Harrison:
From a young age, Harrison has been fascinated by all things extraterrestrial. His curiosity later expanded into cryptozoology after hearing tales of the Grey Man of Ben MacDhui, an eerie figure said to roam the Galloway Forest near his great-uncle’s home.
In 2018, during a road trip for a camping holiday, Harrison (then 14) had a clear, close-up daylight sighting of a large UFO hovering near Rendlesham Forest. His father, Alan, who was driving at the time, also witnessed the craft, describing it as “stunning and hard to explain.” Their shared experience is now featured in the film Capel Green, with an interview filmed shortly after the sighting.
Inspired by what had happened, and by the investigators he met, Harrison launched Research & Witness as a personal project, supported by his ever-sceptical dad and a small network of like-minded friends.
Since then, Harrison has appeared on podcasts, in magazines, and at public events. He became a regular guest UFO researcher on Yvette Fielding’s acclaimed Paranormal Activity podcast. With generous guidance from experienced investigators, most notably Yorkshire researcher and author Paul Sinclair, Harrison began developing his own approach. Paul even took him skywatching at his favourite Bempton Cliffs vantage point, where they observed and discussed paranormal phenomena together.
In February 2020, Harrison co-organised the three-day Research & Witness Convention, which featured many top researchers, including Ancient Aliens star Andrew Collins. The event attracted thousands of attendees from across the UK and beyond, and received great reviews. Plans for an annual follow-up were shelved due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A subsequent period of illness led to Harrison stepping back from public events. He was later diagnosed with Addison’s Disease and, with proper treatment, has resumed his research, now preferring a mix of remote investigations and carefully chosen fieldwork, always with Alan’s support.
With his first book on the way, Harrison’s journey from witness to writer remains grounded in the same principle that began it all: sincere curiosity and a commitment to paying attention.
Alan:
Alan is a former multi-award-winning BBC Radio journalist, presenter, engineer, photographer, and producer. After 21 years in broadcasting, he retired to focus on writing and developing his entrepreneurial interests in the space sector, particularly projects that support planetary sustainability.
A member of the Royal Institute of Navigation and a former Duke of Edinburgh Awards expedition supervisor, Alan has spent hundreds of nights under the stars. One such night as a teenager, while learning celestial navigation, he and his instructor witnessed a light making sharp, impossible turns across the night sky — an event they chose to keep to themselves at the time.
Decades later, in 2018, Alan and his son Harrison had their own extraordinary daylight encounter near Rendlesham Forest. That experience rekindled Alan’s interest in unexplained aerial phenomena and led him to support Harrison’s creation of Research & Witness. Since then, father and son have shared many investigations, always with a spirit of open-minded enquiry and mutual respect.
Although a lifelong sceptic with a journalistic instinct for evidence, Alan remains open to the mystery of what they saw.
He is now also a published author, with his novel Salt & Seeds. While his writing explores speculative futures, his engagement with unexplained phenomena remains grounded in real-world observation, critical thinking, and lived experience. The two worlds are distinct, but both are shaped by a shared belief: how we witness the world matters.
Research And Witness 