Bradley Walsh, presenter of The Chase for 17 years, has set out to answer one big question in his latest TV series: are we alone in the universe? The 66-year-old star travels across the UK, Europe and America in Bradley Walsh: Out of This World, a four-episode series for Sky HISTORY investigating some of the greatest mysteries on and beyond our planet.
“Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not,” he tells the Express. “Both are equally terrifying. These stories from highly credible people are mind-blowing. Basically, the message is: stop looking at your phone and look up.”
UFO Sightings and Public Belief
Tens of thousands of UFO sightings are recorded every year worldwide, and between 5% and 15% of them are unexplained or unknown. Half of all Brits believe aliens exist, including Bradley himself, who asks: “What makes us so obsessed with unexplained phenomena?”
It turns out 7% of Brits claim to have seen a UFO and almost half (49%) believe the Government has evidence of UFOs that they are withholding from the public. Combining scientific investigation, curiosity and his trademark humour, Bradley explores Britain’s declassified UFO files, investigates the infamous Rendlesham Forest incident (a series of reported UFO sightings by the military in Suffolk in 1980) and travels to Arizona to meet those who saw the Phoenix Lights – a series of widely sighted luminous objects and formations across a 300-mile stretch of Nevada and Arizona in 1997.
Crop Circle Country in Wiltshire
In Wiltshire, Bradley delves deep into crop circle country and meets with eyewitnesses and expert researchers to investigate these extraordinary formations. Monique Klinkenbergh is the founder and director of The Crop Circle Visitor Centre and Exhibition in Honeystreet, Wiltshire. She moved to the county from the Netherlands to study and document crop circle formations and has spent almost two decades researching and documenting the crop circle phenomenon from an ultralight aircraft over the Wiltshire fields each summer.
She tells the Express: “It was surreal having Bradley here, but he was truly interested and he does believe there is more to it. I too believe there is much more going on than we can yet explain.”
“While many crop circles are human-made using planks and ropes, that does not explain the ones that happen in such a short space of time. That time frame is really important because what can be done by a big team over a few days does not explain the ones that happen in a short time frame,” she says. “We have around 50 really reliable eyewitnesses who have seen crop circles appear within minutes, even seconds. They report an invisible force that is putting the wheat flat, unexplained lights and sounds.”
The Visitor Centre and Notable Formations
Monique’s visitor centre, which opened in 2013, is a hub for research into the phenomenon and for people who want to learn about the latest crop circles and whether they can be visited. Several thousand visitors from all over the world descend each summer to find out more about this fascinating and puzzling subject.
“There is a lot of misinformation circulating. I want to provide people with factual, reliable information and encourage them to keep an open mind. I am also committed to supporting the farming community out there, but I want people to keep an open mind,” she says. “Most people who come to the centre and to see the exhibition are interested in the subject, but there are sceptics too. It’s nice to see them leave the exhibition wondering, ‘is there really something going on?’ After all, wonder is the basis of all scientific research.”
Monique has had her own brush with the unexplainable, although she prefers to use the term “extra-terrestrial” to “alien”. She awoke in the middle of the night in 2009 to a strange force urging her to go outside. A five-minute drive at about 4am led her to a fresh crop circle. “I felt a consciousness – it was a very unusual feeling, but I just knew where to go,” she says. “When I got there and saw the crop circle, the wheat was bent, not broken, and there were no hallmarks of any human involvement whatsoever. I have to keep an open mind because I just can’t explain it.” Monique estimates that around 25% of crop circles worldwide are not explainable and don't appear to have been made by humans.
The arrival of a sensational crop circle "pictogram" in July 1990 in Wiltshire (East Field Pictogram) created worldwide publicity and put the phenomenon on the map. The massive, approximately 600ft-long complex geometric pictogram later featured on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s Remasters compilation album. About 20 miles away, in 1996, another famous formation, the Julia Set, appeared much closer to Stonehenge, and even more unusually, appeared during the day. It was a massive 915ft fractal pattern composed of 151 individual circles. Monique managed to track down a passing taxi driver who saw it happening and reported a mist, lights and sounds while driving down to visit her son, who was home from the army.
Another witness, a light aircraft pilot, reported that the field was completely empty at around 5.15 PM, yet the entire intricate pattern was present when he flew back over the same spot roughly 45 minutes later. So far, approximately 7,000 formations have been recorded in more than 60 countries around the world, ranging from Belgium, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Switzerland, and Ukraine. From 1959 to 2007, the Ministry of Defence recorded 11,000 UFO sightings over the UK, and Wiltshire is certainly a hotspot.
Military Encounters and a Final Interview
The series also explores military UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena). During the series, viewers will hear first-hand testimony from former US military personnel, Lt Cdr Alex Dietrich and Jeffrey Nuccetelli, who witnessed the extraordinary "Tic Tac" object. Named for its smooth, oblong shape resembling a white breath mint, the object displayed high-speed manoeuvres that appeared to defy known laws of physics. As pressure grows on the US government to reveal what it knows, Bradley explores newly released files and asks whether decades of secrecy have hidden something extraordinary.
He then travels to Sweden, home to the world’s largest UFO archive, to explore stranger objects reported beneath the waves. Investigating the bizarre Ghost Rockets of the 1940s and the mysterious Baltic Sea Anomaly discovered resting on the seabed of the Gulf of Bothnia.
One of the most poignant episodes in the series is Bradley’s interview with journalist and UFO investigator Nick Pope, who worked for the MoD for 20 years, including three years on the UFO desk, before moving to the US in 2012 as a researcher and author of unexplained aerial phenomena. He tells Bradley that while 80% of sightings can be explained, for 15% there is not enough evidence to be sure and 5% of sightings are completely unknown. The programme turned out to be Nick’s last interview after the 60-year-old died after a battle with cancer earlier this year.
So perhaps in tribute the last word should go to Nick, who concluded: “We are definitely not alone in the universe. Whether we are being visited, I am less sure, but a world with aliens in it is going to be far more interesting and fun than a world without them.” One thing's for certain, Bradley Walsh definitely believes this could be our final chase. Bradley Walsh: Out of This World, all episodes available now on Sky HISTORY and HISTORY Play.
