On 20 June 1977, Anglia TV in England caused a nationwide stir when it aired a ‘documentary’ called Alternative Three as part of the station’s Science Report programme.
By linking facts with half-truths and by staging interviews with so-called “astronomers” and “astronauts,” the makers suggested that both NASA’s space programme and the Cold War were decoys.
The power elite in the USSR, the US, and Great Britain had, in fact, been working together on a secret project – “Alternative Three” – that had established bases on the moon and on Mars so that they could escape the coming ecological nightmare on earth.
Insiders who were deemed a security risk were callously murdered. Scientists had been abducted to do experiments in the space colonies. Even ordinary folks had been snatched and forced into slave labour on the moon and on the red planet.
It was, of course, all a hoax, made clear by the closing credits that listed the actors on the show and contained a copyright notice dated 1 April. 1977. It was written by David Ambrose and directed by Christopher Miles.
Nonetheless, Anglia was flooded with calls, and newspaper headlines reported “shock” and “panic.”
To this day, some people believe that all of it – or some of it – is true.
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