The Infinite Monkey Cage - Lucy Beaumont's Close Encounters

Episode Date: February 12, 2020

Brian Cox and Robin Ince send comedian Lucy Beaumont to investigate UFO sightings in the extra-terrestrial hotspot of... Hull! Lucy is joined by her mum GIll Adams who claims to have experienced a number of close encounters of the third kind and they return to Longhill Estate where a UFO was reported in the 1960s. Local historian Mike Covell takes Lucy through the documented accounts of prolific UFO sightings in and around the East Yorkshire area.

In our new podcast, Nature Answers, rural stories from a changing planet, we are traveling with you to Uganda and Ghana to meet the people on the front lines of climate change. We will share stories of how they are thriving using lessons learned from nature. And good news, it is working. Learn more by listening to Nature Answers wherever you get your podcasts. BBC Sounds. Music, radio, podcasts. Hello and welcome to the Infinite Monkey Cage extra bonus special UFO extra special. I don't know, what is it? It's basically the offcuts. What do you mean the offcuts? Well, it's the bits that they, the powers that be,

thought were too close to the truth because it proves that there is a nexus of alien activity in the very heart of our civilisation. Where is that again, Lucy? Hull. Why in Hull? Why not? Very good. Very good point.

That's not an argument. That is where everything derives from Hull. Anyway. Historically and metaphorically. Anyway, Lucy went to Hull and here is the report they didn't want you to... Who writes this? Tribble. They do.

Hello. My name is Lucy Beaumont and I am a writer and comedian. But today I am very serious about something. I am very serious about aliens and UFO activity. In 1913, in this area where I was stood, bright lights were seen in the sky. They were, like, white and red and crowds gathered. There were policemen there and residents

and it was there for nearly an hour. We've come to Hull to investigate UFOs and to prove that aliens do exist. Not proving to me, I know they exist. We're proving to you and to Brian Cox. I have seen things happen. Things have fallen from the sky next to me. My mum has definitely been tampered with. She's had things fall out of her ear,

like alien chips. People have been abducted that we know. Everyone always says the same thing. When anyone ever goes public about it, someone knocks on the door in a suit and says, be quiet. I'm here today to talk to Matt Covell, who is a

historian, a UFO expert. Hello Mike Hello. Matt spent his life researching the unknown and the unexplained So Mike we're here in your study. I can see a lot of

research archives here and living in Hull there must be so many unexplained stories do you think? Oh yeah there is yeah I mean I started researching UFOs and found all sorts and a lot of it had not been published before it never appeared in print and there was a lot of people that had seen stuff and wouldn't come forward because they were afraid of what people might think of them and I was able to go to the archives and show them that other people had reported it you know and they wasn't alone in there in what they'd seen what I do is

not just the newspaper archives but I go through sort of the national archives as well so I've also got with me documents from the government and stuff that show that these sightings of Hull were happening and being reported by quite stand-up, well-respected observers. So can you give us a brief history then of UFO activity in the Hull and East Yorkshire area, Mike? Yeah, certainly. I mean, one of the earliest reports came in 1801 that said this strange orb had come towards the town.

It had flown over the Humber. It was blue in colour, but once it was hovering over the Humber um it was blue in color but once it was hovering over the humber it split off into four pieces um the residents in the town witnessed this they then saw it come back together and form one piece before it flew off now something like that's not not like a celestial object or anything like that no because they won't have watched et then will they are x files that have had none of that so in 1909 there was a number of scareship sightings in 1913 that really peaked um when the entire country was was worried about these things but in whole there was a lot of sightings uh right through the 1940s there was a number of sightings and and from sort of 1947 it

really picked up 1967 was a big year with with a lot of sightings in that year in in Hull this was a sighting that took place uh in a place called Longhill Park and a number of school children had seen this one um and so this was reported in the newspapers and what you've got there are the contemporary press reports that were published at the time and on the flip side you've got the modern reports that ask out for people because obviously people want eyewitnesses to come forward and speak about what they'd seen in the skies over Hull. Wow because I knew about this because my mum told me because my mum was she was brought up on Long Hill Estate I in my head believed that and that's when the aliens

came down and sort of intermingled with people on the estate and have affected my mum in that way Roedd y gwahanolion wedi dod i lawr a chyfuno â phobl ar y fferm ac wedi effeithio ar fy mab yn y ffordd honno, gan credu bod ei mab yn cael creadigedd gwahanolion i hi. Wel, rydyn ni nawr ar y trawl, yn y bôn. Rydyn ni'n mynd yn ôl i ble mae fy mab oedd, lle ddodd yr aircraft sy'n ysgog. Pwy sy'n gwybod, gallwn ni weithio gweld rhywfaint. landed who knows we might actually see some we are at the long hill estate in east hull and we're on the park lands this is my mother hello i am your mum yes my real mum aren't you i am and my mum was brought up here on the long hill estate

