BBC Radio 4 for BBC Sounds, December 11 2021

Reviewing the Todmorden sighting from case 3 and other ‘rite weird’ UFOs

Another case review this week, answering fan questions from episode 3, the Todmorden UFO, and delving deeper into other UFO sightings from the late 20th century.

While there’s a tenuous link to a disappearance 100 years previously, it’s fascinating to have some answers to some of the most baffling aspects of the Todmorden phenomena. It feels like every listener has been turned into a forensic detective, puzzling over the facts.

Bob Wallace had a sighting in 1996 – he knows what he saw – in Todmorden, but having grown up in an area famed for UFOs, was the witness pre-conditioned? Can the coincidences be ignored?

Over in 1977 Wales, 14 children saw a UFO, and it made Newsround by the sounds of it. There’s no mistaking John Craven’s dulcet tones. Apparently, the children were isolated and drew pictures of the craft separately, but they could have had time to collude… oh, and Forbidden Planet was on the TV so could the image of a UFO been imprinted in their subconscious? 1994’s playground sighting in Zimbabwe takes it one step further… was Close Encounters of the Third Kind on TV that week?

Questions, questions… There’s another Todmorden witness, Vicky, fairly contemporaneous with Alan’s sighting in the early 1980s, but you have to remember what UFO stands for and the fact that said objects could be made by humans rather than little green people. I’m just about ready to cut up my Team Believer T-shirt when another piece of evidence is unfurled before our eyes, one that explains some of the trouble Alan found himself in during 1980. Ah, but Danny Robins has a curve-ball in the closing minutes that he throws at we believers like a lifebelt, and I’m adding another point just for that. I won’t spoil it here, but do make sure you listen until the end!

Verdict: Aliens? I’m not sure, but in West Yorkshire, no-one can hear you scream. 8/10

Claire Smith