Image Credit: Channel 4 Derren wields a croquet mallet in front of the 'murder' scene
As predicted, Derren Brown's shows always provoke controversy, but has he gone too far this time?
I'm a skeptic and an ex-psychology student. I like to see evidence for claims of special ability whether that be claims to be able to speak to the dead or claims to treat illnesses with pseudoscience. Derren Brown is a bit of a poster-boy for the 'skeptical movement', the existence of which is debatable. However, with these newest experiments, Derren Brown has upset more than a few people.
I should explain. This post will be addressing the 'if' questions. I'm always questioning the veracity of Derren Brown's claims of misdirection, psychological illusion and showmanship. After all, Derren claims not to use any stooges or TV tricks to do his work, but then again, it was revealed that his 'Russian Roulette' stunt never involved any risk whatsoever. Another couple of heroes of mine, Penn & Teller, also say that they never do anything that will pose a danger to them or their audience. However, if we take Derren's claims to have actually provoked his subject, Jody, to have admitted to a fictitious murder seriously, ethical questions are raised.
Four Rooms: image credit Channel 4/Guardian L to R: Emma, Gordon, Andrew & Jeff
Four Rooms, the best type of antiquities and curiosities show since, well, since Four Rooms, is back soon and is looking for oddities to go through each room in an attempt to get their experts to make an offer.
If you haven't seen Four Rooms before, it's well worth a watch, sometimes only to wonder at the foolish owners of the bizarre and the disgusting try to get a few more pennies out of the disgruntled presenters.
The format
There are four rooms, each containing a grumpy antiques dealer looking for a bargain. Once you've left a room and declined the offer from the dealer, you can't go back. There's no way of knowing who is going to offer you the best deal. Four Rooms, as an experiment in game theory, is an excellent example of how not to haggle and in setting a realistic target price before you go in. The real delight is watching a deluded owner go through all the rooms after an inflated price to suit their massive ego and leave without any deal at all.
Who are they?
Picked due to their interest in the weird and wonderful, Four Rooms features four luminaries of the antique dealing world.
Jeff Salmon
The infamous Jeff, my favourite, known for his flamboyant scarves, is the most irritable of them all and doesn't take any prisoners in his approach to those after a price to suit them and not him. He's irascible and he knows a bargain when he negotiates it.
Purchase record: 7 items, including some Christmas Cards from Diana
Read more about Jeff here or follow him on Twitter
Emma Hawkins
The token female of the group, Emma is gothic drama personified. She's got an astute eye for the odd and whimsical and doesn't give in to her emotions when she likes a piece.
Purchase record: 6 items, including a dinosaur egg.
Read more about Emma here or follow her on Twitter
Andrew Lamberty
Known for buying the Concorde nose piece on the first series (episode 2) for £55,000, Andrew has a nose for a good deal and a taste for the unconventional, controversial pieces, like the Hitler head he also bought. He says he knows instantly when he wants something but he doesn't show it.
Purchase record: 4 items - the least of all! Picky or just clever with his choices?
Read more about Andrew here or follow him on Twitter
Gordon Watson
Former Sotheby's auctioneer Gordon was very young when he decided to get into the antiques business. He's certainly got a flair for the industry, selling to celebs such as Barbara Streisand & Mick Jagger. Gordon was recently invited back to Sotheby's thirty years after he left as a consultant after selling his business.
Purchase record: 7 items - tied with Jeff. Best item - mummified mermaid.
Read more about Gordon here or follow him on Twitter
"Still to come on FOUR ROOMS" ad nauseum Image credit: asianimage.co.uk
Why should you watch it?
If you're interested in drama and conflict, mixed with some game-show tension and antiques, you're on to a winner.
Why shouldn't you watch it?
If you don't like being told what's coming up next constantly and having the show's concept explained to you by host Anita Rani every time there's a break; a caveat annoyance explained hilariously well by the Letters To TV blog
Apply now to be on the series and tell them we sent you!
