THE SIGHTINGS of UFOs over Harborough recently offered me a tantalising glimpse into the bizarre sub-culture which has grown up out of people’s desire to find out whether or not we are alone in the universe.

As I sat typing out office worker Rachael Berry’s tale of seeing a silver-coloured ball moving above fields south of Harborough the other week, I had no idea that the resulting story would prove so popular - prompting correspondance from the US to find its way to my inbox.

Well, that’s not strictly true, I had some idea.

In March last year I wrote a similar story - this time about five lights seen above Farndon Road - which resulted in a number of calls to the office from readers who had seen the same thing.

The mystery on that occasion was solved when a family living in Lubenham Hill revealed they had released five Chinese Lanterns to celebrate their son’s 30th birthday party.

No-one has yet explained the sighting this time, but it has resulted in me receiving the most bizarre email I have ever seen.

Sent by an American named Alcuin Brampton, it told me how an ‘extra-terrestrial being’ named Vrillon (of the Ashtar Galactic Command, no less) interrupted an ITN broadcast across Southern England in 1977 to warn humans about the evil of money and nuclear weapons.

Mr Brampton seemed very sure of the validity of Vrillon’s existence, though I feel he brushed over the reasons why the Ashtar Galactic Command only bothered to warn the people of Hampshire.

The email went on to explain about an organisation called The Galactic Federation of Light, which it would seem was founded about four-and-a-half million years ago to prevent interdimensional darkside forces from dominating and exploiting the Milky Way.

At present, I was told, the federation numbers just over 200,000 different star nations, of which 40 per cent are humanoid races.

Incidently, Mr Brampton added that the Earth has not yet joined the federation, which probably explains why fuel prices are so high at the moment.

Perhaps I'm being overly cynical - the fact is there are thousands of people out there who believe in Vrillon - just google his name and see how many thousands of hits it gets.

There was a time when I would have believed it myself, however that time was when I was 12 and a fan of the X-Files.

I'm afraid that nowadays I need a bit more proof.

Perhaps Vrillon would be kind enough to pop into the Harborough Mail offices for a chat...