Nick Pope spent three years running Britain’s official UFO desk. He looked into around 1,000 unexplained sightings. Before he died of cancer in April 2026, he gave one last filmed interview. In it, he said world leaders know there is more to UFOs than weather balloons and aircraft lights, and he stated plainly that life beyond Earth exists. That interview is now airing in a new documentary hosted by Bradley Walsh. This is what Pope said, what he investigated, and how you can watch it.
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Who Was Nick Pope?
Nick Pope was born in England on September 19, 1965. He joined the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 1985 and built a 21-year career there, working on subjects that ranged from financial policy to counter-terrorism.
In 1991, the MoD moved him to a small unit called Secretariat (Air Staff) Department 2A. Insiders knew it as the “UFO desk”. Pope ran that desk until 1994. His job was to look into reports of unidentified flying objects, study radar data and photos, and tell ministers whether these sightings posed any threat to defence or aviation safety.
He was, for a time, the only person working on the desk. Reports came in from the public, from police, and from military personnel. He estimated the desk received up to 300 sightings a year on average.
Pope later wrote a book called Open Skies, Closed Minds, published in 1996. He became a regular voice on the History Channel series Ancient Aliens and appeared in many other documentaries about UFOs. Fans and media often called him the “real-life Fox Mulder”, a reference to the believer character in The X-Files.
He moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he lived with his wife, Elizabeth Weiss.
The Final Interview and the 1,000 Sightings
Pope spoke to Bradley Walsh by video call shortly before his death. The conversation was filmed for Walsh’s new Sky HISTORY series Bradley Walsh: Out of This World. Walsh had planned to fly to Washington to meet Pope in person, but Pope became too ill, so they spoke over Zoom instead.
During his time on the UFO desk, Pope investigated about 1,000 unexplained sightings. He said he could confidently explain around 80% of the reports that came in. Those were things like aircraft lights, weather balloons, and other ordinary objects.
The other 20% were different.
“We were not able to find a definitive result. Some of this doesn’t quite add up. Objects running rings around the cutting edge of our own aerospace tech. Speeds, manoeuvres, accelerations we can’t match. At the very least, I think it’s fair to say it was enough to make me take another look at this.”
That gap, the cases he could not close, stayed with him. It is the reason he kept saying, long after he left the MoD, that the question deserved serious attention.
What Nick Pope Said About Alien Life and Government Secrecy
Walsh asked Pope directly whether humans are alone in the universe.
“We are definitely not.”
Pope then explained his reasoning in simple terms. The universe is nearly 14 billion years old. Even a civilisation with a million-year head start on humanity, he said, would be far beyond us. A billion-year head start would make the gap almost impossible to imagine.
“You’ve only got to imagine a civilisation with a million year, let alone a billion year headstart on us and all bets are off. So life out there, definitely.”
He was more careful about whether aliens have visited Earth.
“Us being visited, I’m less sure. I certainly hope so, because I tell you this, the world with aliens in it is going to be far more interesting and fun than the world with no aliens. So bring them on.”
Pope also said government ministers know the subject is bigger than the usual explanations.
“They know there’s more to this than just weather balloons and aircraft lights.”
He did not claim he had seen a spacecraft himself. He did not say he had proof of a cover-up. What he said was that the small number of cases he could not explain were real, and that the people at the top knew it.
Pope raised another problem for anyone trying to prove what is real: artificial intelligence. He warned that AI makes it easier than ever to fake photos and videos, which makes it harder to trust evidence of anything unusual in the sky.
“I think the technology, which you would think works for us, works against us. Now with the rise of AI, you don’t really know if something is real or not.”
He also asked why, if something extraordinary is happening, the public does not hear about it on the main news.
“If people have seen them, and UFOs or aliens have visited, why haven’t people taken notice? Why isn’t it on the News at 10? Are the news corporations keeping it from us? What is going on? I have no idea.”
And he pushed back on the idea that Earth is special enough to be the only place with life.
“It’s pretty naive of us to imagine that we’re the only planet capable of sustaining life in the entire universe. There’s gotta be something out there.”
The Documentary: Bradley Walsh Out of This World
Bradley Walsh: Out of This World is a four-part series on Sky HISTORY. All episodes arrive on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, at 9pm in the UK. The show is also available on HISTORY Play, Sky’s streaming service for HISTORY content.
The first episode looks at Britain’s declassified Ministry of Defence files. It features the Nick Pope interview, and it also looks at a 1952 request from Winston Churchill for a report into flying saucers.
The same episode visits Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk, often called Britain’s Roswell. In December 1980, US Air Force personnel at RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge reported strange lights and a metallic craft in the forest. Pope had worked on the Rendlesham case file during his time at the MoD. He once said the file “still keeps me up at night”.
The series also includes an interview with retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Charles “Chuck” Halt, who led a team into Rendlesham Forest at the time of the incident.
Later episodes take Walsh to the United States to meet people who reported the Phoenix Lights, and to Sweden to look at strange objects reported beneath the sea.
Walsh said Pope was one of his heroes and that he had been looking forward to meeting him in person.
Nick Pope’s Death and Tributes
Nick Pope died on April 6, 2026, at his home in Tucson, Arizona. He was 60. The cause was Stage 4 oesophageal cancer that had spread to his liver. Pope had announced the diagnosis publicly on February 12, 2026, and said in plain terms that he could not beat it.
His wife, Elizabeth Weiss, shared the news on social media.
“My heart is breaking. Nick passed away this afternoon at our home. The last few weeks of his life, even as he suffered, he managed to do a few interviews from home. I was so lucky to have met and to have married Nick. He was a wonderful husband. I loved him dearly.”
Pope had described Elizabeth as the “real-life Agent Scully” to his Fox Mulder.
The Ancient Aliens team posted a tribute on Facebook: “We are saddened by the passing of Nick Pope who was a beloved member of the Ancient Aliens family.”
British filmmaker Mark Christopher Lee, who featured Pope in his documentaries God Versus Aliens and The King of UFOs, called him “a great fountain of UFO knowledge”. Lee also remembered Pope as a lifelong Arsenal fan who stayed in touch with people who reached out to him, no matter how small their question was.
Pope is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Weiss.
How to Watch the Final Interview
The interview is part of Bradley Walsh: Out of This World, which premieres on Sky HISTORY in the UK and Ireland on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, at 9pm. All four episodes are available on the same day on HISTORY Play for Sky customers.
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Sky HISTORY is a UK-based channel. No US, Canadian, Australian, or Indian broadcast date has been announced for this series at the time of writing. Viewers outside the UK can check whether HISTORY Play or Sky content is available through their local providers, but the show has not been confirmed for those markets.
For anyone who wants to hear Pope’s own words, the first episode is the one to watch. It is the last time he sat for a filmed interview, and it captures what he spent three decades saying: the sky is not empty, the best cases are not solved, and the question is worth asking.
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