1 00:00:07,298 --> 00:00:09,476 Now, what do you make of this next story? 2 00:00:09,676 --> 00:00:11,770 An investigation has begun into a claim 3 00:00:11,970 --> 00:00:14,397 that something strange came out of the skies 4 00:00:14,597 --> 00:00:18,435 and landed in the Welsh village of Broad Haven, near Haverfordwest. 5 00:00:26,026 --> 00:00:29,112 Well, I can't remember who saw it first. 6 00:00:30,947 --> 00:00:32,791 We were in our school playground, 7 00:00:32,991 --> 00:00:35,994 lunchtime break, just down by this tree over here. 8 00:00:36,745 --> 00:00:39,164 It was '77. February '77. 9 00:00:39,789 --> 00:00:41,049 Yeah, we played here. 10 00:00:41,249 --> 00:00:44,586 Knocking rounders and knocking the ball into the stream over there. 11 00:00:45,754 --> 00:00:50,050 Whatever it was, was spotted three times by children from the local school. 12 00:00:51,259 --> 00:00:53,470 I think I remember somebody saying, "What's that?" 13 00:00:54,888 --> 00:00:56,222 Everybody just ran up. 14 00:00:56,806 --> 00:00:59,150 It was a sprint between all of us to the end of the field here 15 00:00:59,350 --> 00:01:01,528 and find out exactly what we were looking at. 16 00:01:01,728 --> 00:01:04,281 Is it all really a case of mass hysteria, 17 00:01:04,481 --> 00:01:06,825 or is there some reality in the unreal? 18 00:01:07,025 --> 00:01:09,160 Yeah, after that, almost straightaway, 19 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:12,163 other people saw, you know, some pretty strange things. 20 00:01:12,363 --> 00:01:15,417 There was a lot of activity, or a lot of sightings, or a lot of... 21 00:01:15,617 --> 00:01:17,294 Yeah, a lot of things were happening. 22 00:01:17,494 --> 00:01:19,963 And this is where it landed. Here. 23 00:01:20,163 --> 00:01:22,340 The people who live around Broad Haven will tell you 24 00:01:22,540 --> 00:01:24,584 that what they have experienced is real enough. 25 00:01:31,591 --> 00:01:33,351 From the beginning of recorded time, 26 00:01:33,551 --> 00:01:36,271 men have been seeing unexplainable things in the sky. 27 00:01:36,471 --> 00:01:38,523 Are we alone in the universe? 28 00:01:38,723 --> 00:01:42,110 Somewhere in the data will be something worth real inquiry. 29 00:01:42,310 --> 00:01:44,112 We have not been hiding anything. 30 00:01:44,312 --> 00:01:46,197 There are such things as interplanetary spaceships. 31 00:01:46,397 --> 00:01:48,825 I thought it was an alien, and he had big eyes. 32 00:01:49,025 --> 00:01:51,912 There's something profoundly important going on here 33 00:01:52,112 --> 00:01:53,738 that is authentic and real. 34 00:02:22,225 --> 00:02:23,309 So, Kevin... 35 00:02:24,310 --> 00:02:26,571 tell me a secret that you haven't told anyone 36 00:02:26,771 --> 00:02:27,939 about the phenomenon. 37 00:02:29,691 --> 00:02:31,234 Oh, are we filming? 38 00:02:33,319 --> 00:02:34,496 {an8} 39 00:02:34,696 --> 00:02:39,492 {an8}You know, for our whole lives, and our parents' whole lives, 40 00:02:40,285 --> 00:02:41,503 since the 1940s, 41 00:02:41,703 --> 00:02:47,217 we've been told by authorities and scientists that this is ridiculous. 42 00:02:47,417 --> 00:02:48,751 That this is nonsense. 43 00:02:50,879 --> 00:02:55,225 And I think that's the main reason why you don't have many serious, 44 00:02:55,425 --> 00:02:59,721 or until recently, you have had very few serious scientists studying this. 45 00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:02,974 I would say, there's probably 46 00:03:03,975 --> 00:03:07,270 on the order of 15 experts in the world. 47 00:03:08,605 --> 00:03:09,656 That, to me, is shocking, 48 00:03:09,856 --> 00:03:14,619 and it suggests that there's something maybe deeper than the stigma, 49 00:03:14,819 --> 00:03:16,913 and all of the obvious things, 50 00:03:17,113 --> 00:03:19,082 that are preventing people from studying this. 51 00:03:19,282 --> 00:03:24,329 That maybe people don't want to know what this phenomena is. 52 00:03:25,330 --> 00:03:29,459 Maybe people don't wanna know the truth. Maybe it scares them a bit, somehow. 53 00:04:20,176 --> 00:04:22,896 It was a lovely little village. It-It still is. 54 00:04:23,096 --> 00:04:24,981 Very quiet during the winter, 55 00:04:25,181 --> 00:04:28,485 absolutely mad during the summer with the holidaymakers. 56 00:04:28,685 --> 00:04:31,020 But it was a great place to grow up in. 57 00:04:38,611 --> 00:04:42,073 I wouldn't describe myself as one of the popular children in school. 58 00:04:44,325 --> 00:04:48,079 I was overweight as a child, I was a bit of a bookworm, 59 00:04:48,579 --> 00:04:50,799 and I was teased and bullied because of that. 60 00:04:50,999 --> 00:04:55,128 {an8}I probably relate more to cats... ...than I do to human beings. 61 00:05:02,260 --> 00:05:06,231 It was a horrible day, uh, drizzling, damp, 62 00:05:06,431 --> 00:05:08,149 and I'd spent most of the day indoors, 63 00:05:08,349 --> 00:05:11,519 so I hadn't actually gone out with a lot of the others to play. 64 00:05:13,938 --> 00:05:16,983 The other children had been coming in from playtime. 65 00:05:18,109 --> 00:05:19,277 And... 66 00:05:20,361 --> 00:05:22,989 they'd been saying that they'd seen a flying saucer, 67 00:05:23,698 --> 00:05:28,328 but I just totally regarded the stories as being nonsense. 68 00:05:29,203 --> 00:05:32,215 To me, flying saucers didn't exist. 69 00:05:32,415 --> 00:05:35,760 They were in bad 1950s sci-fi movies, 70 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:39,139 or they were in tabloid newspapers, you know. 71 00:05:39,339 --> 00:05:41,558 But at the end of the day, I thought, 72 00:05:41,758 --> 00:05:44,969 "This is getting ridiculous. I'm going to have a look for myself." 73 00:05:48,556 --> 00:05:49,807 I left school. 74 00:05:51,768 --> 00:05:54,645 Proceeded all the way up to the top of the field. 75 00:06:00,401 --> 00:06:03,321 And from behind some trees, 76 00:06:04,030 --> 00:06:06,282 this thing popped up in front of me. 77 00:06:08,201 --> 00:06:10,453 Silver, cigar-shaped, 78 00:06:11,162 --> 00:06:12,789 about 45 feet long. 79 00:06:13,623 --> 00:06:18,261 And there was just this thought that came into my mind 80 00:06:18,461 --> 00:06:20,254 to say that I had to run away. 81 00:06:34,227 --> 00:06:35,945 I did go home and tell my mum and dad, 82 00:06:36,145 --> 00:06:38,064 and they weren't judgmental in any way. 83 00:06:38,564 --> 00:06:43,319 {an8}They believed me and, uh, believed that what I saw, I believed. 84 00:06:45,071 --> 00:06:47,624 You know mothers. They can tell when you're lying. 85 00:06:47,824 --> 00:06:52,495 And she was absolutely convinced that what I was saying was the truth. 86 00:06:53,496 --> 00:06:56,299 She contacted a gentleman called Randall Jones Pugh, 87 00:06:56,499 --> 00:06:58,051 a close family friend. 88 00:06:58,251 --> 00:07:00,637 Randall Pugh is a retired vet 89 00:07:00,837 --> 00:07:05,508 who acts as regional investigator for the British UFO Research Association. 90 00:07:06,217 --> 00:07:08,019 {an8}We have a phenomenon 91 00:07:08,219 --> 00:07:13,233 {an8}which I think will be with us for a very, very long time, 92 00:07:13,433 --> 00:07:15,610 {an8}if we ever do, indeed, unravel it at all. 93 00:07:15,810 --> 00:07:18,112 Terry, if you take that sector over there... 94 00:07:18,312 --> 00:07:19,864 - This sector on... - That sector there. 95 00:07:20,064 --> 00:07:21,991 And I'll go to, uh, northwest. 96 00:07:22,191 --> 00:07:24,327 He came as quickly as possible, 97 00:07:24,527 --> 00:07:29,157 and he brought with him a local reporter from the Western Telegraph. 98 00:07:31,075 --> 00:07:33,161 The sighting had happened on the Friday. 99 00:07:33,661 --> 00:07:36,339 By Monday morning, things had gone crazy. 100 00:07:36,539 --> 00:07:39,342 Today, one group of children showed me the spot where they saw 101 00:07:39,542 --> 00:07:41,594 what they think was some kind of spaceship. 102 00:07:41,794 --> 00:07:46,933 {an8}Suddenly, the silver, cigar-shaped object seemed to pop up from behind the bushes, 103 00:07:47,133 --> 00:07:49,519 and, uh, trying to take off, then it disappeared again. 