Alternative 3
Anglia House in the historic center of Norwich, Norfolk, UK—the former central broadcast headquarters of Anglia Television. It was from this building in the summer of 1977 that the network aired "Alternative 3," one of the most elaborate television mockumentaries in British broadcast history, which inadvertently laid the groundwork for modern conspiracy lore regarding secret space programs and elite off-world colonies.
The legend
Danger Level: Yellow (A television mockumentary that spawned enduring conspiracy theories, but caused no direct physical harm) On June 20, 1977, the ITV network broadcast what claimed to be the final episode of the documentary series "Science Report." Respected news anchor Tim Brinton presented a grave investigative report detailing a covert pact between the US and the Soviet Union: facing catastrophic runaway global warming, world leaders had secretly implemented "Alternative 3," an emergency blueprint to colonize the Moon and Mars for the global elite. The broadcast alleged that prominent scientists were being abducted and surgically stripped of free will to serve as a slave labor force off-world. The climax featured purported leaked footage of a joint US-Soviet crew landing on Mars in May 1962, showing an alien organism burrowing beneath the Martian dirt. Terrified viewers across Britain believed the end of civilization was imminent and world leaders had already abandoned humanity.
What actually happened?
The programme was entirely a scripted satirical drama created by screenwriter David Ambrose and director Christopher Miles. Originally commissioned as an April Fools' Day special for April 1, 1977, broadcast technician strikes and scheduling conflicts pushed the air date to late June. Stripped of its April Fools' context, the deadpan mockumentary delivery caught audiences completely off guard. The missing researchers, whistleblowers, and astronauts were played by seasoned British character actors, and the alien Martian terrain was filmed inside a local gravel quarry in Hertfordshire. Full cast and crew credits were displayed at the end of the broadcast, yet thousands of panicked viewers inundated ITV switchboards, emergency services, and newsrooms. Fringe theorists subsequently claimed the show was a deliberate government leak dressed up as fiction to gauge public reaction.
History
The wave of public alarm forced national newspapers to run explanatory debunks the following morning. In 1978, author Leslie Watkins authored an expanded paperback novelization that became an international sensation. Rather than fading away, "Alternative 3" permanently entered the canon of modern conspiracy lore: core narrative elements—such as covert interplanetary bases, coordinated Cold War deception, and missing aerospace engineers—were later adapted as absolute fact by fringe figures like Milton William Cooper in "Behold a Pale Horse," shaping modern Secret Space Program mythology for decades to come.
Where is it?
Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom; historic Anglia House located on Agricultural Hall Plain.
Can you visit?
Yes, Anglia House is situated in the fully accessible city center of Norwich. The historic Victorian Agricultural Hall complex, which served as the regional broadcast studio for Anglia Television and ITV from 1959 through 2020, can be easily viewed from the public streets and plazas outside.
Cheesefoot Head and the First Crop Circles
Circles in wheat began appearing in Hampshire and Wiltshire in the late seventies; they were explained by plasma vortices, landing craft and earth energies, and by the end of the eighties scientists and television crews were driving out to the fields. On 9 September 1991 the newspaper Today printed the confession of two pensioners from Southampton, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley: they had been making the circles at night since 1978, starting near Cheesefoot Head, where Bower had bet in a pub that he could cause a commotion. The tool was a plank on a rope pulled with the foot, and a wire sight on a cap to keep the line straight. In front of reporters they made a circle that the leading researcher Pat Delgado immediately pronounced genuine.
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