Paul Daniels has backed Derren Brown to pull off his attempt to predict tonight's lottery numbers, but the former TV magician is not so sure Brown should fulfill his promise to reveal the secret later this week.

Tonight just after 10.35pm in The Event Live on Channel 4, Brown will try and predict all six winning numbers a few moments before BBC's National Lottery's Live Draw completes the draw for a jackpot standing at £2.4m.

The illusionist, who has been banned from buying a ticket for the draw, will then reveal how he did it on a follow-up show on Friday.

Daniels told the Guardian today: "He could get it exactly right ... [but] it is much better for a mentalist if he gets one wrong. It is more believable."

"I would be very surprised, however, if he gives away a damn good trick but, even if he does, there are another 99 ways to do it."

And can we read Daniels' mind as to what those are? No. He's not telling. And he thinks, even if Brown does give a hint, he may only do so in a "gobbledegooky" way, such as neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), for example. "Don't worry, you won't learn how to win the lottery," he said.

Daniels also revealed he had once suggested to the BBC, soon after it began its results shows way back in 1994, that he should do a show foretelling the National Lottery results. "They got into a right flap. They said: 'You can't do that. People will think it's a fix.'"

The Magic Circle - of which Brown is not a member - was also cautious about lifting the cloak of secrecy. Jack Delvin, its new president, said Brown had been given the opportunity to join "but he says he is not a magician and doesn't use magic tricks".

He said: "Our first rule is we don't discuss secrets of tricks ... For the duration of the effect happening, we try to suspend disbelief. This is in the middle of trying to achieve an effect, which you do by suspending disbelief so it is no good talking about how it is done. Without the effect, there is no mystery. The last thing the Magic Circle would want to do is get involved in any way, shape or form, in the effect being produced by any person who uses psychology and NLP."

Wishing Brown luck, he told how he was once invited by the BBC World Service to predict something "to do with Mrs Thatcher and an election". But he realised: "If I had proved I had predicted exactly, no-one would have believed me, so I got it wrong deliberately by half a dozen seats. The boss of world service said "He's no good. He didn't get it right.'"

Meanwhile Camelot, the lottery operator, seems remarkably cool about Brown's stunt to reduce somewhat drastically the near 14m to 1 odds on picking a winning ticket.

After all, there are three different machines and eight ball sets that are not determined until shortly before the draw. Camelot said in a statement. "It is impossible to affect the outcome of the draw and Derren Brown is not suggesting he is doing this. Derren Brown is an illusionist creating an illusion that he can predict the numbers. We wish Derren, but more importantly our players, the best of luck."

Daniels, meanwhile, recalled working with a mentalist at a Sheffield club who predicted numbers for its own mini-lottery. The trick ended in a fight between members of the public who thought the whole thing had been fixed and committee members who insisted it hadn't. Now, Daniels mused, just imagine that happening on a national scale ...