talkmagic.co.uk

The League Of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss has penned a spine-chilling drama to air on BBC4 this Christmas.

Crooked House weaves together three ghost stories, set in different eras, centred around a haunted manor.

Gatiss will also star, alongside West Wing's Julian Rhind-Tutt, Lee Ingleby (Place Of Execution), and ex-EastEnder Daniela Denby-Ashe. Illusionist Derren Brown also makes his drama debut.

Gatiss, whose other writing credits include Doctor Who, said: "Ever since I was a child and thrilled to the BBC's classic MR James adaptations, I've dreamt of sending a festive shiver down the nation's spine.

"I'm delighted to finally have the opportunity."

Adaptations of James's stories, including Lost Hearts, became a tradition on the BBC during the '70s.

Crooked House begins with a school teacher unearthing a door knocker in the garden of his new home.

A museum curator, played by Gatiss, suggests it belongs to a demolished house which was believed to have been haunted.

He goes on tell the teacher three tales involving ghostly apparitions. BBC4 revived the MR James Christmas ghost story tradition in 2006.

16.11.08
Secrets of Street Magicians Finally Revealed (Rpt)
7pm + 11.55pm on Sunday 16th November (1 hour) on Zone Reality.

17.11.08
Convention Crasher (Rpt)
1.50am on Tuesday 18th November (1 hour) on E4.
Justin Lee Collins has just four weeks to transform himself into a master illusionist good enough to compete against the professionals in the magic convention's "Battle of the Magicians" competition. Can Justin pull off Houdini's classic trick "Metamorphosis" in front of an audience of professional magicians, or will he be left wishing he had just done a vanishing act instead?

17.11.08
Britain's Worst Performer
10pm on Monday 17th November (1 hour) on Living 2.
Quentin Willson presents the show that brings together the worst people. This edition features Britain's worst performers, including a pub singer, an Elvis impersonator, a comedian, a magician and a James Bond lookalike.one.

17.11.08 and 18.11.08
Derren Brown - Something Wicked This Way Comes (Rpt)
11.10pm on Monday 17th November and 2.50am on Tuesday 18th November on E4.
A specially televised version of Derren Brown's award-winning live show, fusing magic, suggestion and psychology. Filmed in front of a packed audience at the Old Vic in London.

18.11.08
Magic Party (Rpt)
10pm on Tuesday 18th November (30 minutes) on BBC 2 Northern Ireland "Series in which one lucky boy or girl gets to throw the ultimate party. Top London magician Dynamo performs some incredible illusions at a party hosted by model Jude Nabney, who is celebrating being the face of Belfast Fashion week, and DJ Joe Lindsay creates a personalised playlist."

21.11.08
Derren Brown: The System (Rpt)
2.50am on Tuesday 18th November (1 hour 30 minutes) on E4.
Derren Brown has a system for winning at the horses. In this one-hour special, the master of mind control anonymously tells a single mum from London which horse will win at the next day's races - again and again - culminating in a final, massive bet. Investigating the psychology behind gambling and using his unique combination of skills to create guaranteed wins, Derren proves his system works every time. Not only that, but he explains it fully to us at home. But how fool-proof is this system and will his participant, believing in him and his predictions, risk her life-savings on one more race? As Derren reveals: "I took a member of the public and I told her which horse would win in a certain race; when it did win she was intrigued and I did it again and again and she started to bet more and more money according to my system. She's scraped together every last penny she could find and she is risking it all on one final race. Is it really possible to predict every time which horse will win? Welcome to The System."

19.12.08
Derren Brown: Trick or Treat (Rpt)
1.20am on Friday 19th December (30 minutes) on E4.
3.50am on Friday 19th December (25 minutes) on E4.

Trick or Treat sees Derren Brown at his most devilish, having persuaded members of the public to sign a Faustian pact with him and participate in a macabre game of Trick or Treat.

21.12.08
Derren Brown: Trick or Treat (Rpt)
0.05am on Sunday 21st December (30 minutes) on E4.

22.12.08
Derren Brown: Trick or Treat (Rpt)
1am on Monday 22nd December (30 minutes) on E4.

23.12.08
Derren Brown: Trick or Treat (Rpt)
3.10am on Tuesday 23rd December (25 minutes) on E4.
3.35am on Tuesday 23rd December (25 minutes) on E4.

24.12.08
Crooked House
10.30pm on Wednesday 24th December (30 minutes) on BBC 4.
With Derren Brown as Sir Roger Widdowson
The Knocker. "When schoolteacher Ben unearths an old door knocker in the garden of his new home, the curator suggests it may come from the now-demolished house, reputed to be haunted. Ben prompts the curator to tell him two stories about the house's past. Back in the present day commitment-shy Ben, having left his girlfriend Hannah for a life of excitement over domesticity, is excited by the curator's stories and screws the ancient door knocker to his door. But the shadow of Geap Manor is a long one. Starring: Mark Gatiss, Lee Ingleby, Derren Brown, Daniela Denby-Ashe" Derren Brown says of his guest appearance in Crooked House: "Mark Gatiss is a friend and I've always been a huge fan of his work. He offered me a suitably small role in a really fun project, and I was both honoured and nervous. I really don't do very much in it and I'm desperately hoping what little I do contribute isn't going to be too excruciating when set against proper actors with actual talent. I doubt very much that this is the start of an acting career, just a fun and flattering opportunity to have taken part in a very well-written and beautifully filmed piece."

26.12.08
Derren Brown: Trick or Treat (Rpt)
3.40am on Friday 26th December (25 minutes) on E4.
4.05am on Friday 26th December (25 minutes) on E4.

Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed
8pm on Monday 5th January on ITV4.
2pm + 6pm on Tuesday 6h January on ITV4.
In this all-new show the Masked Magician returns to television to reveal the secrets that lay behind tricks that have astonished audiences for centuries.

The Grinning Man

Writer/director David Renwick has some fun with hoary old haunted-house and horror-story conventions in the first new Jonathan Creek mystery since 2004. Alan Davies returns as the scruffy, intuitive illusion designer and amateur detective, this time with a new sidekick: plucky psychic investigator Joey (Sheridan Smith). It's a rambling, knockabout yarn involving a creaky old country mansion with a sinister attic that's claimed the life of anyone who's dared to spend a night alone there. When Joey's friend vanishes after the pair seek refuge in the house - the residents of which just happen to be stage illusionists - she and Creek are on the case. None of it bears close inspection, but the tricks are jolly and the two leads are a good team. I could, however, have done without the leaden subplot involving Creek's "master", seedy magician Adam Klaus, and his plan to make his fortune in "3-D porn".