CHANNEL 4 star Derren Brown revealed his 'tip' for winning the lottery, including the mistake to avoid when picking your numbers.
The illusionist and showman, 53, from Croydon, South London, became a household name in the UK for his TV and stage shows featuring magic tricks and mind games often designed to expose methods used by so-called faith healers and mediums.
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In a video posted on Joe.co.uk's TikTok in October last year, Brown revealed his top tips when playing the lottery.
"The only real tip for playing the lottery is to play numbers that other people are less likely to play," he said.
"And given that most people play their birth date, you don't get many numbers over 31... or 12 because people are using months and days.
"So go for the higher numbers, less people are going to play them. So you don't have to share.
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"But that's it, other than that just do it how I did it which was genuine psychic ability."
The interviewer asked him to name the number he was thinking of, to which Brown correctly said seven.
He explained: "It very often is seven, or three."
PREDICTING LOTTERY NUMBERS
In 2009 he began a series of shows under the umbrella title 'The Event', with the first called 'How to Win the Lottery'.
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It was broadcast live on September 9, with Brown appearing to predict that night's lottery draw.
This was conducted by a set of white balls lined up, facing a wall next to a TV showing a live feed from BBC One as the draw aired.
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Afterwards, Brown wrote the results on a piece of card prior to turning round the balls, which were then revealed to both be the same.
The winning numbers were: 2, 11, 23, 28, 35 and 39.
The bonus was number 15, however, his predictions did not include the bonus ball.
Two days later, a second show aired describing three possibilities for predicting the winning lottery numbers.
The first was faking a winning ticket, which was dismissed.
The second was the use of automatic writing and crowd psychology to appear to predict the numbers ahead of time.
The illusionist suggested he might have achieved the feat using 'Wisdom of Crowds'.
This is a phenomenon referring to the idea that large groups of people are collectively smarter than individual experts, and was popularised by writer James Surowiecki.
UK's biggest lottery winners
By Ethan Singh
- Anonymous winner - £195,707,000
A UK ticket-holder scooped the record EuroMillions jackpot of £195 million on July 19 2022 – the biggest National Lottery win of all time.
The holder, who remains anonymous to this day, amassed the fortune with just one lucky ticket.
- Joe and Jess Thwaite - £184,262,899.10
Britain's previous EuroMillions record holders wereJoe and Jess Thwaite.
The couple won a record-breaking £184million jackpot in May 2022 and shared hopes of a Hawaiian holiday and a new horse box for their children's ponies.
Joe bought his winning ticket online on May 10, 2022, and the following morning received an email with good news.
As he learnt of the huge win, he was in disbelief and initially kept it for himself as he did not want to disturb his wife, who was sleeping.
Joe, a communications sales engineer, and Jess, who runs a hairdressing salon with her sister, have been married for 11 years and have two children.
- Colin and Chris Weir, £161,653,000
Colinand Christine Weir landed the colossal prize money in 2011 and were Europe’s second-biggest winners until someone inItalywon a jackpot worth £193m in 2019.
They splashed the cash at an astounding rate of £100,000 a week before tragedy struck.
But at the time ofColin’s deathin December 2019 his share of the prize money haddwindled by around £40m.
He spent the millions living a life of luxury, forking out for sports cars, property and the football club he supported.
Colin and Christine divorcedshortly before his death after being married for 38 years.
He left money for their children Carly and Jamie.
- Adrian and Gillian Brayford - £148,600,000
Adrian and Gillian won 190 million euros in a EuroMillions draw in August 2012, which came to just over £148 million.
But Adrian split from Gillian the following year because of the stress of the win.
The couple bought a Grade II listed estate in Cambridgeshire, complete with cinema and billiards room, but it was sold in 2021.
After divorcing in 2013, he failed to woo ex-sausage factory worker Marta Jarosz — but fell for stable girl Sam Burbidge.
She left him in 2017, taking 30 prize horses Adrian bought.
It might have worked out in the end for Adrian though as the former postman was seen smiling with ambulance worker Tracey Biles last year.
- Frances and Patrick Connolly - £114,969,775
Former social worker and teacher Frances set up two charitable foundations after she and her husband hit the jackpot.
They scooped almost £115 million on New Year’s Day 2019.
She estimates that she has already given away £60 million to charitable causes, as well as friends and family.
- Richard and Debbie Nuttall - £61,000,000
The couple from Colne,Lancashire, took home £61 million on January 30 2024.
Both 54, they were enjoying a holiday in Fuerteventura, celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary.
But they then discovered the big EuroMillions win.
Richard revealed they originally thought they had won £2.60, but then received another email telling the pair to check their account.
Other eye-watering anonymous winners:
- 2019 - £123million
Another anonymous winner scooped up a prize of £123,458,008 in the June Superdraw rollover.
- 2021 - £122million
Following nine rollovers, one ticketholder bagged the £122,550,350 jackpot last April.
The successful participant chose to remain anonymous.
- 2018 - £121million
Another anonymous winner found their fortune during the Superdraw jackpot rollover in April 2018, securing £121,328,187.
Brown revealed 24 volunteers who were shown to apparently predict the correct numbers using a board containing previous lottery numbers and guessing that week's via automatic writing.
Essentially, you would get two dozen people together, get them to work out which numbers they think should be drawn, add their answers together and divide by 24.
As a final possibility, he suggested the results could have been rigged, but emphasised this would be illegal.
The explanation - implying he used Wisdom of Crowds - was roundly panned in the press and by leading academics.
PhilosopherA C Graylingcomplained "the hour-long 'explanation' was itself a trick, and not as good as the lottery trick itself".
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While Camelot, the firm who ran the National Lottery at the time, congratulated Brown on his "illusion", but reminded the public that it was "impossible to affect the outcome of the draw".
A poll in the Guardian saw readers conclude that a split screen was most likely used during the first show to aid Brown in his apparent trick.
