httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDO2b9zUbE0

Derren Brown, the famous British hypnotist, has hit back at "hurtful" accusations that the victim in his controversial TV show Apocalypse is an actor, saying: "If they were actors we would have to quietly kill anyone who knew them."

In the programme that aired last Friday, Brown persuaded Steven Brosnan, 21, to believe that the world had ended after a meteorite shower had crashed into the earth, leaving only a few survivors infected with a zombie-like virus. He spent months setting up the programme, in which he hacked Brosnan's phone, radio and TV to emit news stories reporting the clichéd events, that would otherwise have been unbelievable.

 

Brown has said of the allegations, "it's upsetting and I shouldn't care about it. I should have thick skin. Using an actor would be stupid, pointless and lazy. I couldn't do it."