Trailer: Netflix investigates Death by Magic
David Farnor | On 24, Nov 2018
Magic is a mainstay of TV, always finding its way back to our screens for bursts of entertainment, surprise or shock. Years on from David Blaine’s stunts or BBC One’s Dynamo: Magician Impossible, BBC Three has given us magic with a social conscience in Ryan Tricks on the Street, while Netflix has shone a spotlight on YouTuber Justin Willman with Magic for Humans and premiered Derren Brown’s divisive, political new special, Sacrifice – and, of course, there’s The CW’s Penn and Teller: Fool Us, which airs on Netflix in the UK.
Now, Netflix is going behind the scenes to explore dangerous tricks in the unsubtly titled Death by Magic. British magician Drummond Money-Coutts, or DMC for short, is on a mission to uncover the stories of magicians who died performing stunts. He travels the world to track down where the fatal performances took place and to work out exactly what went wrong, sharing his magic with the people he meets along the way. It’s a journey that spans four continents and eight cities around the world. His aim is to pay homage to the craft by creating his own updated versions of the stunts that cost these magicians their lives, from being buried alive under tons of wet concrete, to playing a game of Russian roulette, to escaping from a collision with a speeding steam train.
The series will follow DMC as he recreates those stunts. The show is produced by A. Smith & Co (Hell’s Kitchen, American Ninja Warrior), with Executive Producers Arthur Smith, Toby Gorman, Martin Turner and Simon Dinsell and Drummond himself.
The series was announced by Netflix at this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival, as part of a wider slate of unscripted originals, including global culinary competition show The Final Table, Derren Brown’s special, footballing series Sunderland Till I Die and action comedy game show Flinch.
Death by Magic premieres on Netflix on Friday 30th November. Here’s a trailer:
Death by Magic: Season 1 is available on Netflix UK, as part of an £9.99 monthly subscription.