104 00:07:49,719 --> 00:07:52,272 It was nighttime. I was ten years old. 105 00:07:52,472 --> 00:07:53,439 I switched on the TV, 106 00:07:53,639 --> 00:07:57,360 and on the children's Newsround program was this amazing story. 107 00:07:57,560 --> 00:08:01,364 The spaceship, it looked... a cigar shape with a dome on it. 108 00:08:01,564 --> 00:08:03,283 {an8}When you're about nine, ten years old, 109 00:08:03,483 --> 00:08:06,035 {an8}it's sort of, like, a very formative period. 110 00:08:06,235 --> 00:08:07,996 {an8}Your imagination is running wild, 111 00:08:08,196 --> 00:08:11,499 and UFOs was something that we were all interested in. 112 00:08:11,699 --> 00:08:15,661 We have received many reports of UFO sightings over Mobile. 113 00:08:16,787 --> 00:08:17,630 Greetings! 114 00:08:17,830 --> 00:08:19,090 We come from France. 115 00:08:19,290 --> 00:08:20,591 - Yes. - Oh! 116 00:08:20,791 --> 00:08:23,961 1977 was a bumper year for UFOs. 117 00:08:25,505 --> 00:08:29,225 - The numbers of sightings were increasing. - Well, it was roughly over there. 118 00:08:29,425 --> 00:08:31,345 The press interest was increasing. 119 00:08:32,136 --> 00:08:36,024 ♪ Late last night While wishing on a star ♪ 120 00:08:36,224 --> 00:08:39,477 I was completely obsessed with UFOs and aliens at the time. 121 00:08:41,103 --> 00:08:45,199 The culmination of a lot of this was Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 122 00:08:45,399 --> 00:08:47,243 And it was trailed incessantly. 123 00:08:47,443 --> 00:08:51,531 And then, the film itself was just like all the things I'd been reading about. 124 00:08:52,323 --> 00:08:55,460 ♪ Down from the sky came a man in a car ♪ 125 00:08:55,660 --> 00:08:57,879 And also, it was a pretty miserable time. 126 00:08:58,079 --> 00:08:59,714 There was fuel shortages. 127 00:08:59,914 --> 00:09:02,592 We were in the middle of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. 128 00:09:02,792 --> 00:09:06,504 ♪ Come on, let's go for a ride Outta sight ♪ 129 00:09:07,505 --> 00:09:10,391 I remember distinctly seeing this diagram in my local newspaper 130 00:09:10,591 --> 00:09:13,186 that had an area showing the blast zone. 131 00:09:13,386 --> 00:09:15,480 And I was working out whether I'd be vaporized 132 00:09:15,680 --> 00:09:18,232 or whether I'd manage to get home in time. 133 00:09:18,432 --> 00:09:21,394 So, there was all that going on. 134 00:09:22,061 --> 00:09:25,573 So, UFOs and aliens and, you know, visits from outer space 135 00:09:25,773 --> 00:09:28,242 was like escapism for me at the time. 136 00:09:28,442 --> 00:09:32,196 You know, it was a world you could sort of escape into. 137 00:09:33,614 --> 00:09:36,876 I saw a flying saucer, or you might call it a UFO. 138 00:09:37,076 --> 00:09:39,036 It was over in those trees over there. 139 00:09:41,372 --> 00:09:44,926 And this was definitely the biggest, most bizarre story 140 00:09:45,126 --> 00:09:47,678 to have emerged from the UK. 141 00:09:47,878 --> 00:09:50,223 And it totally absorbed my life. 142 00:09:50,423 --> 00:09:53,426 What I found is that clearly something happened. 143 00:09:54,135 --> 00:09:56,178 What it was, we don't know. 144 00:10:00,933 --> 00:10:03,694 As soon as we arrived in school on the Monday morning, 145 00:10:03,894 --> 00:10:05,646 the headmaster separated us. 146 00:10:08,524 --> 00:10:13,279 And we were told to write an account and draw a picture of what we'd seen. 147 00:10:16,324 --> 00:10:20,453 We drew pictures, and, um, nobody knew what anybody else was drawing. 148 00:10:21,370 --> 00:10:23,840 We'd seen the same thing, so the chances were we were gonna, 149 00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:26,709 hopefully, you know, draw pretty much the same thing. 150 00:10:28,836 --> 00:10:30,847 Now, this wasn't like today. 151 00:10:31,047 --> 00:10:35,217 There was no social media. There was no mobile phones. 152 00:10:35,885 --> 00:10:39,313 So, there was no opportunity for us to have got together. 153 00:10:39,513 --> 00:10:41,607 No way we could have collaborated. 154 00:10:41,807 --> 00:10:43,976 The headmaster had us all fresh. 155 00:10:46,270 --> 00:10:50,825 He collected the accounts and was noticeably shocked 156 00:10:51,025 --> 00:10:55,288 by how similar the accounts and the descriptions were. 157 00:10:55,488 --> 00:10:56,372 Well, to find out more, 158 00:10:56,572 --> 00:10:59,625 I've just been on the phone to their headmaster, Mr. Llewellyn. 159 00:10:59,825 --> 00:11:02,995 {an8} I know that, uh, 16 children saw it. 160 00:11:03,621 --> 00:11:05,381 {an8} And did they all see the same thing? 161 00:11:05,581 --> 00:11:07,800 There's a common core of similarity 162 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:09,760 between all their descriptions. 163 00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:12,755 I-I-I got them to draw and to write what they saw. 164 00:11:15,049 --> 00:11:17,143 {an8}Within the images that the children have drawn, 165 00:11:17,343 --> 00:11:20,354 {an8}there are clearly a lot of similarities. 166 00:11:20,554 --> 00:11:22,899 You've got the shapes in them all. 167 00:11:23,099 --> 00:11:25,685 You've got the fact that they're all the same color. 168 00:11:26,185 --> 00:11:29,814 They've got the red light flashing on top of the vehicle as well. 169 00:11:33,234 --> 00:11:36,787 "This is the object I saw on Friday, February 4th." 170 00:11:36,987 --> 00:11:38,581 "It was dome-shaped." 171 00:11:38,781 --> 00:11:41,375 "It had 10 or 11 windows near the top 172 00:11:41,575 --> 00:11:43,160 and has a door with a runway." 173 00:11:45,162 --> 00:11:47,131 There's no one on planet Earth who doesn't know 174 00:11:47,331 --> 00:11:48,666 what a flying saucer looks like. 175 00:11:52,211 --> 00:11:53,679 Looking at some of those drawings, 176 00:11:53,879 --> 00:11:57,174 you can see where some of these elements from pop culture came in. 177 00:11:58,008 --> 00:12:01,938 And I'm thinking of one film in particular that I know was showing on BBC. 178 00:12:02,138 --> 00:12:03,389 Forbidden Planet. 179 00:12:09,061 --> 00:12:11,981 There's a good chance that some of the kids had seen that. 180 00:12:16,652 --> 00:12:18,412 Now, that isn't to say that, 181 00:12:18,612 --> 00:12:21,374 "Oh, they saw the film, so they just imagined it." 182 00:12:21,574 --> 00:12:25,086 But if you're steeped in sort of, like, the films and pop culture of the time, 183 00:12:25,286 --> 00:12:28,622 all those things that are in your head become part of it. 184 00:12:29,123 --> 00:12:31,717 People are steeped in this stuff. 185 00:12:31,917 --> 00:12:33,803 They watch Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 186 00:12:34,003 --> 00:12:36,347 They watch Doctor Who. They watch The Day the Earth Stood Still. 187 00:12:36,547 --> 00:12:39,341 That kind of thing. It's there in their heads. 188 00:12:44,847 --> 00:12:47,984 I had always been interested in UFOs. 189 00:12:48,184 --> 00:12:52,446 I was 12 when Star Wars came out, now 45 years ago this year. 190 00:12:52,646 --> 00:12:53,698 And so, it was... 191 00:12:53,898 --> 00:12:56,284 It was that... that impressionable age, you know. 192 00:12:56,484 --> 00:12:59,870 And it was around that same time that you had shows on TV 193 00:13:00,070 --> 00:13:02,623 like In Search Of... with Leonard Nimoy. 194 00:13:02,823 --> 00:13:05,960 Perhaps it's time to approach the question of UFOs again, 195 00:13:06,160 --> 00:13:07,578 without bias. 196 00:13:08,245 --> 00:13:13,342 The study of exoplanets basically consists of the search for and characterization 197 00:13:13,542 --> 00:13:15,294 of planets orbiting other stars. 198 00:13:16,921 --> 00:13:20,299 When the New York Times article came out, 199 00:13:20,883 --> 00:13:25,146 where we learned about the AATIP program that had been studying UAPs 200 00:13:25,346 --> 00:13:27,932 and that this was a serious problem... 