'I’ve been criticised for that,’ Layton said. 'Some­one said, aren’t you just giving this con man a platform to boast and grandstand? Isn’t it unfair to the family to allow him the time to convince the audience that his version is correct when you don’t know it to be? But I felt quite strongly that the only way you can be really fair to the family is to allow the audience to see how Bourdin operates. If you read these events on paper it seems totally implausible. But if you allow him to exert and use all his tricks – all of those incredibly subtle emotional triggers he pulls – then you begin to understand. You have to see that to give the family’s reaction to him a proper context. I think it’s being fair to the family, not to him.’