Derren denies claim that zombie target Steven Brosnan is an actor and reveals steps taken to ensure his extreme experience seemed plausible

Derren Brown hits back at "hurtful" accusations that he faked the victim in controversial show Apocalypse saying: If they were actors, "we would have to quietly kill anyone who knew them"

In the programme that aired last Friday, he persuaded one man to believe the world had ended after a meteorite shower had crashed into the earth, leaving only a few survivors infected with a zombie like.

Twitter was swarmed with posts alleging that Steven Brosnan was a professional actor.

Links to a casting website profile under his name seemed to support the claims, while social networkers shared a video of a pot noodle advert featuring a man who looked remarkably similar to the teacher.

Speaking exclusively to Mirror Online Derren reveals: I didn't get this "If reaction then I wouldn't be making very good television but there have been some unfortunate things.

"It's upsetting and I shouldn't care about it. I should have thick skin and the larger percentage of people are saying'don't listen to the haters'sort of thing. It's unavoidably hurtful"

The illusionist continued: "we spent months on end, giving blood, sweat and tears for this show. Working seven days a week with little sleep and we were all falling in love with this guy Steven so much. I was so emotionally involved.