and you frequented this park didn't you? I played here if that's what you mean yeah. Yeah and so we are here because in the 60s a cigar shaped object it was seen by children playing in this very spot hovered and it hovered and apparently it came down and went back up again and then down again and then flew off just here and then the thing is um scorch marks were seen on the hill where it happened and you saw those scorch marks didn't you mum well we climbed on there to get a better look of the hit of the scorch marks and from up there you could actually see the shape of a we called them flying saucers but you've got to remember in the 60s there was space travel and as kids we we couldn't

you know the way it going the way it flying to the moon like just to see the moon they were going to look for martians so you know we were a little bit obsessed i know this sounds weird but vans did arrive men in black did arrive and apparently they had suits on as well all the kids then were on care for you you weren't allowed out this is true um and we weren't allowed back in the park for a long time. Now, me and our Ricky, my brother, we did, because we lived over there. You see over there? You see that white house there? We can see the end of it, right?

There's a bright light shining, which actually, Lucy, that's a bit weird. There's a really bright light, look, there. What is that? Look at that green light. What's that green light there? Straight ahead. Oh, my God god that looks like eyes anyway so you see the you see the blue house where obviously it ain't council owned now because she

wouldn't be able to paint them blue but that's that's our house so when they locked park we didn't have to come through the gates we ran across the fields and we sneaked in now our laid like a starfish on top of their mills, begging. Is that when they tampered with you? I laid like a starfish on their mills begging them.

Beam me up, beam me up. And I can remember flying out the window for a few nights after that. I don't know, I never told you that, did I? It's weird what you remember when you're uh when you take them back yeah yeah and the window was like it just disappeared i aren't kidding you i aren't kidding you you ask our ricky we did it it happened a few times so when the locked park here and the band all the kids from coming back now i've spoke to them and they said oh it's

because everyone was scaremongering they're all scaremongering and all the kids were scared that's why they locked park it isn't it's because the men in black had arrived when you say men in black i don't want people to like think like will smith who what do you mean when you say men in black do you mean mi mi5 no mi5 is a motorway so what was strange is now it's what forensic people wear you know like the boiler suits with the hoods well in them days of course we didn't know we didn't know what what you know they looked like so that was strange because they had the hoods up and everything, the gloves, the masks, the lot. Why? They were doing tests, weren't they, then?

They were doing tests? Well, there hadn't been a murder, you know, so there was no reason. So we are at the top of the hill now. We've climbed up it. How do you feel? Well, I feel like I want to lay down, because what I did as a kid, I laid down on the floor like a starfish. And I think our Ricky went and collected coloured glass.

I don't know where he got it from and he put it all round me. It feels weird being here. I can't quite explain it. Why have you got toothache? You know I had a earache for absolutely years, didn't I? Yeah. Years. And I sneezed.

And this chip fell out of my ear. Now, Steve said at first it's a bit of cartilage, but it wasn't. It looked like a chip. You know, not, you know, a computer chip. So anyway, it was identical to the ones that they were saying were alien chips. So I wrapped it in a bit of tissue paper and I was going to send it off

to a laboratory or something in Leeds because I had a contact there at the university. And the cat ate it. Well, you know this story don't laugh don't because then he disappeared he disappeared yes the cat

disappeared I don't want to alarm you but there is a car with blacked out windows just arrived over there what do you think to that then brian well thank you lucy for that uh incisive journalism okay i just wondered like now that we've convinced you will you have to sort of go back and sort of restudy or something would you even have to go back like right back to a level and stuff like

that and rethink everything do something practical rather than physics. Not entirely convinced. Why? Anyway, thanks again, Lucy, and you can also listen to... Are you an alien? You can also listen to our panel's response to that report in our full Radio 4 UFO show on BBC Sounds. As you've heard already, it's pretty conclusive, eh?

Thank you to Lucy Beaumont, Mike Covel and Lucy's mum, Jill Adams, for taking us on that... Can they see your feet? It's levitating. ...adventure. Any final words? Nanu, nanu. Thank you. In the infinite monkey cage.

The naughty monkey cage. In the infinite monkey cage. Without your trousers. In the infinite monkey cage. Do you want now nice again BBC Sounds Music, radio, podcasts What are you interested in?

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