Doug and his wife on Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious Universe - summer 1994
On-screen: Bower in a field with stomper, about to make a circle, while his wife, Ilene, sits in a chair watching.
Doug: Just to prove to you, Ilene, this is what we used to get up to at night. I'm going in here and I'm going to start making a circle for you.
Ilene: Right, I'll be interested.
Doug: I'm sure you will... we used to lay the stick down like that, look...
[Cut to interview footage]
Doug: Well, this was the most difficult part of all when we decided to do these, erm, these designs [pointing to details on a diagram of a formation] was how to create a completely straight line in the dark across a cornfield. It was no good following the tramlines, because they would say that human beings were doing it, and we didn't want them to believe that. So, I punched a hole in this baseball cap, threaded some wire through it, and this little ring that you can see here [he is wearing his cap with sighting device] and you walk into the field and, er, against the evening sky, which is then not quite dark in the summer time, you can get a silhouette of a tree on the horizon, or perhaps the farmer's cottage - he might be in bed with the light still on - and you could centre this through this ring, walk straight towards it, and lo and behold, you've got the lovely straight line that you could wish for. And then, of course, as the footmarks were placed into the corn, in the straight line, we would come behind it and tread it down four feet wide. So all our corridors were created in that way. Well, the so-called die-hards, the so-called professionals, wouldn't believe our story at all.
[back to in-field action]
Doug: Now do you believe me, Ilene?
Ilene: Oh yes.
Doug: Look how it's growing [in diameter]
Ilene: Yes it is, increasing by eight foot every time you go around.
Doug: Yes. So I wasn't up to anything at night, as you see. Only this.
Ilene: Well you were - what you're doing now!
Doug: Just to prove to you, Ilene, this is what we used to get up to at night. I'm going in here and I'm going to start making a circle for you.
Ilene: Right, I'll be interested.
Doug: I'm sure you will... we used to lay the stick down like that, look...
[Cut to interview footage]
Doug: Well, this was the most difficult part of all when we decided to do these, erm, these designs [pointing to details on a diagram of a formation] was how to create a completely straight line in the dark across a cornfield. It was no good following the tramlines, because they would say that human beings were doing it, and we didn't want them to believe that. So, I punched a hole in this baseball cap, threaded some wire through it, and this little ring that you can see here [he is wearing his cap with sighting device] and you walk into the field and, er, against the evening sky, which is then not quite dark in the summer time, you can get a silhouette of a tree on the horizon, or perhaps the farmer's cottage - he might be in bed with the light still on - and you could centre this through this ring, walk straight towards it, and lo and behold, you've got the lovely straight line that you could wish for. And then, of course, as the footmarks were placed into the corn, in the straight line, we would come behind it and tread it down four feet wide. So all our corridors were created in that way. Well, the so-called die-hards, the so-called professionals, wouldn't believe our story at all.
[back to in-field action]
Doug: Now do you believe me, Ilene?
Ilene: Oh yes.
Doug: Look how it's growing [in diameter]
Ilene: Yes it is, increasing by eight foot every time you go around.
Doug: Yes. So I wasn't up to anything at night, as you see. Only this.
Ilene: Well you were - what you're doing now!