201 00:13:28,891 --> 00:13:31,986 {an8}UAP reports need to be understood as a national security matter. 202 00:13:32,186 --> 00:13:36,282 {an8}When we spot something we don't understand or can't identify in our airspace, 203 00:13:36,482 --> 00:13:39,285 {an8}it's the job of those we entrust with our national security 204 00:13:39,485 --> 00:13:41,370 {an8}to investigate and to report back. 205 00:13:41,570 --> 00:13:44,081 {an8}... I thought, "Scientists need to be studying this." 206 00:13:44,281 --> 00:13:46,083 "This is really something that should be studied." 207 00:13:46,283 --> 00:13:48,369 So, I... I decided to do it. 208 00:13:50,371 --> 00:13:53,207 We're in a difficult state of ignorance. 209 00:13:54,124 --> 00:13:55,635 We don't know what they are. 210 00:13:55,835 --> 00:13:59,513 We don't know what their intentions are. Intention is everything, right? 211 00:13:59,713 --> 00:14:01,557 And so, we don't really know what these things are. 212 00:14:01,757 --> 00:14:04,644 And, here, I'm really hypothesizing 213 00:14:04,844 --> 00:14:07,897 that these are non-human entities in control of these crafts. 214 00:14:08,097 --> 00:14:11,934 So that's already a huge hypothesis that we don't have a lot of evidence for. 215 00:14:12,518 --> 00:14:14,612 But there are other possible hypotheses still. 216 00:14:14,812 --> 00:14:16,572 Are you sure it wasn't a helicopter 217 00:14:16,772 --> 00:14:18,366 or an aircraft from the airfield near here? 218 00:14:18,566 --> 00:14:21,535 {an8}Well, a helicopter could land there, 219 00:14:21,735 --> 00:14:24,038 {an8}but it... that's private property over there, 220 00:14:24,238 --> 00:14:26,415 {an8}and if they landed there, they could be prosecuted. 221 00:14:26,615 --> 00:14:30,286 And with an aircraft, the only thing that could get in there was a Harrier. 222 00:14:31,078 --> 00:14:35,633 Most of us kids, especially the boys, we were familiar with almost everything 223 00:14:35,833 --> 00:14:38,052 that NATO was flying in the sky at the time, 224 00:14:38,252 --> 00:14:41,755 because we were so close to RAF Brawdy. 225 00:14:46,051 --> 00:14:48,646 I think people naturally thought that, "Well, if anything flies, 226 00:14:48,846 --> 00:14:50,973 it must be something to do with the Royal Air Force." 227 00:14:52,892 --> 00:14:54,360 RAF Brawdy, at that time, 228 00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:57,863 was an area where we could carry out our flying training, 229 00:14:58,063 --> 00:15:00,566 which involved using, uh, weapons systems. 230 00:15:02,192 --> 00:15:05,788 I had arrived as a flight lieutenant in my early thirties, 231 00:15:05,988 --> 00:15:07,873 which I wasn't really sure where it was. 232 00:15:08,073 --> 00:15:11,118 But it was as far away as you could be in Wales, 233 00:15:11,744 --> 00:15:14,330 bordering on the Atlantic Ocean, next stop, America. 234 00:15:16,165 --> 00:15:18,801 As the community relations officer and the press officer, 235 00:15:19,001 --> 00:15:22,638 {an8}I was the link between the RAF inside the fence 236 00:15:22,838 --> 00:15:24,590 {an8}and the community outside the fence. 237 00:15:26,383 --> 00:15:29,478 I was getting an increasing number of reports of sightings, 238 00:15:29,678 --> 00:15:32,398 things that couldn't easily be explained. 239 00:15:32,598 --> 00:15:35,059 And I also took the reports very seriously. 240 00:15:36,518 --> 00:15:38,612 And there was one occasion where a lady in Haverfordwest, 241 00:15:38,812 --> 00:15:42,241 at one of the local hotels, Mrs. Granville I think it might have been, 242 00:15:42,441 --> 00:15:45,235 was adamant that she'd seen something land outside the hotel. 243 00:16:01,126 --> 00:16:05,214 My mother was Rosa, but was known as Rose Granville. 244 00:16:06,215 --> 00:16:08,768 She'd been born in Barcelona. 245 00:16:08,968 --> 00:16:12,021 {an8}Met my dad, I think, when she was 18, 246 00:16:12,221 --> 00:16:13,222 {an8}and they married. 247 00:16:13,973 --> 00:16:16,684 {an8}And then, of course, he brought her back to Wales. 248 00:16:18,060 --> 00:16:20,070 This is just after the war, 249 00:16:20,270 --> 00:16:25,776 and there was a certain animosity to foreign people, generally. 250 00:16:26,527 --> 00:16:28,412 They felt a certain uneasiness. 251 00:16:28,612 --> 00:16:32,741 It was like we were something apart from everyone else. 252 00:16:33,909 --> 00:16:36,670 We bought this place in 1967. 253 00:16:36,870 --> 00:16:39,298 It was an old smuggler's fort, 254 00:16:39,498 --> 00:16:42,668 and we converted it into a hotel. 255 00:16:43,669 --> 00:16:46,213 It mainly meant to be for my daughter. 256 00:16:47,047 --> 00:16:50,059 This is a photograph of my mother and I. 257 00:16:50,259 --> 00:16:53,729 She's in her white, old kitchen overalls. 258 00:16:53,929 --> 00:16:58,851 I'm in my clothes, ready to do some hotel work. 259 00:17:00,853 --> 00:17:03,405 A lot of people thought it was haunted. 260 00:17:03,605 --> 00:17:07,868 It was just this legend. They said that a white lady haunted... 261 00:17:08,068 --> 00:17:10,446 It was known as the Havens then. 262 00:17:11,655 --> 00:17:15,075 We never had any experience with any ghost. 263 00:17:18,746 --> 00:17:22,216 People in the Welsh valleys were very religious, in a formal sense. 264 00:17:22,416 --> 00:17:24,460 You know, they all went to church on Sunday. 265 00:17:24,960 --> 00:17:25,803 As well as that, 266 00:17:26,003 --> 00:17:29,849 they had this strong belief in the supernatural that was older, 267 00:17:30,049 --> 00:17:34,178 that dated back way before Christianity, and they held onto that. 268 00:17:36,638 --> 00:17:40,901 My career has been mainly as a writer and a journalist. 269 00:17:41,101 --> 00:17:45,522 {an8}And my other interest is folklore, which is what I did my PhD in. 270 00:17:46,482 --> 00:17:47,992 I wasn't the first. 271 00:17:48,192 --> 00:17:50,369 There was a book by a French computer scientist 272 00:17:50,569 --> 00:17:53,706 called Jacques Vallee called Passport to Magonia. 273 00:17:53,906 --> 00:17:57,334 And the subtitle to that was, "From folklore to flying saucers." 274 00:17:57,534 --> 00:17:58,586 You were the person 275 00:17:58,786 --> 00:18:03,090 that Steven Spielberg modeled the character of a UFO researcher on 276 00:18:03,290 --> 00:18:06,710 in his classic movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 277 00:18:07,503 --> 00:18:10,681 One of my interests, as you know, has been to look at ancient sightings, 278 00:18:10,881 --> 00:18:12,725 before World War Two, for example, 279 00:18:12,925 --> 00:18:16,228 when there is really no confusion with modern technology. 280 00:18:16,428 --> 00:18:19,773 If nothing else, I think this is part of our folklore. 281 00:18:19,973 --> 00:18:23,110 This is something that we should be studying as part of our folklore. 282 00:18:23,310 --> 00:18:26,989 So that's what really got me into the... the folklore aspect of this 283 00:18:27,189 --> 00:18:30,409 and looking at some of these old traditions and stories. 284 00:18:30,609 --> 00:18:33,946 And they are particularly rich in Wales. 285 00:18:36,156 --> 00:18:40,210 In Celtic folklore, fairies were enormously important, 286 00:18:40,410 --> 00:18:42,704 and still are, even to this day. 287 00:18:45,666 --> 00:18:47,760 It was only in the sort of Victorian period 288 00:18:47,960 --> 00:18:49,887 that people started to get this romantic idea 289 00:18:50,087 --> 00:18:52,264 that fairies were little Tinkerbell characters 290 00:18:52,464 --> 00:18:55,351 and that these creatures were sort of benevolent 291 00:18:55,551 --> 00:18:57,519 and that they were wanting to help humans 292 00:18:57,719 --> 00:19:00,097 with their magic spells and this kind of thing. 293 00:19:00,848 --> 00:19:01,815 Fairies, in Welsh tradition, 294 00:19:02,015 --> 00:19:04,351 didn't behave anything like the modern idea. 295 00:19:05,602 --> 00:19:12,242 I mean, we're talking about a race of creatures who coexisted with us, 296 00:19:12,442 --> 00:19:14,578 and they were never very friendly. 