Finally watched the Rendlesham Forest doc - what a load of nonsense

Right, so I've been meaning to watch The Rendlesham Forest Incident Revisited (BBC, 2019) for ages, and I finally got round to it last night with a cuppa and a biscuit. Two hours of my life I'm not getting back, mate.

Don't get me wrong, the actual incident in December '80 is genuinely fascinating - American servicemen, mysterious lights over Suffolk, the lot. But this documentary spends 40 minutes on interviews with local farmers talking about the "general spookiness" of the area, and then brings in some bloke from Reading who reckons it was definitely aliens. No evidence. Just vibes.

Has anyone here actually read Halt's official memo? Because the documentary conveniently glosses over the contradictions in the different accounts. One minute they're saying it was a UFO, next minute it's a secret military test. The sceptic in me thinks this is more about selling the mystery than solving it.

Still gave it 3/5 stars on iPlayer though. Decent production values and the archive footage is worth watching. Just don't expect answers.

Completely agree with you. I've read Left at East Gate cover to cover twice, and honestly? The documentary is a dumbed-down version that cherry-picks the spooky bits. The memo's fascinating precisely because it's vague - that's what makes it real, innit. A dodgy cameraman in 2019 saying "I saw something once" doesn't add anything to that.

You're wrong, mate. The documentary literally shows new testimonies from Rendlesham personnel who've never spoken publicly. The declassified documents are all there. Just because you don't like the conclusion doesn't mean it's nonsense. The US government wouldn't scramble jets for a weather balloon.

One minute they're saying it was a UFO, next minute it's a secret military test.

This is exactly why the case is brilliant though? It's genuinely unclear! That's the whole point. The multiple interpretations are what make Rendlesham real - if everyone agreed on one explanation, it would've been solved forty years ago. The documentary captures that confusion perfectly.

The Reading bloke was hilarious. "It had a consciousness," he says, without a shred of evidence. Meanwhile the chap from the UFO sceptics society was drowned out by dramatic music. Typical BBC - they want the mystery to stay unsolved because solved mysteries don't get repeat broadcasts.