Rights to the celebrated documentary The Clangers are changing hands. Often mistakenly described as “a children’s programme”, the 1970s series revealed for the first time the existence of an advanced knitwear-based lunar civilisation, knowledge of which has been suppressed by governments and space agencies ever since.

Not only was the vast body of evidence of the Clanger civilisation never formally acknowledged by NASA, but neither was a great deal of natural lunar vegetation (sentient music trees) and unique geographical features (soup wells).

Another more plausible theory is that cock-up, rather than conspiracy, is to blame for the public’s lack of awareness of this lunar civilisation. The Clangers first aired on British television four months after the Apollo 11 moon landing, and the final part of the series was broadcast two months before the final lunar lander returned to earth. Admittedly, NASA’s technology was primitive at the time – certainly more primitive than the Clangers’ own, which was capable of propelling a spaceship using only musical notes – but couldn’t NASA’s finest even spot the dustbin lids?

British TV licensing company Coolabi was widely reported today to have acquired the rights to the documentary series. When El Reg rang to enquire if the series would ever be broadcast again, a spokesperson told us the stories were premature, as the deal wouldn’t be finalised for another month.

The truth must eventually come out.