1976: COTTINGLEY FAIRIES: FACT or FANTASY? | Nationwide | Weird and Wonderful | BBC Archive

The most unbelievable element of this is the time difference. The idea of the 70s broadcast only being 60 years on from when the photos were taken. It already felt like a world away. And to see her being interviewed, the girl in the photos from the era of Sherlock and mid WW1 stood in the Glam rock flare wearing 70s felt so anachronistic. Yet, here we are today. Almost 50 years again since this broadcast went out.

I love how she is blatantly admitting what they did in this interview and it goes right over the interviewer's head!

I loved this as a kid in the 80s. I remember collecting the little cards inside the packets of PG tips with different mysteries, Crystal skulls, Indian rope trick etc. This was on one of them. I completed the whole album, you had to send off for it. As a child, this story was great. Those photos still look great even after 100 years.

Not a mystery anymore - It has since emerged that the fairies/gnomes were indeed drawn and cut out by Elsie. The girls held the figures in place with hatpins. They were suprised when the adults actually believed them which is why they took more photos using the same method.

I was born in 1921, I remember parents and uncles talking about this occasionally growing up, not one person believed any of it even back then, we weren't naive or unsophisticated!

Yet another scrutinous piece of journalism from the BBC.

I love these photographs. I d o remember watching this as a 6 year old. Fairies are as real as you want them to be.

An excerpt from Monstrum! by Doc Shiels: "In 1917, at Cottingley Glen, near Bingley, Yorkshire, two young cousins, Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright, were in the habit of playing with fairies. One day, during a game with the little people, Frances fell in the beck and got a soaking. She was severely reprimanded for the wetness of her clothes and the unbelievability of her excuse. Elsie, bright enchantress that she was, decided to back up the story with photographic proof. She borrowed her father's quarter-plate box camera and, back in the glen, snapped the first of those famous 'Cottingley Fairy Photographs'. The rest is Fortean history. Along with many others, I have always thought that the Cottingley sprites, as photographed, were cardboard cut-outs, and it is really rather amazing and amusing that anyone was ever fooled by them; but Elsie knew what she was doing. Her painted pasteboard models were just decoys, and the real fairies encouraged her in an interesting game. The fake fairies of Cottingley were a 'blind'." "I know the fairy race exists, and anyone who denies the fact is, for sure, an ignorant blind fool." 😉

Extraordinary story. The whole thing was fabricated by the two girls who traced pictures of dancers, added wings and stuck them into the ground using hair pins. The fact they kept the lie going for more than 60 years is remarkable. It's a good lesson that if you bullshit long enough truth gets eventually lost. We only know this because Elsie confessed before she passed away.

This is absolute gold. Thank you.

A wonderful story. Amused and interested me for years until the truth came out. Even when that happened it’s still a superb story. I love the fact that in this interview She tells the reporter A: “they looked like what you find in books”. And B. “I was very good at art”. The full explanation of how they did it. 😂😂

A lesson in how gullible people can be

Stories like this, while not being proven with cold, hard facts, make life all the richer. Brings us closer to the stories and fantasies people cherish. The same applies to all "proven" fantasies, like religious deities. Just as long as you don't start to mix them up with reality.

God, I remember watching this when it was broadcast originally!

7:42 I'm just fascinated by Martin Youngs flares. They're impressive.

It's the fact that the grown ups believed, as soon as the adults were in the children HAD to follow. Arthur Conan Doyle wanted to believe and at that period in time spiritual connection and belief in folklore was a thing. You can convince people of a lot if they want to believe.

1990s movie Photographing Faries I think is based on this.

Nice to see I live on Cottingley road and used to attend Cottingley Manor even today Cottingley folk will still say fairies are down the beck

Wow ! The reporter's flares👖 as stunning as em fairies 😳

What's with the Geordie accents? Cottingley is more Bingley than Byker