TheUnholyArmpit

What a breath of fresh air from Channel 4.

Not only does this show break up the 24 hour Friends-a-thon that Channel 4 has become over the past few years, but we see a magician (if thats the right word) who doesn't just meerly perform tricks, but leaves you with an unforgettable experience. No showy assistants, very few props, but a bucket of skill.

The shows are literally jaw dropping, and diverse. He can go from whispering someone to sleep in a few seconds via a phone, to stopping a wallet stuffed with money being picked up in a busy London street, to showing strangers how to read minds effortlessly. All this is done with a genuine smile, not a smug scowl like David Blane, or David Copperfield's fixed Californian grin.

Now we are also seeing that Derren is trying to disprove certain...... beliefs. This also is done with a certain persuasive, subtle style that Penn and Teller could only dream of in their Bull.... programme.

I also have to say that if you have the chance, go and see him live. He is the most genuine and down to earth bloke i have met since Michael Berrymore ( i know a lot of people wont like that last bit, but it still is true). Derren seems to have an easy going way with people, it might be because of his act, his real personality, or a mixture of both.

If you get the chance, watch him. You will be hooked.

Imagine the previous die hard(s), but with a wrinklier Bruce Willis, and just enough "plot" differences to seperate it from the other die hard movies. Thats what you get. Watch a Jackie Chan movie instead, and see how action is done. Properly.

The premise of this show is simple. Get a presenter, a "psychic", a paranormal investigator, and some other people and lock them in a haunted location for 24 hours, and see what happens.

And what happens? Nothing much.

We get a few minutes of scene setting, walking round the house/nightclub/pub/hotel telling the ghost stories.

Then (and this is the part that really gets my back up) the "psychic" walks around spouting these "revelations". Now, i truly do believe there is something to ghost stories, people DO see something that they should be able to see. But the "psychic" on this show really doesn't do anyone any favours. There has been more than a few times he has been massivly out, there are times he has been quite accurate, but its nothing a few mins on the internet wouldn't reveal. I`d also like to add that his acting is way below par. Worse than soap acting, if you can believe it.

After the audience has been keyed up, its upto the production crew to tour the location with light vision cameras. This is the most interesting part. You get to see first hand how people react to in these situations. Some have screamed when a neon light on a boiler came on. Others have kept a level head in more convincing situations.

Its interesting that the only "true" paranormal activity has been a cross moving on a piece of paper, and a bed s-l-o-w-l-y moving. Oddly enough on both these occasions not all of the object is in clear view, allowing someone to be manipulating them off the frame.

I'll not even bother to mention the deplorable "live" editions.

This show could have been so much better. It could be vastly improved by getting rid of the "psychic", and the scream-at-anything women.