Throughout August on Sundays at 19h30, BBC Prime on DStv will screen Darren Brown: Trick of the Mind.

Derren Brown is an extraordinary award-winning psychological illusionist who possesses an audacious confidence and a rare intuition, which enables him to predict, suggest and control human behaviour.

What Derren Brown does is amazing, fascinating and occasionally terrifying, and utterly inexplicable, whether he’s reading minds, controlling people’s thoughts or giving them toothache just by looking at them. It’s explained as a mixture of hypnosis, magic and the power of suggestion.

In this Trick Of The Mind series Derren simultaneously plays chess with nine leading chess masters; manipulates an entire orchestra into ‘playing to his tune’: and amazes comedian Stephen Fry and actor Martin Kemp with his mind control powers. Derren challenges certain belief systems and our tendency not to question them. How easy is it to persuade people to believe unquestionably in an idea just because it comes from someone in a position of authority?

Darren Brown Messiah can be seen on Sundays at 22h30 on the same channel.