On November 26th, 1977, there was a broadcast (Television) interruption
in parts of South, South-east, and South-west England. Southern
Television was the licence holder for the service, headquartered in
Southampton and Dover, and broadcast from the transmitters at Dover,
Bluebell Hill, and Hannington. The interruption made headlines across
the world and the event still remains a complete mystery. These
headlines were responsible for causing a degree of panic at the time.
“I'd
first like to refer to the recording itself of the complete message,
one thing that struck me was that there was in fact nothing threatening
whatsoever on the tape, and I was aware that most of the newspaper
reports said it was threatening and frightening and so on, and so forth,
and I just want to point out that that's sort-of a projection of the
fears onto the material itself rather than the reality.”
- Sir John Henry Douglas Whitmore, interviewed by British radio and television presenter Bob Holness in December 1977.
A popular clip
that can be found all over the internet today shows Southern TV’s news
anchor Andrew Gardner relaying the day’s news when all of a sudden, the
TVs of those who were watching went blurry. The broadcast was replaced
by a distorted voice that delivered a message for approximately six
minutes....<<<Read More>>>...