It may disappoint or reassure the reader to know that Derren Brown is disarmingly relaxed, self-deprecating and very, very nice. I met Derren, dubbed by The Guardian 'the scariest man in Britain', in his dressing room backstage at Warwick Arts Centre. He was sipping a cup of honey and lemon tea. "My throat hurts" he explained, feeling the effects on his vocal chords of his current theatre tour. I was immediately set at ease. How can you be scared of a guy that drinks honey and lemon tea?

You may be forgiven for not knowing who Derren Brown is, but you are missing out. He began his television work on Channel 4 with a series called Mind Control, which was followed by a further two series. He is the man who professed to play a game of Russian roulette live on television, exposed the flaws of various cults and religions in his documentary Messiah and most recently persuaded three middle aged business people to rob a security van in The Heist. He is currently viewable on Sunday nights in Trick of the Mind, and touring British theatres with Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Derren combines psychology and magic; manipulating his subjects and audiences with suggestion, misdirection and trickery. The mixture has granted him a niche as one of Britain's most exciting and fascinating performers. Opinions of him differ, from cynics that dismiss all his work to be staged visual tricks, to others that worship him like a messiah. There is no excuse for either view as Derren explains how many of his techniques work and demonstrates them both on television and in his live show. He is also open about the fact that he will sometimes deceive his audience in the name of dramatic showmanship.

Yet the unassuming subject of such speculation constantly plays down his status as both a celebrity and a man with exceptional powers. He is quick to assert, "I never really feel that famous. I'm on Channel 4 with about three million viewers so I don't go out and think that people are going to know who I am. If it were a BBC show with ten million people watching then it would be different. I've been out for dinner with Jonathan Ross and he knows that when he walks into a room everyone knows him, so he can be on form and shake hands with people and be funny. That's great, but if I started doing that then I'd look ridiculous because if people didn't know who I was then I'd just come across as this horrendous, arrogant prick".

Far from appearing arrogant, Derren comes across as charmingly likeable. He is clearly confident, articulate and highly intelligent but this does not obstruct his ability to communicate on a very simple and empathic level. He is mindful of people's expectations of him and fears disappointing people. "You learn to be nice all the time and constantly pleasant because if you don't, like if you're a bit bored and irritable one day with a shop assistant or a taxi driver then that's their story for the rest of their life - that they met you and that you were horrible. I know I shouldn't care about it but I just can't let that go, it's a horrible thought. So it's really good to learn to be nice all the time. I'm quite quiet and often I'll buy stuff in a shop and not be thinking for a moment that anyone is thinking 'that's the bloke off TV' and at the end of it someone will say that they're looking forward to my next show and I'm always really embarrassed that I wasn't making an effort and didn't say anything. That's bad".

Derren admits that he is sometimes frustrated with his work. "It takes up every day of the week and there is so much new material involved for each series. I'm happy doing my Channel 4 contract but there are things I'd like to look into a bit more and investigate which will maybe involve more documentary style stuff rather than having to come up with loads of tricks. There is a feeling of wanting to do something more substantial. You have to balance doing what you personally find satisfying with what is going to be commercial. There is a tendency with magicians and performers of not moving on and always sticking with the same sort of thing".

Concerned not to fall into the trap of becoming predictable and stale, Derren takes pride in The Heist, his most recent television special. "That was different. With most of the things I've done I've had quite a lot of back-ups and tricks involved, like in the séance for example, or with Russian roulette. The Heist is the first thing I've done to be utterly straightforward with no fooling of the viewer. There were some tricks done to the guys involved to convince them that they were learning real skills and also because we felt that viewers would expect that. However, when trimming down two weeks worth of material for the show, it turned out that the tricks didn't really fit in anywhere. Everything was transparent to the viewer every step of the way and nothing was hidden. For me that was more interesting and really exciting".

After putting people through ordeals such as The Heist where he coerced them into breaking the law, Derren finds himself keeping in touch with some of his subjects. "It's difficult not to, especially when you put people through quite harrowing stuff. If you get on with them then I tend to see them again. I saw the guy that loaded the bullet in Russian roulette the other night. But that's also quite weird. I went to see Team America with him not long after the show had gone out and we got recognised. People started going 'Oh, you two know each other' and I'm trying to say that we have become friends but after the event. It's sort of difficult. And you see people that don't say anything but go 'ahhh' with a look of recognition. Do I go over and explain that we now know each other but didn't before? In the end you just have to leave it".

With Derren's powers, social interactions must prove problematic. Surely he can tell if someone is lying whilst talking to him? Does he struggle to switch that part of his mind off? "No, it's more about switching it on. Again if I wasn't doing it all the time I might be more inclined to play with it or play up to it more. I give the exaggerated appearance that I can just do it all the time on anybody. It isn't like that. Telling when people are lying, for example, is actually quite a complex tricky thing. It works for some people and on some people it doesn't work at all. On TV I have the luxury to pick people who I think it will work well with. Theatre can be more difficult as I have to try it with people chosen at random. It's kind of a game that I get the other person playing as well. They are deciding to enter into it."

Despite downplaying his abilities, Derren acknowledges that it is likely to affect how he interacts with people. "It probably does make me more perceptive or influential but I don't play up to it. If I'm talking to someone who is in trouble or is stuck in some kind of unhelpful state then I can probably be more helpful than the next person. The only times that I at all start thinking differently is if I am at a party and talking to someone who is just really boring. If I have no interest in what they're saying then I start paying attention to how they're saying it rather than what they're saying".

