Outrage over TV gun stunt

Magician Derren Brown played Russian roulette on television last night despite fierce criticism that the stunt was irresponsible.

The showman held a Smith and Wesson gun to his head and pulled the trigger four times - before correctly deciding that the fifth chamber held a bullet.

The performance on Channel 4 was roundly criticised by senior police officers and campaign groups.

It came after a week in which gun crime terrorised the nation, leaving two people dead and several others injured in a series of street shootings.

The illusionist's apparent dice with death was relayed from a secret location abroad because it would have broken strict gun laws

in Britain. Channel 4 transmitted it with a short delay in case of tragedy.

Brown, 32, described as a mind control expert, was helped by a member of the public picked from 12,000 volunteers.

The man loaded the bullet into one of the gun's six chambers.

Brown then asked him to count from one to six and claimed that 'sophisticated psychological techniques' allowed him to tell from the volunteer's voice which chamber contained the bullet.

Throughout the hour-long show, both Brown and Channel 4 warned that the stunt should not be copied by anyone.

But Chief Superintendent Rick

Naylor of South Yorkshire Police, vice-president of the Police Superintendents Association, blasted the show as irresponsible.

He said: 'I'm flabbergasted. It sends entirely the wrong message, and it beggars belief that Channel 4 went ahead with this show.

'This is just a stunt. You're going to get copycat kids doing this and we're possibly going to end up with some tragedies.'

Philip Hodson, a spokesman for the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, said: 'It has made even more of a fetish of guns than we first feared.

'The gun was seen to be almost lovingly caressed and all the drama was centred on it. The subliminal-message that will be carriedto young men is that guns are glamorous, risk-taking is masculine, depression is cool and suicide is sexy.

'Throwing knives in the circus is one thing, but mimicking a public execution on live TV is potentially a freedom too far.

'Channel 4 is a public service broadcaster. In this instance I think they are doing the public a disservice.'

But the station insisted: 'It was presented in a very strict and guarded way with warnings.

'In terms of guns there are plenty of other films and dramas that glamorise it.'