[Studio25]

I remember seeing Derren Brown live in Colne - part of his act was to show how spiritualists and mediums are a con, and anyone receptive to suitable signs can steer a conversation to make it sound like they are talking to departed loved ones. He was quite insistent that everything that was about to happen was simply manipulation and trickery - there were no spirits in the room that were speaking to him.

He got a random (allegedly) audience member to come up and start talking about someone, she described the name of the person, his appearance, university and lifestyle and correctly identified the timing and manner of his death.

When she sat down he told the audience he was a good friend of that person at university and explained why he'd been keener than usual to assert that it's all cr*p - his friend's parents were in the audience and had given him permission to incorporate it in his act. They confirmed that everything the girl had said about their son was right.