BBC Radio 4 for BBC Sounds

“Have you ever heard the expression: ‘he was frightened to death’? That was the look on his face.”

Thank goodness, Uncanny is looking at a UFO sighting from 1980 this week rather than ghosts, this won’t be as scary. Wrong.

Alan is a straight up Yorkshireman who calls a spade a spade, and I have the urge to make him a nice cuppa and sit him down with some digestives as he retells the event of a local man who disappeared, only to return with burn marks, strange substances and shaved hair – but no coal – on top of a coal heap a week later. Add to that a herd of disappearing cows and a diamond-shaped, black metallic-panelled ‘right weird’ rotating unidentified flying object.

Our experts this week are academic David Clark, a leading UK UFO expert and Colin Lyle, a local Todmorden UFO researcher. They provide more context and insight as to the numerous sightings that took place in the same year… and just when you start to think that there are such a wide range of witnesses and sightings, there has to be something in this – we’re reminded that the special edition of Close Encounters of the Third Kind came out that year. Could it just have been the population’s collective consciousness being under the influence? What energies swirl around the beautiful yet spooky Yorkshire moors? Or is the local architecture to blame?

The twists and turns in the path of this story are like hairpin bends on the side of a mountain, in the middle of a rockfall. One of the rocks has KGB stamped on it in big red letters. No, seriously. I’m really challenged by this as the logical explanations offered do make sense to me – but I’m not giving up my Team Believer badge just yet – it doesn’t all add up. Fundamentally, surely the idea that the only life in the vast universe is on our tiny planet is the more unlikely one? But have we been visited by anyone from a galaxy far, far away?

My take on case 3: There might be a more earth-bound explanation for some of these phenomena, but that leaves pot holes the size of the spire on Todmorden church. The reality is, these events left a man broken and my heart goes out to dear Alan. Hope he gets his answers one day.

Verdict: Never underestimate the carefully crafted drip, drip of information, information, bombshell, information, conspiracy, twist, information, nightmare fuel that is the signature of a Danny Robins podcast. 8/10

Claire Smith