Britain’s Greatest Hoaxer: Channel 4 reveal how Simon Brodkin pranked Donald Trump and Simon Cowell

Documentary goes behind the scenes as Lee Nelson comedian pulls off celebrity stunts
Prankster: Simon Brodkin takes aim at SImon Cowell, Sir Philip Green and Donald Trump
Channel 4/Pete Dadds
Ben Travis8 February 2017

While Dom Joly’s Trigger Happy made a brief online return last year, there’s a different public prankster who celebs fear nowadays.

His name is Simon Brodkin, also known as his comedy alter-ego Lee Nelson, and he’s had some high-profile targets in the last few years.

He gate-crashed Kanye West’s headline set at Glastonbury. He threw a pile of money over disgraced FIFA chair Sepp Blatter. Oh, and he pelted Donald Trump with swastika-emblazoned golf balls.

That presidential prank is one of three hoaxes chronicled in Channel 4’s documentary Britain’s Greatest Hoaxer.

The one-hour film shows how Brodkin chooses his targets, and the lengths he’ll go to in order to remain undetected, with every successful stunt giving him an increased profile.

While the Trump trick is the peak of the show, the majority of screen-time goes to Brodkin’s most recent prank: gatecrashing the Britain’s Got Talent auditions in disguise.

“The plan is to sit in this uncomfy chair for five hours until I look like an orthodox Jew,” he explains as he prepares to catch out Simon Cowell, “then go and dupe four judges and the entire nation, and f*** off home to bed.”

Britain's Got Talent 2017 in Blackpool

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Second on the list is Arcadia group chairman Sir Philip Green whose yacht gets an unwanted makeover.

While Brodkin’s results are debatable (it’s hard not to feel like his BGT prank is targeting the show’s contestants rather than Cowell), his fans will certainly get a kick out of seeing the work that goes into his surprise appearances.

Would it be good to see more of Brodkin’s daredevil antics? Sure – but he might not get away with them again once Britain’s Greatest Hoaxer airs.

Channel 4, 10pm

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