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Alan Godfrey’s experience in November 1980 is widely regarded as one of the most significant examples of an ‘alien abduction’ in the UK. It is certainly seminal, in that such claims were few and far between at the time it occurred, even in the USA. Like many other UFO reports, it relies on the testimony of a single witness. But Godfrey is an impressive witness. Everyone who has met him has been struck by the straightforward, matter-of-fact way he recounts his story. And this story, despite minor variations and inflat­ions, has remained remarkably consistent over the years.

So when, early in 2008, the producers of Channel Five’s series Britain’s Closest Encounters asked David Clarke and Andy Roberts to take part in a documentary centred on Godfrey’s experience, they leapt at the opportunity to look again at a classic British ‘close encounter’ case that had long fascinated them.