An unassuming field next to a housing estate in Stoke-on-Trent is taking centre stage in the latest alien blockbuster – and it’s inspired by true events.
The new stage production, Bright Lights Over Bentilee, focuses on the event in which dozens of people on an estate in the town claimed to have witnessed bright lights in the sky and a UFO landing in the field next to their homes.
Sky News went to meet playwright and former Coronation Street star Deborah McAndrew, to discuss what happened on the 2nd of September 1967 and why she felt compelled to bring the story to life.
“What they saw was a large red saucer-shaped object about the size of a car,” she explained.
Image: Some in the community claim they saw a large red saucer-shaped object about the size of a car in the sky. Pic: Andrew Billington Photography
On that night, just after 9pm there were eight separate sightings from people claiming to have seen a mysterious “glowing craft” which silently flew over the heads of residents.
Housewives, children, even a police officer said they saw it, that it changed colour and then dropped down into scrubland.
Image: Former Corrie star Deborah McAndrew said she believes what people told her they saw
They claimed, as they set about searching through the fields for it, it then “took off and was bright white like a car headlight… and then just disappeared”.
McAndrew found herself delving into what happened after coming across some old news footage of interviews with residents at the time.
Image: Pic: Andrew Billington Photography
Image: Pic: Andrew Billington Photography
Fascinated by how locals seemingly went back to work the next day and carried on as normal, she started doing her own digging which included speaking with one of the young kids who’d chased it.
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“When nothing happens it just gradually fades into myth… until some random playwright phones you up 50 years later and says ‘do you want to tell me about that UFO you saw?'” McAndrew explained.
Image: Pic: Andrew Billington Photography
While she admits “there’s no way of knowing now what it was” the writer says “when people tell me they’ve seen things, I believe them”.
While doubters might speculate that, coming at the time of the space race, locals perhaps might have confused a UFO with a satellite, McAndrew points out: “It was a landing, it didn’t just fly in the sky, it came down and then took off again.”
Could TV shows be partly to blame? As sci-fi related culture took off, the MoD saw a gradual increase in reports of UFO sightings.
Image: Pic: Andrew Billington Photography
Actress Polly Lister, who plays a housewife called Beverley in the play, says: “It would be very hard to completely write it off because every single one of those people, I believe, is telling the truth of what they saw.”
Eddy Westbury, who also stars in the drama, says: “You hear a lot of things people have seen in America… this one is particularly interesting purely because of all the accounts… completely different people, in different places… it wasn’t like [they] saw a green man jumping out of a vehicle, literally what they saw, what they experienced, they all seem to line up.”
No doubt the truth is out there somewhere, but until then, they’ll have to make-do with the dramatised version which follows the community fall-out from that night.
Claybody Theatre’s Bright Lights Over Bentilee runs until 12 October at The Dipping House, Stoke.
A woman who saw a man falling from an upper tier at Wembley Stadium says a similar incident at an Oasis concert over the weekend in which a fan died makes her wonder whether lessons have been learned.
Stephanie Good, 39, said a man fell during a Euro 2020 match between England and Croatia at Wembley in June 2021.
He landed “right next to where we were” on the “stairwell between rows of seats”, she said.
Named as Jon, he reportedly survived but suffered two broken ankles, a fractured femur and fractured pelvis just before kick-off.
Ms Good said she tried to give feedback but was unable to and felt the “emergency response was really lacking”.
The man reportedly fell from the stadium’s upper tier.
In his 40s, he was found with “injuries consistent with a fall” and pronounced dead at the scene, the Met Police said.
Ms Good, an NHS manager from east London, said what happened at the Oasis gig was “so similar” to what she witnessed that it made her wonder “were lessons learned”?
Image: Liam and Noel Gallagher on stage for the first Wembley night of the Oasis reunion tour. Pic: Lewis Evans
During that incident, among stadium staff “nobody seemed to know what to do”, she told the Press Association.
She thinks the man may have been trying to attach a flag to the front of a stand and “somehow managed to fall straight over”.
She said: “They (staff) didn’t seem well-trained in terms of how to respond to a really big emergency.
“Their stewards were kind of paralysed a little bit by fear, or they just weren’t well trained and didn’t know how to call for paramedics.
“It was us who were sort of shouting at them that they needed to get some paramedics.
“The first person on the scene wasn’t a stadium paramedic or St John Ambulance. It was an off-duty firefighter who had seen the guy fall and ran down to just try and offer some help.”
Regarding the follow-up, Ms Good said staff moved spectators to other seats but did not ask for witness statements.
She added: “They didn’t seek any input from people who’d seen the incident or the aftermath of it. They didn’t seem interested in speaking to anybody about it.
“I was a bit concerned, because I felt that the emergency response was really lacking.”
She then tried to get in touch to give feedback, but was unable to do so and did not receive a response to a message on social media, she said.
A Wembley spokesperson said: “Wembley Stadium operates to a very high health and safety standard, fully meeting legal requirements for the safety of spectators and staff, and is certified to and compliant with the ISO 45001 standard.
“We work very closely and collaboratively with all relevant event delivery stakeholders – including event owners, local authorities, the Sports Grounds Safety Authority and the police – to deliver events to high standards of safety, security and service for everyone attending or working in the venue.”
Sean “Diddy” Combs has been denied bail ahead of his sentencing on prostitution-related charges.
Judge Arun Subramanian said the hip-hop mogul had failed to show sufficient evidence he is not a flight risk and also cited admissions of previous violence made during his trial.
Combs, 55, has been in prison since his arrest in September last year.
During a two-month trial, jurors heard allegations that he had coerced former girlfriends, including singer and model Cassie Ventura, into having drug-fuelled sex marathons with male sex workers, while he watched and filmed them.
Image: Diddy fell to his knees after the verdict was delivered last month. Pic: Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg
The rapper’s legal team hailed this a “victory” and immediately applied for bail ahead of sentencing, citing his acquittal on the top charges.
After this was denied, they submitted another application last week. Judge Subramanian has now rejected the request again.
In denying the motion for bail, the judge found Combs had failed to show sufficient evidence to counter arguments he is a flight risk, writing in a court filing: “Increasing the amount of the bond or devising additional conditions doesn’t change the calculus given the circumstances and heavy burden of proof that Combs bears.”
Image: Judge Arun Subramanian heard Diddy’s trial and will also sentence the rapper
He also found that an argument by the music star’s legal team that the squalor and danger of the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), where he is being held, did not warrant release.
“The public outcry concerning these conditions has come from all corners,” the judge wrote. “But as Combs acknowledges, MDC staff has been able to keep him safe and attend to his needs, even during an incident of threatened violence from an inmate.”
The judge has not yet responded to this application.
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How the Diddy trial unfolded
How long could Diddy be jailed for?
Combs is due to be sentenced on 3 October and could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
Discussions on sentencing guidelines which followed the jury’s verdict suggest it is unlikely he will be jailed for this long, with an estimate of around two to five years, taking into account time already served.
However, it is ultimately up to Judge Arun Subramanian to decide the rapper’s punishment.
On Friday, Donald Trump was asked during an interview about a potential pardon for Combs following speculation about the issue.
The president said it was unlikely, adding that the rapper was “very hostile” during his presidential campaign.
Combs, who co-founded Bad Boy Records and launched the career of the late Notorious BIG, was for decades a huge figure in pop culture – a Grammy-winning hip-hop artist and business entrepreneur, who presided over an empire ranging from fashion to reality TV.
As well as the criminal conviction, he is also facing several civil lawsuits.