Radio Rental: "The Schoolyard"

Release Date: February 6, 2026
Host: Payne Lindsey (Tenderfoot TV & Audacy)
Main Theme:
This episode of Radio Rental delves into one of Britain’s most famous UFO encounters—the 1977 Broadhaven Primary School sighting in Wales. Through documentary storytelling and first-hand witness testimony, the show explores the boundaries between skepticism, reality, and the possible paranormal, all told with the show’s trademark eerie ambiance and surreal 1980s video shop fiction.

Episode Overview

• Story Focus: First-person account of a mass UFO sighting by children at Broadhaven Primary School in Wales, exploring themes of skepticism, memory, and unexplained phenomena.
• Tone: Candid and reflective, with flashes of curiosity, paranoia, and the otherworldly, grounded by the witness’s skepticism and matter-of-fact storytelling.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: The School and the Sighting

• [00:38] The first witness recounts the ordinary school atmosphere and his initial skepticism about UFOs:
  • “The school was very much like a small family. It was only 125 pupils. We were all close. It was a nice atmosphere to grow up in.”
• Bad weather kept some students inside, but those outside at lunchtime begin reporting seeing a "flying saucer."
• Despite persistent reports, the headmaster dismisses claims as a joke, matching the skeptical POV of the narrator.

2. Personal Experience: Confronting the Unbelievable

• [02:00–03:41] The witness describes breaking personal skepticism after seeing the object himself:
  • “I stepped over the primitive fence and as I got one foot over it literally rose up from behind trees. I froze… it was about 45ft long, silver… What I'm seeing in front of me is real. I've got something in front of me that shouldn't exist but does.”
• He experiences an unsettling, alien “thought” urging him to leave, not out of fear but “like a caution.”
  • Quote [03:44]:
    • UFO Witness: “Something that wasn't mine. There was a suggestion there that I should leave the area.”

3. The Aftermath: Silence and Shock

• [04:35–05:19] The group’s odd, silent reaction on the taxi ride home:
  • “We should have been talking. We should have been excited, but it was like we were just staring blankly ahead, going home.”
• Upon arriving home, the shock clears and he immediately tells his mother:
  • “I just said, I’ve just seen a flying saucer. I mean, my mother knows me. There was no disbelief.”

4. Investigation and Witness Corroboration

• Returns to the site with his mother and later a local reporter, Hugh Turnbull—find signs of physical disturbance (broken branch, damaged telephone pole).
• [06:08–08:13]
  • Headmaster pulls all witnesses aside, isolates them, and has them each draw what they saw under exam conditions.
  • All students create nearly identical depictions—a “silver scar [cigar] shaped object, a dome... with a red light on top.”
  • Quote [08:14]:
    • UFO Witness: “It pretty much confirms that we all saw the same thing.”

5. Media Frenzy and Authority Involvement

• [08:19–09:06]
  • The story reaches the press and quickly goes national; school is besieged by media.
  • Headmaster receives calls, becomes overwhelmed.
  • Children are interviewed, their drawings and accounts reviewed by RAF and US naval base staff, who neither confirm nor deny but validate the children’s sincerity.

6. Revisiting and Reflecting: Enduring Mystery

• [10:02–11:11]
  • Multiple witnesses confirm the “cigar-shaped object with a dome and orange/red light.”
  • The primary witness wrestles with the implications and shifting beliefs:
    • “Over the years … sometimes I’m sure it’s aliens. Sometimes, I’m sure it’s not.”
    • “Some of these objects seem to be showing the ability to dimensionally change… like disappearing in a puff of logic. They don’t seem to operate on the same physical plane as conventional aircraft.”

7. Skepticism, Wonder, and Unanswered Questions

• [12:12–12:31]
  • The witness is candid about desires and doubts regarding the UFO’s true origin:
    • “Perhaps there is a desire in me that I would like it to be aliens or an interdimensional species.”
    • Payne Lindsay: “But it’s been 50 years.”
    • UFO Witness: “Yeah. And absolutely nothing.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the shared experience:
  • “All of those illustrations depicted the same object… his kids had seen something. It totally blew his mind and he didn’t know what to think.” [07:15]
• On the unspeakable, irresistible urge to leave:
  • “Something that wasn’t mine. There was a suggestion there that I should leave the area.” [03:44]
• On the paradoxes of the phenomenon:
  • “Some of these objects seem to be showing the ability to dimensionally change… disappearing in a puff of logic… don’t seem to operate on the same physical plane.” [11:19]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:38]: Childhood and school context; first student sightings
• [02:00–03:41]: Personal encounter with the UFO
• [03:44]: The unexplained compulsion to leave
• [04:35–05:19]: Silent taxi ride and telling his mother
• [06:08–08:13]: Group witness drawings; headmaster’s reaction
• [08:19–09:06]: Media and military attention
• [10:02–11:11]: Audio of additional witnesses; reflection on the event
• [11:12–12:39]: Philosophical takeaways and lingering doubts

Final Thoughts

Radio Rental’s "The Schoolyard" delivers a chilling, deeply human account of a mass UFO sighting—balancing immediate experience, skepticism, and wonder with the atmospheric storytelling the series is known for. The episode stands out for its unfiltered witness testimony, the eerie sense of shared reality, and the lingering enigma, leaving listeners questioning what’s really out there, decades on.