Derren Brown to predict Wednesdays Lotto result.

[David]

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He was, of course, being disingenuous with his claim that National Lottery organisers banned him from revealing the numbers beforehand because they had to be announced first by the BBC. Brown would only have been revealing his predictions, therefore the rule did not apply in this case.

Most viewers believe that Brown made the numbers appear on the balls after the draw was made. There was a 30-second gap between the last number being announced and Brown revealing his predictions, time which he filled by talking and scribbling the numbers on a piece of white card.

Ahead of the attempt, Brown was besieged on social networking sites by people desperate to know the winning numbers and how he planned to pull off the stunt, receiving nearly 100,000 messages over the course of the day.

After calling the numbers, Brown told viewers he would show them how he did the trick in another programme on Friday night - How To Win The Lottery - but insiders warned people not to get their hopes up too much.

A source said: "Derren will be talking through a number of ways he might have pulled off his most ambitious stunt to date, but in true Derren style, he won't be giving too much away.

"He will be giving hints how he might have done it, but you won't get the full story."

In the final analysis he got the publicity he sought with more people watching his show than the actual lottery programme!