I love a good bit of Derren Brown. I think he’s a very clever magician and performer and if I ever see a new special or TV show by him I immediately have to watch it. This was no exception with Miracle.

Miracle’s main premise is about faith healing and how anyone can be a faith healer you just have to know what you’re doing. It’s mainly about chemicals in your brain and how when you think you’re being healed really you are(!), for a moment anyway, and then that healing passes. It’s the release and rush of dopamine that makes you feel better. And it works, I watched this special and joined in as much as I could, when he gave the faith healing service I had a bad ankle and when I moved it about when he was done it didn’t hurt anymore. It was quite interesting to be honest and does make you realise how and why these faith healers make so much money.

They pray on the needy and sick, the ones who are down on their luck and need someone to be there for them. And that’s where Jesus comes in, and faith healers of course, and how they can make hundreds of thousands of pounds by tricking these poor people. It may last a little while but once the show ended my ankle was back to hurting once more.

But that wasn’t my favourite part of this show. The whole point of each part was to show that, yes there’s magic and awesomeness, but also that we are all a miracle. Where we are right now in the world, in our lives is a miracle.

There’s one point where he asks a man to carry a suitcase full of bricks which of course the man cannot do. Then Derren calls upon ‘God’ to give this man the power to lift the suitcase, and he does, and Derren says calling back to this moment that everyone is carrying their own heavy-weight with them every day. And maybe if we felt more power within ourselves, believed in ourselves more, the weight would become lighter and we would become happier for it.

He talks of how the world can be an awful place and maybe if we were just nicer to one another, and kinder, things would get better. He talks about how we all have a choice in ourselves and we should choose to be happy and look for the good because there is good everywhere. And, ultimately we should believe in ourselves. Because while we may think we’re a bit fat, or unhealthy, or whatever, really we’re who we are. And we’ve been through so much to become who we are. Not just in our lives but in all the generations before us. Because of them we are here. And we should be thankful for that and think ‘wow that’s amazing’ because it is!

This show is absolutely perfect to watch when you need a pick me up. When you’re having a down day or feel a bit awful. Even listening to his monologue about miracles can put so much into perspective and make things seem ok. Even for just a little bit.

This may be one of my favourite specials he has ever done because it has a lot more meaning to it then just sticking a needle through your nose or guessing random numbers from the audience. You go away from it with a different outlook, a different feeling, and that can mean so much.

I highly recommend it.

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding