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I was pretty upset when I read this. I hope the complaints are ignored and the investigation shows nothing was untoward

British telly has been through enough problems with program fakery, what we don't need is yet another "Derren faked it" scandal


(I normally don't say things like this, but Eshly if you're reading, don't bother posting if all you're doing to say is "I told you it was fake")

It will consider whether the scene "condones or glamorises violent, dangerous or seriously antisocial behaviour and is likely to encourage others to copy such behaviour" or breaches "generally accepted standards" in broadcasting.

Because someone who attempts this after seeing this isn't already in need of help. Why is this any different from a murder scene in a drama? Because it's supposed to be real? Ofcom need to get real and allow programs that make you think rather than the traditional c**p we get on our screens. I hope DB sues them!

Pathetic but perhaps predictable. If DB had staged that stunt with Z list celebs in a jungle where viewers paid arms and legs type phone call costs to affect the outcome nobody would have moaned! Far too easy for a very small minority to rock the boat like that - do they have no brains and are thus unable to work out that it all had to be very safe indeed? No? Thought not....

Mandrake wrote:Pathetic but perhaps predictable. If DB had staged that stunt with Z list celebs in a jungle where viewers paid arms and legs type phone call costs to affect the outcome nobody would have moaned! Far too easy for a very small minority to rock the boat like that - do they have no brains and are thus unable to work out that it all had to be very safe indeed? No? Thought not....

11 out of say 2,000,000 people is 0.00055%, shame they have a voice against things in such small numbers.
Still... shows OFCOM have nothing better to do... in which case, maybe they should take a hint...

Howcome Lance Burton can chain himself to a rollercoaster but this is deemed not suitable. Of course there were no "obvious" safety controls, if there were it wouldn't be at all dramatic. Of curse there were no ckear rationales for why stunts are performed, if there were they wouldn't be stunts, they would be normal.

Arkesus wrote:Howcome Lance Burton can chain himself to a rollercoaster but this is deemed not suitable. Of course there were no "obvious" safety controls, if there were it wouldn't be at all dramatic. Of curse there were no ckear rationales for why stunts are performed, if there were they wouldn't be stunts, they would be normal.

Most likely because it was Lance Burton's choice. Matt was 'tricked*' However wasn't it later announced that that was a camera trick after claims like this?

Ha, OFCOM probably wanted a brick wall between them for safety reasons and the train to be travelling at a hurtling 1mph. It's called tension for crying out loud!!!

*I say tricked very, very loosely, if your lying down on a train track, in a straightjacket with a magician, I'm pretty sure you know whats coming

Sues them? I suspect he'll be aiming to milk it for all the publicity it's worth.

Seriously, this isn't bad at all, OFCOM investigate all manner of things and even if they DO consider "standards of broadcasting" to have been breached, it will fall on 4's shoulders, not DB's.

Compare this to the outcry over Russian Roulette and it barely registers on the controversy scale. And the fuss over RR did DB no harm whatsoever.

Storm in a teacup.

Russian Roulette received 59 complaints, 40 of which were BEFORE the show aired. Oddly enough Saonce got over 700 (most of which were before it aired).

Big Derren nerd here. :p

And yeh ofcourse he faked it for safety reasons, I thought that was obvious. I thought it was so obvious I wasn't sure if the audiance was MEANT to know it was faked? Were they? Did Derren actually want to convince people he had a train coming?

Eshly wrote:Big Derren nerd here. :p

No!!!??

But I agree, I think most people would've realised it was quite put on, perhaps the complainers might've benefited from a little voiced over disclaimer.

I did try to get the thread back on track... (albeit via a very weak pun!)

Let's just agree that the fact the 11 complaints can kick off an investigation does seem to be very weak, doesn't it.....?

I think Derren thrives on the controversial. He'll be sat on his throne made from Channel 4 contract payment & be rubbing his hands that people are again talking about his programme. To be honest I didn't like it, not because of the train thing but because he seems to be (in his recorded stunts) moving away from any kind of magic/mentalism & instead see's himself as some kind of Jeremy Kyle figure.

Can't fault his live shows though, still cracking. I know people have to move on & he probably doesn't want to do more Trick Of The Mind stuff but he seems to be a graduate of the David Blaine school of publicity nowadays.

I doubt its a REAL investigation. The most complaints ever got (I think) was Jerry Springer: The Opera, which got over 53,000 complaints!



"What the f***, what the f***, what the f****** f******* f***!?"
- This line was put on the 10pm news, very contraversial.

OfCom investigations are genuine. There's the perception that they're not because they generally come down on the side of the broadcaster, but they plainly don't always do that, as a quick jaunt through their six-monthly roundups will show.

As for Jerry Springer: The Opera they found in favour of the broadcaster mainly because there was sufficient warning ahead of, and throughout, the broadcast. The only people offended by it were people wilfully watching in order to be offended.

The people who complain about this sort of stuff are just plain silly. Unfortunately silly people to often get listened to and we know what happens then.

Children are stopped from playing conkers in the playground, have sparklers taken from them at firework displays and are forced to wear crash helmets on seaside donkey rides.