297 00:19:14,778 --> 00:19:17,289 They had all kinds of amazing abilities, 298 00:19:17,489 --> 00:19:20,701 like the ability to travel at tremendous speed, 299 00:19:21,201 --> 00:19:24,254 to magic people away, to erase their memory. 300 00:19:24,454 --> 00:19:26,081 So they played tricks on people. 301 00:19:29,710 --> 00:19:33,130 And if you got on the wrong side of them, really bad things could happen. 302 00:19:36,550 --> 00:19:39,344 Mother was in the third room, along there. 303 00:19:40,554 --> 00:19:41,555 The second floor. 304 00:19:52,191 --> 00:19:54,326 As soon as I got to bed, 305 00:19:54,526 --> 00:19:59,573 I could see this huge big light was pulsating. 306 00:20:00,866 --> 00:20:04,828 She looked through the window, and she saw this thing... 307 00:20:06,371 --> 00:20:07,789 sort of hovering. 308 00:20:10,834 --> 00:20:13,670 It was so intensive 309 00:20:15,172 --> 00:20:17,382 that I could hardly open my eyes. 310 00:20:19,676 --> 00:20:22,312 And some... These two... 311 00:20:22,512 --> 00:20:25,024 Well, I don't know what you'd call them. 312 00:20:25,224 --> 00:20:27,100 ...figures had come out of it. 313 00:20:28,810 --> 00:20:31,530 They had both very long arms 314 00:20:31,730 --> 00:20:33,523 and very long legs. 315 00:20:34,483 --> 00:20:36,401 But they had no features at all. 316 00:20:39,071 --> 00:20:42,574 They seemed a little unsteady, from what she said. 317 00:20:43,242 --> 00:20:45,419 She shouted, "What do you want?" 318 00:20:45,619 --> 00:20:47,629 We had some chickens not far from there, 319 00:20:47,829 --> 00:20:51,216 and I think she was worried about her chickens more than anything else. 320 00:20:51,416 --> 00:20:53,719 And as I did that, 321 00:20:53,919 --> 00:20:58,215 the heat from the saucer hit me. 322 00:20:59,341 --> 00:21:05,389 And this flying saucer went up in such a speed, 323 00:21:06,056 --> 00:21:08,984 but as if it was just one big dream, 324 00:21:09,184 --> 00:21:11,645 as if I was just imagining, you know? 325 00:21:24,116 --> 00:21:27,461 My father returned a day or two later. 326 00:21:27,661 --> 00:21:28,954 She told him. 327 00:21:29,621 --> 00:21:32,216 Then my father wrote to tell me about it. 328 00:21:32,416 --> 00:21:36,804 And I thought it was ridiculous. I said to myself, "They've all gone mad!" 329 00:21:37,004 --> 00:21:40,716 You know, the schoolchildren and my mother, by the sound of it. 330 00:21:42,342 --> 00:21:45,354 When I came back, my dad said, 331 00:21:45,554 --> 00:21:49,182 "Whatever this thing was, it has left a mark." 332 00:21:49,683 --> 00:21:51,568 So I said, "Oh, let's go and have a look." 333 00:21:51,768 --> 00:21:56,406 And we walked up the field together, and there was this mark on the ground. 334 00:21:56,606 --> 00:22:00,485 The grass looked as though it was burnt, and there was a ridge. 335 00:22:02,154 --> 00:22:04,873 It was the ridge more than anything else, really, 336 00:22:05,073 --> 00:22:07,159 as though something had been there. 337 00:22:12,414 --> 00:22:16,051 When I started looking into these stories, I was writing to the Ministry of Defence 338 00:22:16,251 --> 00:22:19,338 and visiting some of these people and interviewing them. 339 00:22:20,547 --> 00:22:22,382 Then we got Freedom of Information. 340 00:22:23,633 --> 00:22:25,978 We can actually get information out of the government. 341 00:22:26,178 --> 00:22:30,566 We can get files from 20, 30, 40 years ago that we've never been able to see. 342 00:22:30,766 --> 00:22:33,894 And the West Wales incidents were in there. 343 00:22:34,811 --> 00:22:38,615 Rosa Granville writes to her local MP, 344 00:22:38,815 --> 00:22:39,983 Nicholas Edwards. 345 00:22:41,651 --> 00:22:45,956 "This has left me greatly agitated and disturbed, 346 00:22:46,156 --> 00:22:49,084 and not the least bit desirous of another encounter." 347 00:22:49,284 --> 00:22:50,494 I love that phrase. 348 00:22:52,245 --> 00:22:55,883 Nicholas Edwards sends this to the Ministry of Defence, 349 00:22:56,083 --> 00:22:57,968 who contacts RAF Brawdy, 350 00:22:58,168 --> 00:23:01,004 speaks to the community relations officer. 351 00:23:01,838 --> 00:23:04,433 I went there, uh, spoke to the lady. 352 00:23:04,633 --> 00:23:06,518 Unfortunately, I couldn't find any evidence, 353 00:23:06,718 --> 00:23:09,221 any physical evidence that anything had landed there. 354 00:23:10,889 --> 00:23:12,482 I then, as I did always, 355 00:23:12,682 --> 00:23:16,019 passed that report up to the Ministry of Defence. 356 00:23:16,686 --> 00:23:20,816 "I'm unable to offer any explanation other than above." 357 00:23:21,441 --> 00:23:24,077 "But should a UFO arrive at RAF Brawdy, 358 00:23:24,277 --> 00:23:28,281 we will charge normal landing fees and inform you immediately." 359 00:23:30,784 --> 00:23:34,421 What came back was that they knew nothing about it, 360 00:23:34,621 --> 00:23:37,499 and they had asked us not to talk about it. 361 00:23:38,667 --> 00:23:41,011 They didn't want people frightened by it. 362 00:23:41,211 --> 00:23:44,306 Can you honestly say that people are not being hoaxed, 363 00:23:44,506 --> 00:23:46,675 are not being spoofed, in this area? 364 00:23:47,884 --> 00:23:50,062 {an8}I am absolutely positive 365 00:23:50,262 --> 00:23:54,149 {an8}that no human being can simulate 366 00:23:54,349 --> 00:23:56,560 the extreme agitation, 367 00:23:57,561 --> 00:23:58,987 the extreme fright 368 00:23:59,187 --> 00:24:03,692 which some of these people have undergone and have exhibited. 369 00:24:16,413 --> 00:24:20,667 It was about this time in the evening when I had my experience. 370 00:24:22,169 --> 00:24:23,712 Nothing has changed since then. 371 00:24:24,588 --> 00:24:28,133 {an8}Um, it's virtually exactly how it is now. 372 00:24:29,968 --> 00:24:32,971 Just a little bit further down is where my experience started. 373 00:24:33,847 --> 00:24:36,808 And, as it happened, I happened to be down here on my own. 374 00:24:40,770 --> 00:24:42,281 If you look across there now, that... 375 00:24:42,481 --> 00:24:45,033 The field in the background with a big slope, 376 00:24:45,233 --> 00:24:46,860 on the top of that was a glow. 377 00:24:47,777 --> 00:24:51,698 And I noticed that in this glow was like an upside-down saucer. 378 00:24:53,450 --> 00:24:56,786 And I heard the hedge moving a little bit further down. 379 00:24:57,829 --> 00:25:00,549 And it was very, very quiet, 380 00:25:00,749 --> 00:25:02,626 and then this thing stepped out of the hedge. 381 00:25:08,507 --> 00:25:10,600 This is where it came out the hedge, about here. 382 00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:12,469 And I was up by the gate there. 383 00:25:13,845 --> 00:25:15,564 It was a good seven feet tall. 384 00:25:15,764 --> 00:25:18,650 It had like a silver suit with like a motorbike visor. 385 00:25:18,850 --> 00:25:21,269 That's all it had for a face. Very, very dark. 386 00:25:22,354 --> 00:25:26,775 I thought, "Good God, what is that?" "What is... "I thought, "That's not a man." 387 00:25:27,692 --> 00:25:29,069 "No way is that a man." 388 00:25:29,694 --> 00:25:31,571 It started walking up towards me. 389 00:25:32,447 --> 00:25:34,407 I thought, "No, this isn't happening." 390 00:25:34,908 --> 00:25:37,285 I back up onto the laneway there. 391 00:25:38,161 --> 00:25:40,872 As you can imagine, I was quite scared. 392 00:25:42,290 --> 00:25:43,458 So I stood here. 393 00:25:44,918 --> 00:25:46,795 It just kept walking towards me. 394 00:25:47,295 --> 00:25:51,841 So I legged it. I run up to where that telegraph pole is. 395 00:25:54,344 --> 00:25:56,263 If you can imagine, I'm running now. 396 00:25:58,098 --> 00:26:00,734 As I got to here, something told me, 397 00:26:00,934 --> 00:26:02,944 "Turn around and stop, and have a look." 398 00:26:03,144 --> 00:26:05,072 So I stopped, and I turned around, 399 00:26:05,272 --> 00:26:06,531 and it was standing 400 00:26:06,731 --> 00:26:10,193 where that bare patch is in the middle of the road, staring. 401 00:26:13,780 --> 00:26:15,165 It was unbelievable. 