The Magicians was a surprise success for the BBC in 2011, and now it’s back for a second series. Madeleine Cuff asks the show’s new team why magic has become ‘cool’.

A MARKED card is slid into a pack, which is then shuffled and cut.

With a flourish, magician Pete Firman removes the top card, the four of spades, and asks: ‘‘Was this your card?’’ Unfortunately it wasn’t. ‘‘Oh damn,’’ he says, crestfallen. ‘‘Let me try something else.’’ Dressed in a tweed suit and skinny tie, delivering showman’s patter with a Middlesbrough accent, the 31-year-old is charming even when seemingly incompetent.

But magic is all about illusion and trickery.

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Old-school magic

• The rabbit and hat – the classic trick in which a white bunny is pulled out of a magician’s top hat – is rumoured to have first been performed by Louis Comte in 1814.
• Sawing a woman in half – the illusion was conceived by British magician P T Selbit in 1921. It shocked the public and prompted hundreds of variations. A Peruvian magician, Richiardi Jr, is credited with a gruesome performance in the 1940s which involved spraying fake blood and entrails across the stage.
• Cups and balls – one of the oldest magic tricks, the illusion dates back about 2,000 years and was performed by Roman conjurors. It involves the magician passing three balls back and forth between three cups, using sleight of hand to apparently make the balls disappear and reappear.
• Chinese linking rings – solid metal rings appear to pass through each other in this classic illusion, rumoured to date back to the First Century AD. The trick is still a modernday favourite for both close-up and stage magicians.

Suddenly, a sealed envelope is produced from his wallet and inside, to my astonishment, is the marked card. ‘‘I really get a kick out of seeing that amazed, astonished reaction from people,’’ says Firman.

Welcome to the new breed of magicians – young, trendy and not afraid to break the rules.

Firman is only one of the new faces appearing in the second series of The Magicians, last year’s Saturday night hit for BBC One which drew more than six million viewers.

The show has undergone something of a revamp, including having a new host, relative newcomer Darren McMullen, taking over from Lenny Henry. It marks the 29-year-old Scotsman’s first prime-time show in the UK and he’s excited by the challenge, saying: ‘‘It’s going to be bigger, badder, crazier than anybody could ever imagine.’’ The Magicians is about so much more than card tricks. Comedian and magician Firman will join American illusionist Jason Latimer and the only familiar faces from the last series, Scottish duo Barry and Stuart.

All under the age of 35, the group represent the different elements of modern magic – the geeky-cool of academic and illusionist Latimer, the Gothic gore of double act Barry and Stuart, and the self-deprecating comedy of Firman.

Modestly, Firman protests against this accolade of “cool”. ‘‘I never try to be cool. I just try and do things in a way that I would like to see them done,’’ he says.

Yet his first “grand illusion” of the series suggests otherwise, as he bounces Boyzone’s Keith Duffy down Edinburgh’s Royal Mile in a Zorb (a giant inflatable ball).

Each week there will be a pre-recorded grand illusion in a different part of the UK, similar to David Blaine’s headline-grabbing stunts or Derren Brown’s The Events. Each stunt is performed with the aid of a celebrity assistant, who will also appear on the live show.

While Keith Duffy might have emerged from the Zorb a bit dizzy, he got off comparatively lightly. Other stunts will see celebs plunged into the Thames, thrown off bridges and handcuffed into the boot of an out-of-control car speeding towards a cliff edge. All a far cry from pulling rabbits from hats.

The line-up of celebrity assistants for the series includes former Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips, boyband The Wanted and Baywatch legend David Hasselhoff. But in a live setting with high-risk stunts, could the celebs be more of a help than a hindrance?

The showman in Firman dictates that whatever happens, the show must go on, but he admits working with a celebrity will make that recovery tougher.

‘‘I can wing it on my own, but this isn’t a double act partner that I’ve worked with for 20 years,’’ he says. ‘‘You’ll see everything, warts and all.’’ Viewers at home will be able to vote each week for their favourite celebrity/magician pairing. If their performance fails to gain enough public votes, they will be forced to perform a forfeit, a dangerous trick producers describe as ‘‘live and dramatic’’.

Details of the forfeits are being kept tightly under wraps, but given that the last series had BBC Breakfast presenter Sian Williams walking on hot coals, they won’t be a stroll in the park.

Our enthusiasm for magic is, according to Mc- Mullen, ‘‘definitely a Brit thing’’. He remembers the excitement of magic when he was a kid, and says this was what drew him to the show. ‘‘I had a magic kit and a top hat and I used to do my family’s heads in by doing tricks incredibly badly and insisting on it at every family gathering,’’ he says.

It would be easy to assume that the arrival of CGI, video games and 3D films has reduced the appeal of stage magic, and McMullen admits the BBC’s decision to launch the first series was risky.

‘‘Magic hadn’t been on prime time TV for 20 years,’’ he says.

But thanks to Derren Brown, magic can still attract huge audiences although it’s a far cry from shiny floor stage shows, or even the magic wands of childhood magic sets.

Modern magic is all about finding a way to make the trick relevant to a modern audience, says Firman.

‘‘It’s everything you put around the trick that makes it fun and entertaining,’’ he says. McMullen agrees, describing the tricks on the new series as ‘‘very cutting edge’’.

Firman, who like McMullen had a magic set as a child, is visibly excited about being part of a Saturday night show.

‘‘I remember playing with my magic set and watching Paul Daniels in exactly this time slot,’’ he says. ‘‘It doesn’t get any better than this.’’

• Catch the next episode this Saturday on BBC1 at 6.35pm.