Derren Brown's new 4-parter has begun airing. Called "The Experiments" it pays homage to Stanley Milgram's experiments (this year is their 50th anniversary) studying obedience to destructive orders, which have been described as "the most famous, controversial and, arguably, most important psychological research of our times." Described by Brown as a series of "ambitious sociological experiments, in which the unwitting subject is a single person, a crowd, or even an entire town," Brown says that they "are relatively dark, looking into the darker side of human behaviour..."
The first episode, "The Assassin," aired on 21 October and consisted of Brown setting out to "brainwash" a member of the public into assassinating a celebrity. He looks at the assassination of Bobby Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan, who still claims he has no memory of deliberately shooting Kennedy and that he remembers only shooting a target at a rifle range...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtKIUdGv-cM&feature=player_embeddedThe second episode in the series will contain a game show where the audience get to decide the fate of the contestants in an attempt to investigate 'deindividuation', a 'sort of mob mentality'.
In the third episode, Brown will find out if he can convince someone, through hypnotic means, to admit to a crime they didn't commit.#
The programmes are all available through the usual places online within hours of broadcast if you aren't able to watch them where you reside. Entering "Derren Brown The Experiments E01 P1" as a YouTube search is a good start...
Brown described the trailer for the series (below) as "a little stunt we filmed... It begins with me doing a very quick hypnotic induction on someone in the street who had previously applied to be on the show. Though he had no idea he was ever going to be used…"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bOMC_qVu088