402 00:26:15,365 --> 00:26:17,959 And I thought... ..."No, I-I'm going." 403 00:26:18,159 --> 00:26:19,544 "I'm not... I'm not having this. I'm..." 404 00:26:19,744 --> 00:26:22,747 And I just... I legged it home. It really freaked me out. 405 00:26:25,292 --> 00:26:27,386 My dad came down the next day to have a look, 406 00:26:27,586 --> 00:26:29,588 to see if there was anything else about. 407 00:26:30,088 --> 00:26:33,725 And, at the time... 408 00:26:33,925 --> 00:26:36,469 ...this road here had a lot of soft mud on the edge of it. 409 00:26:37,053 --> 00:26:40,765 And when my dad came down, he did notice one... one massive footprint, 410 00:26:41,266 --> 00:26:44,152 which was too big to be an ordinary man's footprint. 411 00:26:44,352 --> 00:26:46,563 He found a footprint about that size. 412 00:26:48,648 --> 00:26:51,410 Yeah, my auntie Pauline got in touch with me. 413 00:26:51,610 --> 00:26:53,954 And all she said, "Tell me, boy." She said, "What did you see?" 414 00:26:54,154 --> 00:26:56,406 And I told her exactly what I'd seen, like. 415 00:26:56,906 --> 00:26:58,792 And she said, "You're all right though, are you?" 416 00:26:58,992 --> 00:27:00,660 I said, "Yeah." I said, "I'm all right." 417 00:27:01,620 --> 00:27:02,587 And then, it was... 418 00:27:02,787 --> 00:27:06,174 I think it was about three or four weeks after, something like that, 419 00:27:06,374 --> 00:27:09,711 and she seen, virtually, the same as what I seen. 420 00:27:11,379 --> 00:27:13,181 When you're an ordinary farming family, 421 00:27:13,381 --> 00:27:15,100 and you're convinced you've seen spaceships 422 00:27:15,300 --> 00:27:16,968 and creatures from another planet, 423 00:27:17,469 --> 00:27:20,272 how do you persuade friends, neighbors, and the world in general, 424 00:27:20,472 --> 00:27:22,766 that you've not taken leave of your senses? 425 00:27:23,266 --> 00:27:26,862 That's the constant problem that's faced Billy and Pauline Coombs 426 00:27:27,062 --> 00:27:28,238 since they became involved 427 00:27:28,438 --> 00:27:32,400 in one of the country's most celebrated UFO sightings two years ago. 428 00:27:35,195 --> 00:27:37,697 It started off with a car drive. 429 00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:42,169 Pauline Coombs was driving back to the farmhouse. 430 00:27:42,369 --> 00:27:44,629 I think it was with three of the children in the car. 431 00:27:44,829 --> 00:27:46,715 And the youngest one, Kieron, 432 00:27:46,915 --> 00:27:49,259 saw what looked like a football-shaped object 433 00:27:49,459 --> 00:27:52,337 that was following them along this dirt road. 434 00:27:53,213 --> 00:27:55,307 And they got more and more worked up and frightened. 435 00:27:55,507 --> 00:27:57,058 The car engine stalled. 436 00:27:57,258 --> 00:27:59,728 When it happened to me the first time, I thought, you know, 437 00:27:59,928 --> 00:28:01,438 "I'm imagining things." 438 00:28:01,638 --> 00:28:04,483 {an8}But there's been so much, you know, happening to this place 439 00:28:04,683 --> 00:28:07,227 {an8}that I've gone to believe it's definitely happening. 440 00:28:10,063 --> 00:28:11,656 Billy Coombs was a herdsman. 441 00:28:11,856 --> 00:28:15,694 He was responsible for, I think, about 120 dairy cattle. 442 00:28:21,241 --> 00:28:24,452 One night, the gate was tied and bolted. 443 00:28:24,953 --> 00:28:28,081 And he'd just sort of been distracted by something, gone back. 444 00:28:28,707 --> 00:28:30,542 This must have been eleven o'clock at night. 445 00:28:32,085 --> 00:28:34,304 Then he got a call from his neighbor on another farm, 446 00:28:34,504 --> 00:28:37,841 about a mile and a half away, saying, "Why are all your cows in my yard?" 447 00:28:40,719 --> 00:28:41,895 And he couldn't explain it, 448 00:28:42,095 --> 00:28:45,140 because how could they possibly have got from one place to another? 449 00:28:50,645 --> 00:28:52,948 - You had 120 cows... - Yes. 450 00:28:53,148 --> 00:28:55,283 ...teleport from one field to another? 451 00:28:55,483 --> 00:28:56,483 To another farm. 452 00:28:56,943 --> 00:28:58,745 That is exactly the sort of tricks 453 00:28:58,945 --> 00:29:01,322 that the Welsh fairies used to sort of play. 454 00:29:01,906 --> 00:29:02,857 That kind of thing. 455 00:29:04,284 --> 00:29:07,254 And then, after that came the silver-suited man, 456 00:29:07,454 --> 00:29:10,165 which was the most terrifying experience of it all. 457 00:29:12,625 --> 00:29:14,511 It was 10:00 on a Thursday. 458 00:29:14,711 --> 00:29:17,630 I went to make a cup of tea to watch a late-night film. 459 00:29:24,637 --> 00:29:26,940 They were sitting there watching the television, 460 00:29:27,140 --> 00:29:30,318 and they noticed something silver by the window. 461 00:29:30,518 --> 00:29:34,197 {an8}The biggest thing I ever seen, like. I got up... I couldn't believe my eyes. 462 00:29:34,397 --> 00:29:35,991 {an8}So I got up and went straight to the window 463 00:29:36,191 --> 00:29:37,617 {an8}and looked up, and... 464 00:29:37,817 --> 00:29:41,821 Well, he was above the window. It's at least eight feet. At least. 465 00:29:42,572 --> 00:29:45,700 Well, this thing was that tall, they couldn't see its face. 466 00:29:46,284 --> 00:29:49,954 So, when Pauline went upstairs to wake the two young daughters, 467 00:29:50,622 --> 00:29:52,999 this thing's head was just below the bedroom window. 468 00:29:54,751 --> 00:29:57,679 And she could see that it had no facial features at all. 469 00:29:57,879 --> 00:29:59,214 Exactly what I'd seen. 470 00:30:06,429 --> 00:30:08,982 The police were called out the night of the incident 471 00:30:09,182 --> 00:30:10,809 at the Coombs's farm. 472 00:30:11,392 --> 00:30:14,312 Sergeant Ernie, of Dyfed Police, answered the call. 473 00:30:14,979 --> 00:30:17,157 It's probably, of all the incidents 474 00:30:17,357 --> 00:30:19,234 in my 26 years' service, 475 00:30:19,776 --> 00:30:22,779 that's the most frightened family I've come across. 476 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:38,553 Another time, it was, you know, quite late, 477 00:30:38,753 --> 00:30:40,180 like 2:00 in the morning, 478 00:30:40,380 --> 00:30:42,265 and we heard the doorbell ring. 479 00:30:42,465 --> 00:30:45,185 And we'd not seen anyone approach the hotel, 480 00:30:45,385 --> 00:30:46,811 come up the drive, 481 00:30:47,011 --> 00:30:50,473 either in a car or, um, on foot. 482 00:30:54,561 --> 00:30:59,524 So I went to the door, and there were these two guys. 483 00:31:00,024 --> 00:31:02,535 They looked like identical twins. 484 00:31:02,735 --> 00:31:05,246 They had hair that was slicked back, 485 00:31:05,446 --> 00:31:07,707 like, um, patent leather. 486 00:31:07,907 --> 00:31:11,911 But what I found quite remarkable was their complexion. 487 00:31:16,916 --> 00:31:18,543 Is your mother home? 488 00:31:23,131 --> 00:31:25,308 as if they were made of wax. 489 00:31:25,508 --> 00:31:26,926 They just said to her, 490 00:31:27,552 --> 00:31:31,648 "We'd like to come back and speak to you at length, 491 00:31:31,848 --> 00:31:34,767 but we have an appointment in Croesgoch." 492 00:31:36,060 --> 00:31:37,987 I got a bit worried about this 493 00:31:38,187 --> 00:31:41,774 because, I mean, they looked so odd! 494 00:31:44,193 --> 00:31:46,329 They walked towards their vehicle. 495 00:31:46,529 --> 00:31:47,529 Gone. 496 00:31:48,197 --> 00:31:49,699 They just vanished. 497 00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:53,128 Well, at the same time, 498 00:31:53,328 --> 00:31:56,372 they had visited Pauline's farm, 499 00:31:57,081 --> 00:31:58,883 which is really odd. 500 00:31:59,083 --> 00:32:03,805 And she said, basically, at the same time they were with us, 501 00:32:04,005 --> 00:32:05,465 they were there as well. 502 00:32:10,929 --> 00:32:14,807 The second incident was late afternoon. 503 00:32:17,393 --> 00:32:20,363 My mother and I were sat in the restaurant 504 00:32:20,563 --> 00:32:23,691 when we noticed something in the sky. 505 00:32:26,110 --> 00:32:29,864 It was like a silver disc, looking at it at first. 