Never a man tortured by self-doubt, Derren Brown introduced his latest special Pushed to the Edge (Channel 4, Tuesday) as a fascinating psychological experiment about the dangers of ‘social compliance’ — our willingness to do what authority figures ask, however morally dubious. In fact, much of what followed was a weird, and itself rather morally dubious, mix of Candid Camera, Fawlty Towers and something pretty close to entrapment. But from time to time, it also proved, annoyingly enough, a fascinating psychological experiment about the dangers of social compliance.
The central aim was fairly straightforward: to see if a member of the public could be persuaded to shove a stranger off a high roof. The set-up, though, was anything but — involving, among other things, 70 actors, two Hollywood special-effects artists and the creation of a fictional charity. And all the time, Brown directed events with a sadistic glee that he tried hard to disguise as a high-minded concern with human weakness.
For all his omniscience, one mystery that Brown never attempted to solve was why anybody would want to appear in his shows. Yet when he advertised for volunteers here, thousands of people replied — without knowing what they were volunteering for. Having cunningly tested their compliance levels, Brown secretly chose four who fitted the bill nicely, but told everybody they’d been rejected.
Then, back in his everyday life as a designer, Chris Kingston was approached by Tom, the director of a new children’s charity called Push (geddit?), and asked if he could provide a suitable app. Once he’d agreed, Chris was invited to the grand Push launch, which is where, as the only non-actor present, his troubles — or, more accurately, his hideous soul-scarring nightmare — began.
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