ARTHUR C CLARKE’S MYSTERIOUS WORLD

Just over 40 years ago, unsuspecting ITV viewers were taken on a sometimes terrifying tour of the planet’s anomalies – from “the missing apeman” to “the Skull of Doom”. RYAN SHIRLOW hits the rewind button and reappraises a classic of fortean television.

PART 2 Welcome back. Last month, we looked at the first six episodes of Arthur C Clarke’s famous 1980 documentary series and asked what, if anything, we had learned about the programme’s “mysteries” in the intervening years (FT410:32-39). We saw how several archæological mysteries had been resolved one way or the other with the help of modern techniques and new scientific evidence, which allowed us to sift real wonders (the Antikythera mechanism) from the fake (the Mitchell Hedges skull). 1 And while we’ll never have all the answers when it comes to the identity and motivation of the people who cut the Nazca lines or the Uffington Horse, the questions at least make sense and the possible answers feel human and relatable. Meanwhile, the cryptozoological mysteries left us with more of a challenge.…

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Fortean Times (Digital) - 1 Issue, 411

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