Sky has announced ‘The Alien Autopsy Scandal’, a new three-part documentary series digging into one of the strangest, most infamous, and frankly most bonkers UFO stories of the 1990s, coming to Sky Documentaries and NOW this June.
Back in 1995, eighteen minutes of grainy footage emerged that appeared to show three government officials in hazmat suits dissecting the body of an alien allegedly recovered from the Roswell crash site in New Mexico in 1947. The so-called “Alien Autopsy” footage exploded into an international sensation, capturing the attention of film experts, military analysts, governments, conspiracy theorists, and anyone with even a passing interest in whether the truth was, in fact, out there.
The new series comes from BAFTA Award-winning director John Dower, whose previous work includes The Mystery of D.B. Cooper, Louis Theroux: My Scientology Movie, and Sky’s BAFTA-winning Lockerbie. It follows British entrepreneurs Ray Santilli and Gary Shoefield, who found themselves at the centre of a global media storm after claiming they had bought the footage from a former military cameraman while searching for lost Elvis Presley material in Cleveland, Ohio.
Naturally, the question everyone wanted answered was simple: was it real?
Thirty years on, ‘The Alien Autopsy Scandal’ revisits the footage and the extraordinary chain of events surrounding it, speaking to ufologists, former intelligence officers, military whistleblowers, and those still emotionally invested in what really happened. The timing is also rather neat, given the renewed public and political debate around unidentified aerial phenomena, with military whistleblowers in the US having testified about alleged encounters with UAPs.
“When Mindhouse’s Arron Fellows first approached me with this project, my mind flashed back to 1995 – Britpop’s Blur vs Oasis Battle, Eric Cantona’s kung fu kick, the OJ Simpson ‘not guilty’ verdict … and eighteen minutes of mysteriously unearthed, grainy film that also shocked the world,” said John Dower, Director. “The so-called Alien Autopsy footage appeared to show three government pathologists in hazmat suits dissecting the corpse of an alien recovered from a crash-site near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 and became an international sensation. I had no idea as to the strange and peculiar encounters it would lead to, including lead singer of the Troggs Reg Presley, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper, a butcher from the east end of London and a former American intelligence officer with access to Area 51 who told me the US government had had a live extraterrestrial in captivity for several years… I’ve always wanted to make a documentary about extraterrestrial life. I had no idea it would be this utterly bonkers one.”
That quote alone is doing quite a lot of heavy lifting in selling the series, as “The Troggs, Da Vinci, a butcher, Area 51, and a live alien in captivity” sounds less like a documentary synopsis and more like someone rolled five conspiracy podcasts into one glorious 90s fever dream.
“The story behind the origins of the Alien Autopsy footage and the events that followed it are genuinely unexpected and truly stranger than fiction,” adds Arron Fellows, Creative Director, Mindhouse. “It’s a tale that is as provocative now as it was in the 90s when it originally caused an enormous media storm, tapping into the world’s appetite for the paranormal. But at the heart of it all is a genuine question about the existence of extraterrestrial life and whether we are really alone in the universe – certainly those who we have gathered to share their experiences and memories of the time are still clearly emotionally invested in seeking the truth. I think this is going to trigger debates across the country.”
Hayley Reynolds, Head of Documentary Commissioning at Sky, comments: “The 90s were the golden age of UFO fever — before smartphones, before streaming — when grainy footage, The X-Files, and Roswell ruled the headlines. Alien Autopsy remains one of the most debated mysteries of the 20th century, and with UFOs once again sparking debate in governments around the world, we’re thrilled to reunite with John Dower who helmed our BAFTA winning documentary series Lockerbie and the talented team at Mindhouse as they set out to uncover the truth.”
‘The Alien Autopsy Scandal’ is a Mindhouse production for Sky Documentaries. The series is directed by John Dower, with Rebecca Chapman as Series Producer and Suzy Burnet as Production Executive. Executive Producers for Mindhouse are Arron Fellows and Emma Whitehead. The Head of Documentary Commissioning at Sky is Hayley Reynolds, with Kathryn Taylor as Commissioning Editor. Bruce Fletcher was also involved from the commissioning side.
‘The Alien Autopsy Scandal’ premieres Friday, 12th June 2026 on Sky Documentaries and NOW.
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