Derren has always been obsessive about discovering how things work. As a child he would take his toys apart to investigate how they functioned, and such a curiosity seems to drive most of his work. A rationalist by nature, Derren explains, "I've probably got the same love for psychic powers and the paranormal that spiritualists and psychics have. It's the same love of that romantic idea of those things being real. But I'm naturally quite analytical. I find it more interesting to look at the psychology behind things and the real processes than just to say 'this is psychic, this is paranormal'".

In programmes such as The Messiah, and in his current stage show, Derren cautions people against placing too much faith in psychic ability. Yet he does not want to pitch himself "as some sort of big anti-psychic debunker. I think that's normally quite a negative and witless route to go down". He recognises that the psychic industry has two sides to it. "You've got people who are honest and well-meaning about it, certainly the people that go to psychic training schools and things like that. Though I'm sure they're being misled I think those people themselves are perfectly well-meaning but end up learning to talk intuitively and vaguely and think they're learning something they're not. That's been there for a long time. That's different from people who are just out and out fraudsters. There is a whole underground literature devoted to the techniques which is quite clearly teaching you fake skills, and they do it straight out of the book. No one really knows about it because you can't buy these books in Waterstones. There is a definite divide between people that tend to be well known who are just frauds and people at the other end, like the Grandma who always felt she was a psychic, which is just sort of woolly thinking. It's difficult to have a go at those people because it's not their fault. Everyone can believe what they want of course but I think that there is a moral issue with the other end because it can get a bit ugly".

Lots of people share stories with Derren about their experiences with psychics and mediums. "People always ask me how I can explain psychic accuracy because they are the stories that people remember. What you don't know are all the other things the psychic said that didn't hit. One reason that people choose to believe it is that if you did see it as a lie, it's such an ugly lie that it's easier to imagine that no one could really be that morally bankrupt to want to do it".

On and off the stage, in front or behind the camera, Derren has a habit of nodding whilst speaking. I wanted to know if this was all part of his technique or a facial mannerism. Funnily enough it's a bit of both. "It did start off as a way of getting people to agree with me. If you get people nodding then they tend to. It has since turned into a thing that I don't mind because I think any hints of weirdness add to it. It's sort of ended up crossing into a habitual tick. Sometimes I do play up to it whilst performing, sometimes I use it very specifically, and when I'm self conscious then I find myself doing it anyway. It's one of those weird things".

Rejoicing in weird things is typical of Derren's character. He buys taxidermy on EBay late at night before he is ready to go to bed. I enquire whether his fascination stems from his desire to dissect things. "Oh, I don't take them apart, that would be weird", he laughs. "It's a mixture of a genuine interest in natural history, loving animals, without sounding silly, and also an interest in that sort of Victorian macabre as well. They're beautiful to look at, they're not manky or creepy things. I think people find taxidermy a bit grotesque but it isn't. I've got a baby giraffe in my hallway and it's amazing. The Victorian period was an age of display, with the colonies, and it was about going abroad and bringing things back so we could all marvel at these exotic people. It's all really un-politically correct now and there was a lot of horrible stuff that came with it of course, but there is still a kind of boldness and pride in that era. I'm attracted to exotic or odd things. That interest goes right back to when I was a student".

Derren studied law at Bristol University and feels "the legal training definitely helped with the sort of detached, analytical mindset. A lot of the time it is about trying to look at processes rather than content and you need to step back sometimes and see how someone is doing something rather than getting caught up in what they're doing. You need to look at the things that people give away that they are not aware of". Aside from the degree itself, Derren says that the best thing about his student days was that it gave him time to look at things and learn techniques. "I could practise and test ideas and not be pressured into having to work. There were lots of students around that were up for being guinea pigs for me".

One would think that Derren's skills would enable him to be a highly successful, albeit manipulative, lawyer. In response to such a suggestion, he is characteristically dismissive. "Again, my ability looks more than it is because it's a performance. I'm playing up to it. I'll give myself permission to be a bit sly sometimes if I think it adds to it. I say at the beginning of each show that it is a mixture of magic, psychology and misdirection".

So what about Derren's personal life? Many report feeling strangely attracted to the balding 35 year old, with his twinkling eyes, sly grin and odd quirks. Females everywhere should celebrate the news that this intriguing and intelligent man is also a highly eligible bachelor. "Yes, I'm single". I give a delighted pause. "Well, sort-of-ish". An unfortunate amendment. "I just keep the whole personal thing completely separate. I think anyone will find similar problems if they are known for doing a certain thing. If you're an impressionist then people will always ask you to do impressions and that is exhausting. If a person can't put that to one side then you're never going to have a normal relationship with them. I often get asked if I use my techniques on women. I don't want to have to play up to that persona. It isn't the basis for any kind of normal relationship".¹

Derren apologises that his time is running short. He has to start his vocal warm ups, which, he discloses with a knowing smile, sound like "weird meditative humming". He is all too aware of how the public at large perceive him. Derren could so easily hide behind his television persona and the safety of the editing suite, yet he bravely steps on to the stage to be tested. In the face of direct judgement, success or failure, he has the strength of character to take public risks with random audience members. The current theatre tour also allows him to perform stunts that he is not insured for on television.