Derren Brown: Apocalypse

Derren Brown: Apocalypse is a two-part special Channel 4 television series featuring the illusionist Derren Brown. Part 1 aired on Friday 26 October 2012 and concluded on Friday 2 November 2012.^[1]

Plot

Apocalypse centred around one man named Steven Brosnan, who had been described as suffering from a 'lazy sense of entitlement'. In a trailer for the show, he said he was "lazy" and "irresponsible", while his mother said that sometimes she felt like he didn't love her anymore.

The show was an opportunity to give Steven a second chance at life and making him realise how important his life really is. The setup was that a meteor shower hitting Earth had caused the end of the world. Steven supposedly woke up two weeks after the disaster in an abandoned military hospital to find that he is one of a group of survivors now living in a zombie wasteland. He made his way through a carefully planned storyline.

Reception

The first episode, which focuses on actually convincing Steven that the world is going to end, attracted 2.93 million viewers, some of the highest Channel 4 has had over the past two years,^[2] while the second episode, focusing on Steven and the other "survivors" attempting to "survive", brought in 2.87 million. When the episodes were consolidated, they were calculated to have 4.5 million viewers each.^[3]

This show was said to have taken months of planning including hacking Steven's phone, controlling his news feeds and Twitter, recording special versions of TV and radio shows, and using over 200 actors.

Brown claimed that to keep Steven safe during Apocalypse and in the aftermath (ensuring he doesn't suffer nightmares or post-traumatic stress disorder), there will be a subtle hint embedded deep in Steven's mind that will stop him ending up in mortal fear of such an event and reassuring him, as well as having a psychologist and medical team watch him throughout the process.

References

External links