Just so you know, since you haven't watched it... The kid wasn't hypnotised into believing anything. He was hypnotised on a bus and put to bed so that he would wake up in the "apocalypse". A bit dodgy, that.
Yep, don't even have to watch it to know that's just bunk.
But I just found and watched the bit where he got "hypnotised" on the bus
I can't see how anyone who knows about such things could possibly think that's real.
You can't put someone into a "hypnotic" state (not that there is really such a thing, it's actually just conscious suggestion) instantly like that, especially during an event like that when (if you thought it was real) your adrenalin would be pumping. Simply not possible.
It's not even stage hypnosis, it's staged!
I don't need to watch any more to know it's 100% fake, the guy was in on it completely.
Derren is a stage hypnotist and magician, so he had to incorporate hypnosis into it to sell the lie to the general public. The problem with that is that using hypnosis as he did, that instantly exposes the gag for anyone how knows anything about such things.
He went too far with the quackery, and as result, blew it.
You could make something like this work, especially given the lengths they went too, but only for so long and so far before the game is up. Just like in most "hidden camera" gags. But that wouldn't have made for nearly as dramatic a TV special as this one.
Dave.