506 00:32:30,365 --> 00:32:32,417 And then, it seemed to pulsate light, 507 00:32:32,617 --> 00:32:33,826 an orange light. 508 00:32:40,583 --> 00:32:43,595 Now, this time, I had to ring up Mrs. Coombs 509 00:32:43,795 --> 00:32:47,006 to prove to me that I wasn't seeing things. 510 00:32:49,384 --> 00:32:52,145 And she said, "Yes, we are watching it now." 511 00:32:52,345 --> 00:32:57,350 "My mum, my dad, and all our children, we're all watching this." 512 00:32:58,518 --> 00:33:01,729 To us, it seemed to go down into the sea. 513 00:33:02,689 --> 00:33:04,449 But the Coombs had seen it, 514 00:33:04,649 --> 00:33:08,736 and they said it had gone into the Stack Rock, which is an island. 515 00:33:12,782 --> 00:33:16,127 The reason why the Stack Rocks has taken on this mystique 516 00:33:16,327 --> 00:33:19,672 is because it's equidistant between all the key places. 517 00:33:19,872 --> 00:33:21,633 And, obviously, they could both see it 518 00:33:21,833 --> 00:33:25,253 from their respective homes, from a different angle. 519 00:33:25,837 --> 00:33:29,098 She said that, from her direction, 520 00:33:29,298 --> 00:33:32,135 the rock had opened like a door, 521 00:33:32,635 --> 00:33:34,178 and they disappeared. 522 00:33:37,306 --> 00:33:38,933 This isn't anything new. 523 00:33:39,726 --> 00:33:43,822 Ships' logs have information about UFOs coming out of the water, 524 00:33:44,022 --> 00:33:45,949 hovering next to the ships, and then taking off, 525 00:33:46,149 --> 00:33:47,859 going back into the 1800s. 526 00:33:48,526 --> 00:33:49,819 Um, this has... 527 00:33:50,903 --> 00:33:52,905 This has been going on a long time. 528 00:33:54,282 --> 00:33:58,953 The marine aspect of UAPs, or UFOs, is really interesting. 529 00:33:59,454 --> 00:34:02,549 That is that they are very often associated with water. 530 00:34:02,749 --> 00:34:05,176 They're very often seen coming out of water, 531 00:34:05,376 --> 00:34:06,878 seen going into water, 532 00:34:07,545 --> 00:34:10,423 and sometimes seen underwater. 533 00:34:12,675 --> 00:34:15,303 So we now know that planets are very common. 534 00:34:16,054 --> 00:34:19,107 In fact, planets in the habitable zone, 535 00:34:19,307 --> 00:34:20,942 which is the region 536 00:34:21,142 --> 00:34:24,479 where you can potentially have liquid water on the surface, 537 00:34:24,979 --> 00:34:27,073 those planets are relatively common. 538 00:34:27,273 --> 00:34:31,069 About one in five stars has a planet in the habitable zone, 539 00:34:31,569 --> 00:34:34,197 which is really pretty remarkable when you think about it. 540 00:34:35,823 --> 00:34:38,117 Oceans are great places to live, 541 00:34:39,077 --> 00:34:42,288 especially if you're going to go from planet to planet. 542 00:34:43,372 --> 00:34:47,010 Atmospheres are not very stable with respect to temperature. 543 00:34:47,210 --> 00:34:48,386 So, you go to Venus 544 00:34:48,586 --> 00:34:52,056 and you're looking at 800 degrees Fahrenheit, 545 00:34:52,256 --> 00:34:55,393 and 100 times the atmospheric pressure on Earth. 546 00:34:55,593 --> 00:34:56,728 However, if you're on Mars, 547 00:34:56,928 --> 00:34:59,856 you're looking at something like 100 degrees below zero 548 00:35:00,056 --> 00:35:03,518 with one one-hundredth of the atmospheric pressure on Earth. 549 00:35:04,310 --> 00:35:07,313 Living on surfaces with atmospheres is really pretty horrible. 550 00:35:07,814 --> 00:35:09,490 If you live in an ocean, 551 00:35:09,690 --> 00:35:14,871 the temperature is always going to be within the range of having liquid water, 552 00:35:15,071 --> 00:35:17,115 which is not a very large range. 553 00:35:17,698 --> 00:35:21,210 And the only real differences, 554 00:35:21,410 --> 00:35:25,173 going from one ocean on one planet to another ocean on another planet, 555 00:35:25,373 --> 00:35:30,253 are the trace chemicals that you have floating around in the ocean. 556 00:35:31,504 --> 00:35:35,558 It would be very easy to just hang out in our oceans. 557 00:35:35,758 --> 00:35:39,604 It wouldn't be that different than somebody else's ocean water, 558 00:35:39,804 --> 00:35:41,389 ocean on another planet. 559 00:35:42,473 --> 00:35:47,028 So, there is this idea that if things are visiting us from somewhere else, 560 00:35:47,228 --> 00:35:49,280 they must have a base somewhere 561 00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:52,075 that is miles away from anywhere, that we are not familiar with. 562 00:35:52,275 --> 00:35:54,861 So, what's the obvious place? Under the oceans. 563 00:35:55,820 --> 00:35:59,240 The Stack Rocks seems to fit into that narrative. 564 00:36:00,199 --> 00:36:03,578 And I think that, again, goes back into Celtic mythology. 565 00:36:04,829 --> 00:36:08,257 The islands off the coast were seen as magical islands, 566 00:36:08,457 --> 00:36:10,385 and that's where the fairies would live. 567 00:36:10,585 --> 00:36:14,222 In fact, that's where the Celtic saints went and lived in isolation 568 00:36:14,422 --> 00:36:16,591 so that they could contact the supernatural. 569 00:36:21,304 --> 00:36:23,272 Now, you say you saw a man as well, did you? 570 00:36:23,472 --> 00:36:24,807 And how clearly did you see it? 571 00:36:25,308 --> 00:36:29,404 Well, I... I couldn't see its face 'cause it was too far away. 572 00:36:29,604 --> 00:36:33,441 {an8}I don't think I was the only one that said that. I'm not sure. 573 00:36:33,941 --> 00:36:36,619 Somebody walking near it, to the right-hand side of it. 574 00:36:36,819 --> 00:36:39,864 "I saw a man come out of a door." 575 00:36:40,573 --> 00:36:44,585 "It had pointed ears and a f... furry hat." 576 00:36:44,785 --> 00:36:46,996 Ah, and there's one of your faceless men. 577 00:36:48,289 --> 00:36:52,093 I think there were two or three that claimed they'd seen the occupants. 578 00:36:52,293 --> 00:36:54,721 Now, I never saw these occupants for myself. 579 00:36:54,921 --> 00:36:58,182 I can't verify that anybody actually did 580 00:36:58,382 --> 00:37:01,761 or whether it was juvenile elaboration, 581 00:37:02,720 --> 00:37:04,981 but it brings a whole new depth into it, 582 00:37:05,181 --> 00:37:08,109 because if they really did see the occupants, 583 00:37:08,309 --> 00:37:13,981 then something bigger than we all think happened here that day. 584 00:37:20,613 --> 00:37:23,458 I'd gone home one day, and I said, "We've moved on a step." 585 00:37:23,658 --> 00:37:25,793 "We've moved from unidentified flying objects." 586 00:37:25,993 --> 00:37:27,462 "We're now into spacemen." 587 00:37:27,662 --> 00:37:29,547 My wife said, "Well, what does he look like?" 588 00:37:29,747 --> 00:37:34,385 And I said, "Well, apparently, he or she, uh, because we don't know, 589 00:37:34,585 --> 00:37:36,721 uh, wears a spacesuit, which is silver." 590 00:37:36,921 --> 00:37:37,847 "A sort of a dark visor, 591 00:37:38,047 --> 00:37:40,433 where you might imagine the eyes would be." 592 00:37:40,633 --> 00:37:43,936 And she said, "Well, I've seen him." And I thought, "Well, crikey." 593 00:37:44,136 --> 00:37:46,022 And "No," she said, "I have, genuinely," she said, 594 00:37:46,222 --> 00:37:48,099 "but it's in a shop window in Haverfordwest." 595 00:37:49,517 --> 00:37:52,937 And I went down there, had a look, and it was a... a firefighting suit. 596 00:37:53,771 --> 00:37:57,366 Because at Milford Haven, there's a large oil refinery, 597 00:37:57,566 --> 00:38:00,787 and they had specialist equipment, which included these suits, 598 00:38:00,987 --> 00:38:05,032 to allow them to fight fires with very intense heat. 599 00:38:06,701 --> 00:38:09,045 And I believe that in years after the event, 600 00:38:09,245 --> 00:38:11,914 somebody local admitted to, uh, being a prankster, 601 00:38:12,957 --> 00:38:15,042 wandering around in one of these suits. 602 00:38:16,460 --> 00:38:18,596 Which, personally, I find very disappointing, 603 00:38:18,796 --> 00:38:20,965 because it rather muddied the waters. 