10. Cement your legacy

In the concluding chapter of How Houdini Made Magic, Derren Brown explores how even in death, Houdini knew how to ensure his legend would endure.

The legendary death-defier would eventually fall, not to a locked water cell or an icy river, but to a ruptured appendix after a fateful backstage punch in Montreal.

Worn out by relentless spiritualist crusades, heavy lawsuits, and mounting mortality, a 52-year-old Houdini performed his final show in Detroit with a blazing 40-degree fever before collapsing. Dying on Halloween 1926, he went out at the absolute peak of his powers, avoiding the slow decline of an ageing performer and stepping straight into myth.

Houdini saw his death as an opportunity to test the claims of Spiritualists further. He set in motion a test by agreeing a secret code with his wife, Bess. Once he had passed, she was instructed to hold seances in a bid to reach her beloved Houdini. Bess never heard Houdini’s code, but seances are still held right to this very day, a century later.

Houdini’s greatest trick wasn't just escaping handcuffs or cell blocks - it was mastering the art of storytelling so that his name still means “doing the impossible”.

Presenter: Derren Brown
Writer/Producer: Calum McCrae
Additional research: Alice Homewood
Sound designer: David Crackles
Executive producer: Sophie Ellis
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Daniel Clarke
Original music: The Inner Me - Epilogue (Rosie, sweet Rosabel)

A Strawberry Blond production for BBC Sounds and Radio 4