Saturday 10.15pm Making Life's Too Short BBC2 - Ricky Gervais takes viewers behind the scenes as he discusses the making of Life's Too Short with co-creator Stephen Merchant and star Warwick Davis. Sunday 9.00pm Argumental Dave - Return of the panel series fronted by Sean Lock with new team Captain Robert Webb. 10.00pm American Dad! BBC3 - Sixth series of the American animated comedy. Monday 11.00am The Renovation Game Channel 4 - Jonnie Irwin and Simon O'Brien present the new property series in which a crack team of up-and-coming builders and designers put their own fees on the line if they fail to raise a property's value. In each episode the experts have three days and £3000 to revamp a property and add to its value by £15,000. If they fail, they don't get paid. 12.00pm Drop Down Menu Channel 4 - Cooking show featuring some of the country's most talented chefs and its best-loved celebrities. What makes this food show unique is that the studio audience gets to decide what's cooked: each time there's a dish to be made, the giant 'drop down menu' offers the audience three options to choose from, and it's their vote which dictates what happens next. 2,10pm Land Girls BBC1 - Third series of the daytime drama airing all this week. At Hoxley Manor Lady Ellen organises the Great Hall into a makeshift hospital with the help of the land girls and is confronted by a face from the past when Dr Channing arrives. Meanwhile, at Connie and Henry's engagement party, Connie is singing when she spots her ex, Danny, watching her. He then disappears, but when Connie returns from the party he is sitting on her bed. Continues all week and concludes Friday. 4.00pm Ade in Britain ITV - Actor and comedian Adrian Edmondson travels across Britain meeting traditional food producers and people continuing ancient customs. In the first edition, he visits North Wales, where he farms mussels by hand, watches sea-salt being extracted from the Menai Strait, discovers how clogs are made and prepares a local dish of bacon, mussels and leeks. 7,30pm Lost Heroes of World War 1 Five - Filmed over almost two decades, the individual stories of the last veterans and survivors of World War I are replayed through interviews, archive and dramatic reconstructions, bringing to life what it was like to live through 1914-18. 8.30pm Masterchef: The Professionals BBC2 - Sous chef Monica Galetti joins Michel Roux Jr and Gregg Wallace on the judging panel in the culinary challenge as 10 new contestants enter the kitchen. The cooks are given one hour to prepare a meal from a list of six pre-determined ingredients. 9.00pm The Choir: Military Wives BBC2 - Gareth Malone heads to North Devon to form his latest singing group, consisting of the wives and girlfriends of soldiers serving in Afghanistan. The choirmaster soon realises that living on an estate at the edge of a military base has left the women longing to have a voice that reaches far beyond their insular world. 9.00pm The Jury ITV - New crime drama that will air from 9pm all week! This truly is unmissable. Julie Walters leads an all star cast as the drama that focuses on the crime and the 12 members of the Jury returns for a second series ten years after the first. Julie Walters plays Emma Watts, a defence barrister who is determined to free Alan Lane (John Lynch), a man convicted for the violent murder of three women he met on the internet. New evidence has come to light which calls his conviction into question and there is a fierce battle between Watts and John Mallory (Roger Allam) who is the prosecution barrister for Lane.
Among the jurors are Paul Brierley (Steven Mackintosh) a young man who cares for his elderly mother (Anne Reid), Katherine Bulmore (Jodhi May) a teacher who has fallen in love with her 17 year old pupil, 18 year old Rashid Jarwar (Aqib Khan), Lucy Cartwright (Natalie Press) who unwittingly finds herself standing in for her busy boss Theresa (Sarah Alexander), Krystina Bamford (Branka Katic) a lonely housewife, and senior citizen Jeffery Livingstone (Ronald Pickup) who strikes up a friendship with Sudanese refugee Tahir Takana (Ivanno Jeremiah). 9pm all week Concludes Friday. Do Not Miss! Play the Trailer Below! 9.00pm Hippo: Nature's Wild Feast Channel 4 - The programme, anchored live from Zambia's Luangwa Valley, will show the events of the past fortnight (which have been streamed live on channel4.com) as an entire ecological system including predators, scavengers, birds and insects consumed the enormous carcass of an adult hippo. 10.15pm Bored to Death Sky Atlantic - Series 2 of the American comedy. 10.30pm Britain's Sex Gangs Channel 4 - Journalist Tazeen Ahmad investigates street grooming and hears from community leaders who say enough is enough and demand action on the issue. Mongrels BBC3 - Second series of the Adult multi-species puppet comedy about five animals who hang out in the back yard of an inner city pub - metrosexual fox Nelson; pedigree It-bitch Destiny; wannabe tomcat Marion; cynical pigeon Kali; and sociopath Vince 10.35pm Real Crime with Mark Ausin ITV - . The documentary returns, beginning with the case of John William Cooper, who murdered four people in Pembrokeshire in the 1980s. The crimes remained unsolved for more than 20 years, but Cooper was convicted in May following painstaking research and forensic analysis, which included the use of footage from his 1989 appearance on game show Bullseye. Tuesday 7.30pm The Unforgettable Norman Wisdom ITV - Friends and family pay tribute to the man who could play any instrument and sing like an angel and who performed his own - often very dangerous - stunts. Amazingly, Norman also became a hero in the Eastern Bloc countries in the 1980s. The programme features contributions from Norman's son Nick, Honor Blackman and Dame Vera Lynn. 8.00pm London: The Inside Story Five - Documentary following the various departments that make up Westminster Council, responsible for everything from royal weddings and planning for the Olympics to trading standards and pest control. 