of entertainment, but let's also not lose sight of the more important issues that the show highlighted. Personally they're a lot more shocking to me. I say 10 out of 10 for the show. Derren's passion for his subject is infectious and I look forward to enjoying and thinking about what he and Andy Nyman come up with next!

I just wanted to hear more from the 'victims' afterward and how Brown planned to help them over it. Some of them got pretty scary with the security guy. Didn't the third guy threaten his family? Not something you could easily forgive yourself for doing I imagine.

Absolutely brilliant
I love Derren and his work, i hope more stuff like this is out in the near future!

and just what would have happened in the two weeks before the actual heist if all the coincidences came together when they were out to buy milk? Arrests, injurys or a real robbery. Who knows but its possible.

He! he! - I was wondering that too, jamieeric!
I can only guess Derren needed to do the last phone call to hype them up - plus they would not usually be walking around with a toy gun in their pocket...