Killer Magic
Host
Narrator: Matt Edmondson
Broadcast
Objective Productions Scotland for BBC Three, 1 April 2014 to 28 April 2015 (pilot + 6 episodes in 1 series)
Synopsis
Competitive magic where the loser might get seriously hurt.
Five young magicians are given a theme for their tricks. One by one, the magicians will make their performance, and be judged by their peers. The performer with the lowest total will perform a forfeit, taking part in a trick that has resulted in serious injury or death.
Much of the programme is similar to Come Dine with Me - the performers get a few minutes to show their abilities, to hide a card in the body of a fish, or to boil an egg while it's in one's underwear. Then they're judged by other performers, and the whole event is subject to a sarcastic voiceover (BBC3 regular Matt Edmondson).
Ooh, I could eat a plate.The pilot, which aired on April Fools' Day, featured five magicians, and we felt that it moved so quickly as to be superficial. The finale had a strange sense of anticlimax: if someone had been killed, or badly hurt, would we really be seeing it on telly?
Inventor
Anthony Owen, who is also the executive producer