Radio show delves into Bonnybridge UFO mystery

Entitled Close Encounters of the Bonnybridge Kind, the show is scheduled to be broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland at 11am on Friday.

Produced by Gus Beattie and featuring local lads Kris Cummins and David O Gray – the lads will probably toss a coin as to who gets to be Mulder and who gets to be Scully – the show marks the 30th anniversary of Bonnybridge’s first ever UFO sighting.

The truth is definitely out there somewhere and Kris and David set out on a fascinating journey to try and understand how a small, working-class Scottish community dealt with becoming one of the world’s most famous UFO hot spots.

It was October 1992 when a local businessman spotted a star-shaped object hovering above a road and reported it to his local councillor, Billy Buchanan.

Since then the Scottish Government has received hundreds of UFO sightings from Bonnybridge and the surrounding areas.

Kris and David, who both grew up in the village, are not really interested in debating whether UFOs really exist in this documentary – rather, they want to look at how

local residents coped with becoming “UFO central” and mentioned in the same sentences as Area 51.

Indeed, the question has to be asked – would the X Files have been so popular without the tales of sightings coming out of Bonnybridge?

Key contributors sharing their thoughts with Kris and David include Billy Buchanan, Malcolm Robinson, Craig Malcolm, Bill Whiteford, Malcolm Cowie, Michelle Gray,

Jack Rolland and Roswell resident Jack Batson.