Brian Cox obtained ‘panicked cellphone name’ from BBC over attainable alien contact
Professor Brian Cox revealed that concerned BBC bosses hurriedly called him after concerns emerged of possible extra-terrestrial contact during a television experiment
Cox joked that he thought about calling ‘the Vatican’(Image: BBC Studios/Zach Levi-Rodgers)
Professor Brian Cox has admitted to receiving “panicked phone calls” from his BBC bosses over concerns that aliens may contact him while filming a show.
The incident, which took place on Cox’s and comedian Dara Ó Briain’s show Stargazing, occurred while the pair filmed an experiment in which they fired signals at far away planets and discussed what might happen were something, or someone, to contact them back.
The discussions apparently concerned senior officials at the BBC, who according to Cox hurriedly contacted him to ask what the protocol should be were extra-terrestrials to get in touch.
“We had this thing where we looked for exoplanets, which are planets around distant stars. [We used] this huge radio telescope … and we turned it towards the star where this new planet had been found for a laugh, and saying, you know, ‘What happens if we hear them? We’ll try and contact them”, revealed Cox on Radio X’s The Chris Moyles Show.
BBC officials did not it turns out see the funny side, immediately demanding Cox tell them what he would do were an “alien civilisation” to get in touch.
“We had a panicked phone call from the BBC going, ‘What if we actually hear something? Because we don’t know what the regulations are.”
“So, are we allowed to broadcast live that we’ve discovered an alien civilization? Who do we ring up?’ And nobody knew! So, they didn’t know what to do if they detected live on-air signals”, Cox explained.
Cox admitted that during the “weird” call, BBC execs even tried to stop him from performing the satellite experiment, so concerned were they with the possibility of a return call.
“It was really weird! They go, ‘You can’t do that.’ And we go, ‘No, we’re not actually going to. We’re not going to.’ But they’re like, ‘Yeah, but what if you do?’ And nobody knew the answer.”
While the popular TV space expert said he didn’t know exactly who he would have called, he joked that perhaps “the Vatican” would have been a good first port of call.
Perhaps for the benefit for UN Champion of Space Cox, as well as his anxious BBC bosses, aliens did not apparently pick up the signal, and so the Vatican hotline remained uncontacted, at least on that night.
