Copycats

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding a stunt pulled by Derren Brown that involved him playing Russian Roulette 'live' (i.e. with a bit of delay, just in case) on national TV. This one-off show had around 3-4 million viewers. A lot of people got quite excited about the whole thing and complained that it was entirely irresponsible to show this sort of depravity on national television.

Meanwhile, on another channel, a popular UK soap had an entire storyline revolving around a woman plotting to kill her yob-like ex-boyfriend/shag/husband/lover/whatever. One episode featured the distraught woman loading a gun in her living room while shaking with fear/guilt/anger/bitterness/resentment/whatever. There were also two other people in the room, one of whom was her young child. As if this wasn't enough, a box of live rounds was left lying around within easy reach of aforementioned brat. This show gets around 18 or so million viewers four times a week.

Derren Brown is a very talented illusionist and performs 'illusions'. A soap is a 'real life drama' that creates an on-screen reality that is watched, followed and discussed religiously by many.

It appears we should be concerned about the guy that says it's all a trick rather than a soap that that purports to reflect everyday life and advocates gun-toting in front of toddlers.