9.00pm Sorority Girls E4 - The first ever episode of Sorority Girls sees the secret world of the Sorority come to the UK. Five of America's finest Sorority Girls are here to launch Britain's first ever Sorority, in Leeds. They're looking for just five female students to become the UK's first ever fully initiated Sorority Sisters. Their quest begins with 'Rush', a day when wannabe Sorority Girls must face a series of harsh interviews from the Sorority Sisters to determine who is suitable to be provisional members of the Sorority. Fifty female British university students show up to the house, but only 20 will be invited to the exclusive evening party called 'Preference', where the girls have a final chance to sway the Sorority Sisters 10.00pm My Transexual Summer Channel 4 - 4-part series that follows seven transgender men and women as they come together to share their intimate and ongoing experiences of changing gender and provide uniquely personal insights into what it's like to change gender in Britain in 2011. Wednesday 8.00pm Millionaire Remembrance Special ITV - In a first for the long-running quiz show, active service members of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force team up with celebrities to try to win money for each of the Forces Benevolent Funds. As usual the contestants have three lifelines if they get stuck - Phone a Friend, 50-50 and Ask the Audience - which is made up of members of the armed forces past and present. 9.00pm Peter Jones: How We Made Our Millions BBC2 - The entrepreneur explores the world of high-end business, interviewing the Innocent smoothie company co-founder Richard Reed, and Michelle Mone, the woman behind the multi-million pound Ultimo lingerie brand. They discuss their successes and failures, the strategies they employ and what drove them to start their own businesses, before taking The Dragons' Den star on a tour of their companies, factories and homes. 9.00pm Grey's Anatomy Sky Living - Eighth series of the US medical drama. Thursday 9.00pm DIY SOS: The Big Build for Children in Need BBC1 - Nick Knowles and his team enlist the help of the construction trade and the local community to renovate the Norris Green youth centre in Liverpool, a building that provides activities for youngsters with few other leisure options outside school. 9.00pm Rev BBC2 - Return of the sitcom starring Tom Hollander BBC2 - The Reverend Adam Smallbone is back and life in his east London parish hasn't got any easier; his flock are just as demanding and his wife Alex has reached breaking point. So when Adam unwittingly thwarts a mugging, he's tempted to bask in the novelty of being hailed a super vicar instead of the usual clergy baiting, and enjoy Alex's renewed attraction to her hero husband. But as the lie spirals out of control, Adam draws attention from on high... 9.00pm Time Team Special Channel 4 - London's East End was once home to the most advanced shipbuilding industry - and best workers and shipyards - in the world. A hundred and fifty years ago, Isambard Kingdom Brunel was about to launch a ship five times bigger than any that had ever been built before, the most revolutionary vessel the world had ever seen: the SS Great Eastern. But the launch was a disaster. Brunel went from hero to laughing stock overnight as his leviathan stuck on the slipway. Today archaeologists are scouring the banks of the Thames to discover why launching such a big vessel proved a complete disaster. Tony Robinson joins them in their quest to solve the puzzle. 9.30pm Life's Too Short BBC2 - Highly anticipated new comedy from Ricky Gervias and Stephen Merchant. With his career on the slide, a massive tax bill caused by his useless accountant and a wife who's divorcing him, the showbiz actor has no choice but to open his doors to a film crew 24/7. Maybe living his life like an open wound will get him back on top? In this first episode, Warwick seeks advice from old pals Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, but Liam Neeson has beaten him to it. The film crew charts Warwick's every move as he tries to maintain his pride and self-respect in some very unusual situations. 10.00pm Frank Skinner's Opinionated BBC2 - The comedian returns for a new series of the topical show. For the first episode he is joined by Dave Gorman in Manchester, where the host and a studio audience debate a range of subjects. 10.00pm The Mentalist Five - Fourth series of the US crime drama. Friday 8.30pm Children in Need Mastermind Special BBC2 - Four comedians accept the challenge of the famous black chair in a special edition of Britain's toughest quiz, in aid of Children in Need. Russell Kane, Jarred Christmas, Karen Taylor and Imran Yusuf answer questions from John Humphrys on their specialist subjects and general knowledge. The subjects are Fred Dibnah, The Life and Hong Kong films of Jackie Chan, The Life and Novels of Evelyn Waugh, and the Transformers cartoons.
