Alien autopsy scandal: This fascinating tale of a bizarre DIY hoax reaches Spinal Tap levels of fun | TV and radio

IIf you had to do an interview in the film, how would you hope to meet her? Attractive, honest and a good egg? Or pathologically elusive, to the point where the audience wants to throw their shoes at the screen? I found myself editing Dr. Martens this week, and watching a documentary about the biggest hoax of the last century.

In 1995, a grainy film was released purporting to be an autopsy of a creature recovered from a crash site on military land in Roswell, New Mexico. The incident has long been canonized in UFO science, but no animated footage has ever been released. I’ve seen it. The shapes of hazardous materials loom over a human body with a bulging head, spread out on the table. Its dead oval eyes are black, its mouth is open, and its belly is distended. I saw the shocking footage again last night, or I thought I did. My laptop screen was already dark, having fallen asleep in front of Netflix.

Globally, the media promoted this footage as the most important of all. The Alien Autopsy Scandal (Friday, 9pm, Sky Documentaries) lets us in on a fun look at how this case was actually set up in a Camden flat in London in the 1990s; The brainchild of two entrepreneurs, Ray Santilli and Gary Schofield. The pair used a sculptor who had worked on Doctor Who to create the alien, and a magician to film the film. Their ET was filled with a mixture of animal organs including sheep brain and pig pluck, which is why the whole thing looked convincingly moist.

What is striking is the impudence. Santilli — described as a “music entrepreneur” — still stands by his story. He confirms that a real soldier who served at Roswell in 1947 sold the original film. During the deal, the film suffered oxidation damage – so Santilli decided to reproduce what was missing. His style was inspired by fine art, specifically Leonardo da Vinci’s fresco of The Last Supper, a fragile fresco installed by contemporary artists. “For us, this is a restoration of an existing work.”

When skeptical American journalists demanded an interview with the unknown photographer, Santelli and Shewhart naturally washed and shaved a homeless man and then photographed him in the dark, pretending to be a retired war veteran. (Their primitive filter failed when one investigator showed the contrast on his television set.) The couple insist the photographer is real – but he is now dead. Yes, and I’m in a relationship with Beyoncé, but we keep it a secret.

It’s a great watch – Spinal Tap territory, but real. Funnily enough, it was Reg Presley, singer of the band The Troggs, who revealed the story of the alien’s autopsy. He happens to be a friend of Santelli’s, and we see him telling the world about the existence of aliens on the couch of the ’90s daytime show Good Morning With Anne and Nick. Television reporters around the world smelled the gold rating, too. “I’m a big believer in the universe, and a big believer in momentum,” says Shewhart, who sounds like a strange Harry Enfield character. The one whose slogan could be “Hey big cups!”.

For his part, Santilli is nervous and always smiling. He seems as trustworthy as a wolf selling a used red hood. More than once he raised the issue of fraud – either to press charges or to confess unconsciously. He argues that authenticity is semantics. At another point, he claims that “what we have created is a level of reality in itself.” Not surprisingly, the pair first met when Shewhart sued Santelli over another project. The perfect meet-cute.

Our current dystopia is made by big personalities who have discovered that the biggest lies are easier to sell because their audiences want to believe them. Santilli and Schofield’s smiles invite the shoe. They got rich off their con, thanks to profits from VHS home rentals. Shewhart is interviewed in Beverly Hills. I wonder if he ever called home.

However, in the age of artificial intelligence, where fakery is assumed, there is a similar fascination with hoaxes. Those who were deceived were so because they were innocent. “We are not alone. We have never been alone,” affirms one of the believers. Instead of feeling contempt, I was touched. Today we killed trust and explained our wonder. Many once believed that truth existed, when it did not. Now, no one believes it exists anywhere, even though it exists. I think I need to lie down. Don’t cut me open!