David Blaine is to leave his perspex box on Sunday evening, after 44 voluntary days in the modern equivalent of the stocks. How do you think he plans to stage the final moments?

1) The box will be slowly winched to the ground; Blaine will step out, wave to the crowds and call a cab.

2) The box will be lowered into the Thames; Blaine will come out and walk on the water as far as HMS Belfast, which he will make disappear.

3) The box will gradually fill up with smoke and explode at the stroke of midnight, while a hologram of Blaine reveals that the great illusionist has been whooping it up for the past six weeks with a lap dancer in Market Harborough.

4) Blaine will emerge, discover that Derren Brown's Russian roulette stunt on television was more popular than his Pop Idol/ Bobby Sands routine, and go back inside the box to sulk for a further 44 days.

And, gentle reader, would you be surprised by any of those outcomes?

Copyright 2003 Independent Newspapers UK Limited
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.