For all you U.K. Paracasters...

[Loose Leaf Tea]

Hmm, just finished watching Channel Five's new documentary series,
"Britain's Closest Encounters." Wed. 8.00pm
Anyone see it?

Without wishing to sound conspiratorial, I find the timing of this programme interesting given the increase in UFO activity over British skies this summer.

The Channel Five show was basically an hour of prime-time UFO debunking and centred on the Welsh Berwyn Mountain case from 1974. The whole Berwyn incident never was particularly mysterious IMO and whilst some questions remain, the documentary implied that if people can be this gullible over what seemed to be naturally occuring phenomena (meteorites and earthquakes), then any remaining "genuine" UFO incidents can also be dismissed. Weirdly, there was an unrelated and very brief clip of former police constable Alan Godfrey talking about the structured craft he saw (and claims he was taken inside of), and Col. Halt's Rendlesham audio tape was also played. Neither case was explained or put into any sort of context - very confusing to the casual viewer.
A flaky, "guilt by association" began when, for no good reason and with no link AT ALL to the Welsh case, videotape was shown of a (gasp) light in the sky filmed by a woman at night in a different part of the country 26 years after the Berwyn case! The footage was as lame as you'd expect and an "analysis expert" concluded the light was a hoax and could have been a lightbulb on a stick or a streetlight! Then it was back to the Welsh case! This was a cheap and nasty tactic and made me wonder why, with so many genuinely puzzling UFO cases to discuss, why spend a whole bleeding hour on this mush? That's when I remembered the recent UFO activity over the UK and how the most widely read and most wretched tabloid newspaper of them all, The Sun, is covering UFO stories at the moment.

Conspiracy or cock-up? Lame media making lame documentaries or controlling propaganda intent on quashing public interest?

I really don't know but I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna, etc, etc.

(Hey, don't miss "Britain's Closest Encounters" next Wed. 8.00pm, Channel Five!)

 

[Siani]

I've not seen it, but it sounds ghastly. Then again, Channel Five seems to specialise in so-called documentaries, which end up being little more than televised versions of tabloid crap. I find most UFO documentaries on TV highly boring, as they rehash the same old crud all the time, including cases that have long been exposed as hoaxes. And they trot out the same old debunkers time and time again, too. Ugh!

 

[Loose Leaf Tea]

Point taken, Siani, regarding how it's best to avoid TV UFO documentatries.
I suppose I got suckered into watching this one because it wasn't an American import, it had been recently made and it featured an obscure case.
Silly me. Next week we're still in Wales with the Broadhaven Triangle case.

I suppose the series will eventually cover Rendlesham and will doubtless prove that the lighthouse dunnit.

 

[Siani]

Ooh - I might watch that. I grew up in West Wales at the time of the Welsh Triangle business, and had a couple of odd experiences myself. A lot of the Broadhaven stuff has since turned out to be a big fat hoax, e.g. the Ripperstone Farm incidents, plus the silver-suited "spacemen" turned out to be local pranksters. That said, there were also a lot of apparently genuine unknowns spotted all over West Wales during 1977-8.

 

[Poi]

I've just started reading The Welsh Triangle by Peter Paget at the suggestion of a friend. Thanks for the heads up on things that have been debunked, Siani. Still looks as though it will be a good book.

Oops, I've assumed the Broadhaven incidents are part of the same story. Are they?

 

[Siani]

Yep, the Broadhaven incidents are all part of the Welsh Triangle. There was definitely something happening throughout West Wales at that time, but certain aspects of Paget's book have been exposed as hoaxes. I think Paget was sincere enough, though. There's another book about the Welsh Triangle - The Dyfed Enigma, by Randall Jones Pugh. I found it to be better researched and written than the Paget book, although it's many years since I read it.

 

[Loose Leaf Tea]

Oh, you just reminded me, Siani! I read the Dyfed Enigma too, many years ago; a library copy. It really creeped me out, especially a holidaymaker's sighting of a giant, silvery suited "alien".
As you say, lots of the Broadhaven elements were later explained or confessed to, but I'm curious to know why this documentary series is concentrating on these iffy UK UFO cases rather than on the lesser known, and rather more intriguing, sightings made by policemen on night duty (PRUFOS database), pilot sightings, both military and civilian, and tons of eyewitness reports that go beyond mere lights in the sky.
Lazy journalism or deliberate debunking? Who knows? Who, indeed, cares? Not many, I suppose.
How very convenient.