Beadle's About was
a highly controversial reality TV comedy from the 1980's and 90's. It led to
its eponymous presenter, Jeremy Beadle, being branded a public enemy. The
format of the programme was that an unsuspecting member of the public would be
subjected to a practical joke while being filmed secretly with hidden cameras.
Sometimes actors would be brought in to assist the mechanism of the prank. A
typical example would be: a plumber with a nice new van would see his beloved vehicle
destroyed by it trundling off a cliff or being stolen and crushed by rogue scrap
metal merchants. Unknown to him, the vehicle was an identical replacement that
had been switched for his own. The studio audience could be heard laughing
hysterically in the background at the reaction of the participant, or should I
say victim. Despite the fact that all the programmes broadcast were done so
with retrospective permission from the butt of the joke, Beadle has been
accused of sadism. See: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0244897/.
The most ambitious trick in Beadle's About came during its last season of 1996; and it is also
the most significant from a HPANWO-esque standpoint. Interestingly I never
watched this at the time and I only heard about it after I was contacted last
week independently by two different people. The scene had a budget of £50,000
and needed to cooperation of the police, armed forces and emergency services. A
policeman who knew the subject personally was recruited to assist in the stunt.
Janet Elford is a farmer's wife who lives in a small village in Dorset .
She arrived home one evening to find the local bobby she knew waiting for her
at the entrance to a cordon. A large area, including her home, had been sealed
off and was occupied by men wearing uniforms and NBC suits. The policeman reassured
Mrs Elford that her family were safe, but a strange object from space had
crashed in her garden. A huge crater was sunk into the ground and a strange irregularly
shaped object lay at the bottom of it with smoke coming off it. A group of
actors pretending to be government scientists then ask Mrs Elford questions
about "meteorite activity" in the local area and one of them asks if
she has any musical abilities and she replies in the affirmative. They then
persuade her to sing to the crashed object. There is a small explosion on the
UFO and then a grey alien rises out of the top of it to Mrs Elford's alarm. The
alien is a rather crude dummy and the audience roar with laughter at the sight
of it; but Mrs Elford, in her shocked state of mind, does not notice how
unrealistic the prop is. She asks in a tremulous voice: "What do you
want?... What do you want from us?" The alien makes an unintelligible
noise as a reply. The alien model then descends back into the UFO and Mrs
Elford says: "Where are you going? Please come back." When she asks:
"Do you want a cup of tea?" it reappears. She asks the alien if it's
hungry and whether it can nod its head. Beadle then enters the scene dressed as
an alien and, in his trademark fashion, produces a portable microphone, letting
the subject know that they have been had. Mrs Elford then recognizes him and
dissolves into embarrassed merriment. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnxMd5e-lM0.
Nobody has ever reacted angrily at these moments and also nobody has ever guessed
that they are on Beadle's About before
the reveal. I have no doubt that this stunt was produced from top to bottom for
entertainment purposes only. The team behind it, such as the producer Clive
Doig, have a curriculum vitae than runs through the more innocent end of the
media. Despite this, it is possible that other parties might have watched the
skit carefully for other purposes than a primetime giggle. As I have discussed
regularly on HPANWO there are elements in authority who know very well that real
aliens exist and that sometimes their craft do land or crash on earth, see
background links below. There have been many real events just like the comedy charade
designed for Beadle's About; the most
famous is the Roswell Incident of New Mexico USA in July 1947. The way the
public react to them has been a source of major psychological study. I suspect
that the 1938 radio docudrama War of the
Worlds might have been used in this way, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2018/01/fake-hawaii-missile-alert.html.
It is perfectly possible that this episode of Beadle's About has been studied by covert government psychologists.
They want to know how ordinary people would react in a real situation like
this. Sometimes they do more than just wait for useful opportunities; they
create them, especially when it comes to young children, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2013/09/fake-roswell-at-school.html.
Are they preparing the ground for real Disclosure? I'm very internally divided
about that. Maybe they are trying to design methods of keeping the lid down on an
accidental release of information that they do not want declassified. Either
way, it is clear that even the most harmless frolics of light entertainment can
be co-opted for a sinister purpose.
See here for
background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2014/05/weird-ufo-meeting-in-london.html.
And: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2018/09/ufo-disclosure-2018-history-has-been.html.
Did Mrs Elford really say to the 'alien': "Do you want a cup of tea?" If that is true, then there in that one sentence are all the reasons why I am proud to be British.
ReplyDeleteYes, it was a wonderful moment. It reminded me of Arthur C Clarke's short story "Trouble with the Natives".
ReplyDeleteGreat post Ben, I do vaguely recall that Beadles About episode. However, i think to say the show was "controversial" and that Beadle was hated that much because of his pranks, is a little exaggerated. I doubt Jeremy Beadle was public enemy number 1.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Anon. I suppose I was exaggerating somewhat, but his show definitely was controversial, as was he.
ReplyDelete