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Hidden Talent is a British television series broadcast on Channel 4. It is presented by Richard Bacon and features members of the public demonstrating specific skills. Each week ordinary members of the public take tests in certain fields or skills to identify any previously unidentified talent, and those that test highest in each area are trained by experts to maximise their potential in that skill. 900 people applied and were tested for the show.
Richard Bacon follows members of the public who scientists believe could have extraordinary abilities they were never aware of. In the first episode, a 45-year-old nurse is identified through a series of scientific tests as a potentially gifted climber, and receives expert training from coach Martin Chester before tackling the Old Man of Stoer, a 200ft-high stack of sandstone off the coast of Sutherland in the Highlands - an ascent which is usually attempted only after years of training. Elsewhere, a 63-year-old retired woman discovers she has an advanced ability to detect lies, and travels to America for a two-day crash course in interrogation techniques with former FBI agents Jack Schaeffer and Joe Navarro.
The second episode looks for someone with the physical and mental capacity to succeed in the international free-diving arena, and an individual who, with no previous artistic training, can spot a masterpiece in a room full of fakes.
In the third programme in the series, the tests are designed to seek out one extraordinarily talented - but unknowing - linguist, whose way with words could change their life.
The Hidden Talent experts look for two very different abilities: the natural aptitude for becoming an opera singer and the inbuilt instinct to navigate through the wilderness without a map or a compass.
This episode has someone with an exceptional talent for multi-tasking; someone whose brain can do two or more very demanding tasks simultaneously. Scientists call these 'super-taskers'.
The series finale catches up with some of the amazing individuals who found their hidden talents to discover how the experience has changed their lives, and includes unseen footage of their extraordinary journeys.
