On Saturday evening Channel 4 aired “Derren Brown: The Gathering”. If you like Derren this was a must-see. Derren basically filled a theatre with a mixture of celeb’s, students and cabbies and performed what (in my mind) he does best - his live show. This was all very familiar to me as the show was a partial reworking of his 2003 live tour that Paula and I saw at Shaftsbury Avenue in September of that year. The show had been trimmed to fit into a TV special at 1 hour and 10 mins, and it was excellent. The show was at the usual break-neck speed that we expect in Derren’s live shows and it culminated in the sort of suprise ending he does so well. This special is Derren at his best; I never think the TV series ever quite live up to the live shows and this gave you a taster as to what an experience it is. If you liked what you saw, the current “Something Wicked This Way Comes” tour is still running across the UK. Blag, eBay or steal some tickets and go and see. You will be amazed.

Ofcom have just published a single rulebook combining all the existing broadcasting regulations. To this they’ve added rules “forbidding broadcasters from showing paranormal stunts before the 9pm watershed, or at a time when children may be likely to tune in”. According to The Times this means “entertainers who specialise in mind reading and magic like Derren Brown are also likely to be affected”, and presumably Derek Acorah types too. I must say I’m slightly baffled by this, what corruption of children’s minds are they expecting from a magician ‘reading your mind’ and telling you the card you picked from his carefully manipulated deck? Does this mean no more ‘Geoffrey Durham’ on Countdown? If this regulation had applied in the 70s and 80s would it have kept Paul Daniels and Uri Geller from our screens? Ahhh… I’m beginning to see their point.