604 00:38:21,841 --> 00:38:26,429 ♪ Calling occupants Of interplanetary craft ♪ 605 00:38:29,223 --> 00:38:34,353 ♪ Calling occupants Of interplanetary craft ♪ 606 00:38:36,272 --> 00:38:39,784 {an8} The prankster doesn't account for all of the spaceman sightings 607 00:38:39,984 --> 00:38:42,995 because the pranking followed the sightings. 608 00:38:43,195 --> 00:38:46,374 And it could well be that he was encouraged to do that 609 00:38:46,574 --> 00:38:48,534 by some real experiences. 610 00:38:50,119 --> 00:38:53,256 At one point, he had to dive into some undergrowth... 611 00:38:53,456 --> 00:38:54,715 Whoa! 612 00:38:54,915 --> 00:38:59,003 ...because a lady appeared at the door aiming what appeared to be a gun. 613 00:39:00,129 --> 00:39:04,183 ♪ Calling occupants of interplanetary ♪ 614 00:39:04,383 --> 00:39:07,436 ♪ Quite extraordinary craft ♪ 615 00:39:07,636 --> 00:39:09,814 The temptation is to think the Coombs family 616 00:39:10,014 --> 00:39:11,682 must be either daft or mistaken. 617 00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:14,944 Their continuing problem is that no one's yet been able 618 00:39:15,144 --> 00:39:16,946 to prove or disprove 619 00:39:17,146 --> 00:39:21,150 what must be some of the most remarkable UFO sightings ever reported. 620 00:39:22,318 --> 00:39:25,663 More and more people are claiming that they are seeing things 621 00:39:25,863 --> 00:39:28,407 which cannot be scientifically explained. 622 00:39:29,325 --> 00:39:30,334 It wasn't just here. 623 00:39:30,534 --> 00:39:33,004 There's a number of locations around the county 624 00:39:33,204 --> 00:39:35,081 where the same thing was going on. 625 00:39:36,874 --> 00:39:38,009 The Ministry of Defence, 626 00:39:38,209 --> 00:39:42,171 I think there was something like 450 separate incidents reported to them. 627 00:39:43,964 --> 00:39:46,017 I have tracked down and interviewed some of the people 628 00:39:46,217 --> 00:39:48,102 who were working there at the time. 629 00:39:48,302 --> 00:39:51,606 I mean, some of them were saying, "Maybe there was something going on." 630 00:39:51,806 --> 00:39:53,691 "But 450 sightings?" 631 00:39:53,891 --> 00:39:55,985 "You know, we just simply didn't have 632 00:39:56,185 --> 00:39:58,654 people to send out and look into each one of those." 633 00:39:58,854 --> 00:40:02,450 I just happened to look out, and I saw something in the sky. 634 00:40:02,650 --> 00:40:04,452 It was a dome-shaped object. 635 00:40:04,652 --> 00:40:07,079 Glowing with a pale cream light. 636 00:40:07,279 --> 00:40:09,707 So, what sort of action are you looking for? 637 00:40:09,907 --> 00:40:12,126 Well, I'm hoping that the government will step in, 638 00:40:12,326 --> 00:40:16,372 scientists will step in to help us to understand what these things are. 639 00:40:17,081 --> 00:40:19,467 The sky watchers seek one objective. 640 00:40:19,667 --> 00:40:21,010 Yet another flying saucer 641 00:40:21,210 --> 00:40:23,512 to add to the lengthening list of claimed sightings 642 00:40:23,712 --> 00:40:25,848 over the Pembrokeshire countryside. 643 00:40:26,048 --> 00:40:28,392 There was a lot of pressure on the Ministry of Defence 644 00:40:28,592 --> 00:40:30,686 building up into 1978. 645 00:40:30,886 --> 00:40:34,181 The number of sightings were increasing. The press interest was increasing. 646 00:40:35,891 --> 00:40:38,486 Of the incidents that were reported, 647 00:40:38,686 --> 00:40:41,447 to my knowledge, none of them could be explained 648 00:40:41,647 --> 00:40:46,619 by activity either at RAF Brawdy, or within Wales, generally, 649 00:40:46,819 --> 00:40:50,373 by aircraft that were flown by the military or by civil operators. 650 00:40:50,573 --> 00:40:52,124 Are you all honestly going to say 651 00:40:52,324 --> 00:40:54,502 that you think that the things you saw were, 652 00:40:54,702 --> 00:40:56,087 shall we say, not of this world? 653 00:40:56,287 --> 00:40:58,130 - Yes. - Right. 654 00:40:58,330 --> 00:41:00,299 {an8} People who said, "Oh, they made it up." 655 00:41:00,499 --> 00:41:01,926 {an8}"They made it up for the publicity." 656 00:41:02,126 --> 00:41:04,762 What publicity do you crave when you're ten years of age? 657 00:41:04,962 --> 00:41:08,224 But did they really see an unidentified flying object? 658 00:41:08,424 --> 00:41:10,593 Or was this what caught their eye? 659 00:41:12,178 --> 00:41:15,273 We've been ridiculed by a lot of people, and when you're growing up, 660 00:41:15,473 --> 00:41:17,608 you don't want people to think you're some sort of lunatic. 661 00:41:17,808 --> 00:41:21,479 They're not gonna take you seriously because you've seen little green men. 662 00:41:22,563 --> 00:41:26,325 My mother didn't really want too many people 663 00:41:26,525 --> 00:41:28,869 to know about what she had seen, 664 00:41:29,069 --> 00:41:31,530 what with the story of the white lady. 665 00:41:32,490 --> 00:41:35,251 It frightened most people, I will say, 666 00:41:35,451 --> 00:41:38,037 the idea that there might be a ghost there. 667 00:41:38,746 --> 00:41:41,841 A story about anything else that was paranormal 668 00:41:42,041 --> 00:41:43,667 would only make things worse. 669 00:41:45,127 --> 00:41:48,973 Some people said, "Oh, you've done it to have business." 670 00:41:49,173 --> 00:41:51,058 But, no, we had not. 671 00:41:51,258 --> 00:41:55,062 A hotel which had opened near Milford Haven, 672 00:41:55,262 --> 00:41:59,266 {an8}they had started having UFO weekends. 673 00:41:59,934 --> 00:42:04,322 {an8}They would give people a flask of soup and some sandwiches 674 00:42:04,522 --> 00:42:09,109 and send them out, you know, on maybe, gosh, four-mile walks. 675 00:42:12,696 --> 00:42:15,791 I told my teacher, and he said, "Sure your eyes weren't playing tricks?" 676 00:42:15,991 --> 00:42:16,792 You know, I said, "No." 677 00:42:16,992 --> 00:42:19,295 I said, "My eyes don't play tricks on me. No, they don't." 678 00:42:19,495 --> 00:42:22,465 And I said, "And I'm not stupid." I said, "Far from it." 679 00:42:22,665 --> 00:42:24,458 I said, "What I saw, I saw." 680 00:42:25,334 --> 00:42:28,429 {an8}This thing got up the hedge, and it jumped over... 681 00:42:28,629 --> 00:42:29,880 {an8}jumped over this gate. 682 00:42:30,881 --> 00:42:34,602 And I thought there was something wrong about it. 683 00:42:34,802 --> 00:42:37,680 Like, no man could... no man could jump that gate. 684 00:42:48,065 --> 00:42:49,742 "Spacemen of the terror triangle." 685 00:42:49,942 --> 00:42:52,995 "A towering eerie figure in a glowing silver suit 686 00:42:53,195 --> 00:42:55,864 blocked the window of a lonely farm cottage." 687 00:42:57,366 --> 00:43:01,253 My auntie Pauline, I showed her some of these cuttings and whatever, and... 688 00:43:01,453 --> 00:43:04,331 "Ah, no. Don't bring that up," she said. "Leave it where it is." 689 00:43:06,083 --> 00:43:08,177 I said, "You've gotta talk about it sometime, you know." 690 00:43:08,377 --> 00:43:09,970 "No, we don't," she said. 691 00:43:10,170 --> 00:43:12,756 "Me and the girls," she said, "we don't talk about it at all." 692 00:43:13,549 --> 00:43:18,479 Well, it had the clear cigar shape with the dome on top of that. 693 00:43:18,679 --> 00:43:22,766 What I didn't enjoy was the attention that it brought onto me. 694 00:43:23,434 --> 00:43:26,570 My first four years of secondary school, 695 00:43:26,770 --> 00:43:28,188 they were horrendous. 696 00:43:29,064 --> 00:43:32,660 I was getting physically assaulted on an almost daily basis. 697 00:43:32,860 --> 00:43:33,744 Yes, I did! 698 00:43:33,944 --> 00:43:37,665 Most of the time, they wanted me to say that I hadn't seen a UFO. 699 00:43:37,865 --> 00:43:40,075 They just wanted me to say that I was lying. 700 00:43:40,701 --> 00:43:42,795 But I just couldn't do that. 701 00:43:42,995 --> 00:43:47,842 I just couldn't go back on my principles and say that I was lying when I wasn't. 702 00:43:48,042 --> 00:43:49,969 And we've got some young people in the studio 703 00:43:50,169 --> 00:43:53,005 who claim to have had encounters of their very own. 704 00:43:53,631 --> 00:43:59,145 In 1978, I appeared on a TV program called Magpie. 