Derren Brown has revealed he "flirted" with a fringe evangelical Christian movement which tries to 'cure' people of their homosexuality before he came out as gay. The 40-year-old TV illusionist is now completely comfortable with his sexuality and has filmed a TV documentary exposing the 'scam' behind so-called miracle healing in the church. Derren, who revealed he was gay in 2008, said: "I did go through an area of the church that was trying to 'cure' gay people. "It was rather misjudged, I was aware of that and kind of flirted a bit with that. Friends of mine were in it so I was kind of aware of it. I just felt it was misguided." In Derren Brown: Miracles For Sale, the TV star looks at the faith healing of physical conditions of everything from blindness to arthritis. He turns a member of the public into a fake pastor and faith healer and sends him to the US Bible Belt to try to expose the 'tricks' involved. Their six months of preparation are almost wasted when they are involved in a tussle with police in Texas. Derren said the Channel 4 programme aimed to show that "healing is not God's work and that anyone can be taught certain tricks to do it." Promoting the programme, he said some faith healers had become multi-millionaires as a result of their deception. In an interview with the Radio Times, Derren said of his magic tricks: "Over the years, I've entirely grown out of the urge that got me into magic. "I've pulled it into areas that I think are more grown-up and worthwhile, into areas that aren't about me going 'Ta-dah! Aren't I amazing!."
