5th October 2003
Derren Brown plays Russian roulette on live TV
When Derren Brown promised to play Russian roulette on live TV, three million viewers tuned in to Channel 4 to see whether he would survive. The premise was simple: a member of the public loaded a single bullet into a revolver and handed it to Brown, who would aim it at his head and pull the trigger several times, only firing into a sandbag when he believed that the live chamber was in place.
As the Irish Independent explained on the day after the broadcast, “a member of the public was picked to load the gun with a single bullet – Brown trusted his mental powers to alert him to the live chamber and the act was shown on Channel 4 with a short time delay so the screen could be blanked if it went horribly wrong. It didn’t. Bad news for the raitings.”
Jersey is finally revealed
The stunt took place at a secret location, later revealed to have been a farmhouse in Grouville, and Brown apparently succeeded, safely pulling the trigger twice without incident, firing once into the sandbag, again at his head and then, finally, at the sandbag, which split and started to lose its contents.
However, the stunt was later reported not to have been all that it seemed. On 8 October, the Irish Independent reported, “on the Channel Island of Jersey, where the show was made, Deputy Chief Officer Lenny Harper of the States of Jersey police said Channel 4 informed his department of the stunt in advance and used a prop gun that did not contain any real bullets.”
The previous day, The Guardian had run a similar story, quoting a Jersey police spokesperson saying, “there is absolutely no way that the States of Jersey police would allow anybody to put themselves at risk and shoot themselves dead. This programme was made by a TV company very experienced in pyrotechnics, in making smoke and bullet holes appear. It was no different to film which uses special effects.”
Nonetheless, the tension-filled show later featured in several retrospectives looking at the most memorable moments in television history.
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Other events that occured in October
Entrepreneur Charles Robin is born
- Jersey born Charles Robin was a wealthy man by the age of 20 when he already had a shipping business dealing in cargo and fresh fish.
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Aristocrat John Hervey is arrested in Jersey
- John Hervey was arrested after being stopped by customs officials on his way into Jersey.
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De La Salle College opens
- The Roman Catholic De La Salle College opened its doors to its first pupils at the start of autumn term, 1917, with a roll of just twelve.
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Footballer Greame Le Saux is born
- Jersey-born Le Saux’s first professional signing was for London club Chelsea, for whom he played his first match aged 21. He stayed for four seasons, during which he made 90 appearances, scoring eight league goals.
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