The X Files - Britain's spookiest real-life X-Files

This summer, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson reprise their roles of Mulder and Scully in The X-Files: I Want To Believe. We take a look at some of Britain's spookiest real-life X-Files.


UFOs

In December 1980 a UFO landed in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk. Witnesses included numerous United States Air Force personnel based at RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge. The UFO returned on at least one subsequent night and the witnesses on this occasion included the Deputy Base Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Halt. The Ministry of Defence investigated but no explanation was ever found. The Defence Intelligence Staff assessed radiation levels taken at the landing site as being significantly higher than background levels.


Alien Abductions

The UK's best-known case of alien abduction involved a police officer. Bizarrely, the incident occurred just a month before Britain's most famous UFO sighting, the Rendlesham Forest incident. PC Alan Godrey was based in Todmordon, Yorkshire, when on 28th November 1980 he was sent to investigate reports that cows had broken out of a field and strayed onto the road. When he arrived, he saw a spinning, diamond-shaped UFO hovering over the road. Under hypnotic regression he recalled being taken onboard and meeting an alien called Yosef, who was assisted by robots.


Crop Circles

Britain's most spectacular crop circle was discovered in July 1996 in a wheat field at Windmill Hill, near Avebury, Wiltshire, not far from the ancient stone circle. Dubbed The Triple Julia Set, the formation was a representation of a fractal, a complicated mathematical shape in chaos theory. The formation was made up of 194 individual circles and the formation had a diameter of over 1000 feet.


Ghosts

Borley Rectory in Essex was known as the most haunted house in Britain. It was built in the nineteenth century on the site of a much older rectory and numerous ghosts have been seen there over the years, including a nun and a phantom carriage driven by two headless horsemen. The property was also plagued by poltergeists and at least two exorcisms were performed. Borley Rectory was destroyed by fire in 1939. The Tower of London is the surviving building with the most ghost sightings.


Monsters

Britain's most famous monster story is the Loch Ness Monster, often dubbed Nessie. Sightings date back to the 1930s, though some reports suggest there have been much earlier reports. Witnesses typically describe a large grey or black creature with a long neck and a small head. Several photographs have been taken, though many are widely believed to be faked. Some people believe the sightings involve dinosaurs thought to have been extinct for millions of years. In 1987 a number of vessels took part in a survey of the loch, using sophisticated sonar equipment. A number of strange contacts were detected.


The X-Files: I Want To Believe will be released in UK cinemas on 1st August 2008.