705 00:43:59,345 --> 00:44:03,649 ...the gentleman. That's David, David, Philip, and Shaun down here. Now... 706 00:44:03,849 --> 00:44:09,363 If you were to see the film of me on Magpie and look closely, 707 00:44:09,563 --> 00:44:11,657 you would see that I have a black eye. 708 00:44:11,857 --> 00:44:16,328 We were watching it for about five or six seconds, 709 00:44:16,528 --> 00:44:19,457 and, um... we just ran off. 710 00:44:19,657 --> 00:44:20,908 We were so scared. 711 00:44:21,784 --> 00:44:24,953 That was given to me for the television, you know. 712 00:44:25,663 --> 00:44:28,040 "Let them try and cover that up with makeup." 713 00:44:29,083 --> 00:44:31,760 With the bullying and the aggression that I got because of it, 714 00:44:31,960 --> 00:44:34,013 I just thought, "I have to speak out, 715 00:44:34,213 --> 00:44:36,765 because there's other people who are going through the same thing 716 00:44:36,965 --> 00:44:40,427 that have done nothing but report something that they've seen." 717 00:44:40,928 --> 00:44:42,846 It was something I felt had to be done. 718 00:44:43,430 --> 00:44:44,899 I saw, like, a door, 719 00:44:45,099 --> 00:44:46,025 and all of a sudden, 720 00:44:46,225 --> 00:44:49,561 this sort of person just sort of walked out. 721 00:44:50,062 --> 00:44:54,408 I'm not embarrassed or ashamed to say that I saw something 45 years ago 722 00:44:54,608 --> 00:44:55,701 that I can't explain. 723 00:44:55,901 --> 00:44:57,620 And to this day, I still can't. 724 00:44:57,820 --> 00:44:59,788 {an8}Having done the work I have done, 725 00:44:59,988 --> 00:45:02,666 {an8}I can give you every assurance on one point, 726 00:45:02,866 --> 00:45:08,580 {an8}that if the public knew precisely what the presence of UFOs mean, 727 00:45:09,415 --> 00:45:11,717 they would literally run for their lives. 728 00:45:11,917 --> 00:45:16,472 Randall Pugh had heard that my mother had had this sighting, 729 00:45:16,672 --> 00:45:18,599 and he came to see us. 730 00:45:18,799 --> 00:45:23,721 And he said that she should tell people about it. 731 00:45:24,263 --> 00:45:27,182 In a way, to back up what the children had seen. 732 00:45:28,475 --> 00:45:31,562 Lots of people were calling them all sorts of names. 733 00:45:33,605 --> 00:45:37,443 Well, now, I had to come forward and say, 734 00:45:38,152 --> 00:45:40,663 "They are definitely genuine." 735 00:45:40,863 --> 00:45:43,666 "What they have seen, I saw myself." 736 00:45:43,866 --> 00:45:45,709 What were the figures like? 737 00:45:45,909 --> 00:45:50,381 Well, they were very tall. Their arms were exceptionally long. 738 00:45:50,581 --> 00:45:52,550 Their legs were exceptionally long. 739 00:45:52,750 --> 00:45:56,303 And, for all, they looked as if they had boilersuits on. 740 00:45:56,503 --> 00:45:57,930 Shiny boilersuits. 741 00:45:58,130 --> 00:46:00,849 And they had sort of a pointed head, you know. 742 00:46:01,049 --> 00:46:03,143 There's something, like, pointed going. 743 00:46:03,343 --> 00:46:05,020 And they definitely didn't have a face. 744 00:46:05,220 --> 00:46:06,522 They were faceless people. 745 00:46:06,722 --> 00:46:10,192 They'd no eyes, no mouth, not even a hole or buttons or anything. 746 00:46:10,392 --> 00:46:12,311 It's definite. It's here. 747 00:46:12,811 --> 00:46:15,063 It's beyond us to know what it is, but it is. 748 00:46:17,274 --> 00:46:19,743 Is it all really a case of mass hysteria, 749 00:46:19,943 --> 00:46:22,496 or is there some reality in the unreal? 750 00:46:22,696 --> 00:46:24,498 The people who live around Broad Haven 751 00:46:24,698 --> 00:46:27,659 will tell you that what they've experienced is real enough. 752 00:46:35,542 --> 00:46:38,754 What the story is about is a re-enchantment of the environment. 753 00:46:41,673 --> 00:46:44,384 People used to believe in all kinds of weird stuff. 754 00:46:47,095 --> 00:46:50,649 In modern times, we don't believe in those kinds of creatures. 755 00:46:50,849 --> 00:46:53,685 But weird stuff is still here. 756 00:46:54,603 --> 00:46:56,155 Obviously, there's something. 757 00:46:56,355 --> 00:47:00,743 Whether it's inherent in the landscape or in people's minds, 758 00:47:00,943 --> 00:47:02,745 they're having the same sort of weird experiences, 759 00:47:02,945 --> 00:47:06,573 but they're expressing them in the pop culture of the time. 760 00:47:10,369 --> 00:47:13,380 Whether it was supernatural or natural, 761 00:47:13,580 --> 00:47:17,042 something happened that literally changed people's lives. 762 00:47:17,709 --> 00:47:21,088 And that in itself, to me, is what's important. 763 00:47:23,882 --> 00:47:26,802 The UFO sighting, it had a major effect on me. 764 00:47:28,345 --> 00:47:33,776 I've never been prejudiced in any way regarding race, sexuality, etc. 765 00:47:33,976 --> 00:47:36,854 And this all stems from... 766 00:47:38,647 --> 00:47:41,942 from this visitation that we had here at this school. 767 00:47:43,360 --> 00:47:47,206 Because if you can accept the possibility 768 00:47:47,406 --> 00:47:50,701 that there may be aliens coming to visit us on this planet, 769 00:47:51,285 --> 00:47:53,078 then you can accept anything. 770 00:48:11,638 --> 00:48:16,610 When I gave my first presentation, my first scientific presentation on UAPs, 771 00:48:16,810 --> 00:48:19,530 and was discussing their flight characteristics, 772 00:48:19,730 --> 00:48:23,400 their speeds and accelerations, one of my colleagues asked me, 773 00:48:23,901 --> 00:48:27,538 "Why would you do this? Why are you studying this?" 774 00:48:27,738 --> 00:48:31,074 "Why put yourself..." "Why put yourself in this position?" 775 00:48:31,575 --> 00:48:36,255 I was worried about getting into it, 'cause there's a huge stigma around this. 776 00:48:36,455 --> 00:48:39,216 I mean, you mention UFOs and everybody giggles, 777 00:48:39,416 --> 00:48:42,010 and nobody takes it seriously. 778 00:48:42,210 --> 00:48:44,430 But, well, now here we are, 779 00:48:44,630 --> 00:48:47,349 and we have ourselves completed 780 00:48:47,549 --> 00:48:49,852 the first stages of the exploration of our solar system. 781 00:48:50,052 --> 00:48:52,054 We visited all the major bodies. 782 00:48:52,888 --> 00:48:55,607 We're now moving to the outer bodies in the Kuiper Belt, 783 00:48:55,807 --> 00:48:58,769 and we have robots operating on Mars right now. 784 00:49:00,562 --> 00:49:03,907 We still, even after that, have this idea 785 00:49:04,107 --> 00:49:07,444 that it's impossible for aliens to come visit us. 786 00:49:08,070 --> 00:49:11,365 It's not impossible at all. In fact, I think it's rather probable. 787 00:49:12,783 --> 00:49:16,211 That's potentially one of the biggest discoveries in human history. 788 00:49:16,411 --> 00:49:18,372 How can you walk away from that? 789 00:49:19,831 --> 00:49:22,709 It's almost like being the center of the universe again. 790 00:49:23,210 --> 00:49:25,095 We have to keep relearning that lesson, 791 00:49:25,295 --> 00:49:28,674 that human beings are not the center of the universe. 792 00:49:30,509 --> 00:49:34,396 Once we have enough scientific groups out there collecting data, 793 00:49:34,596 --> 00:49:37,357 theorizing, thinking about this seriously, 794 00:49:37,557 --> 00:49:39,234 I don't think it'll take long. 795 00:49:39,434 --> 00:49:41,028 I think... I think it'll get solved, 796 00:49:41,228 --> 00:49:42,905 and I think it'll be solved pretty quickly. 797 00:49:43,105 --> 00:49:46,483 And I think it'll really only take a decade to do so. 798 00:49:47,067 --> 00:49:49,236 I think it'll change everything. Yeah. 799 00:49:55,158 --> 00:49:59,788 ♪ Calling occupants Of interplanetary craft ♪ 800 00:50:02,499 --> 00:50:07,170 ♪ Calling occupants Of interplanetary craft ♪ 801 00:50:09,798 --> 00:50:14,019 ♪ Calling occupants of interplanetary ♪ 802 00:50:14,219 --> 00:50:17,222 ♪ Most extraordinary craft ♪ 803 00:50:18,098 --> 00:50:22,269 ♪ You've been observing our earth ♪ 804 00:50:23,562 --> 00:50:29,735 ♪ And we'd like to make A contact with you ♪