NO one was particularly surprised to read in the newspapers that Igor Bogdanov had been charged with piloting a helicopter without authorisation, then landing it close to a crowded open space supermarket near Versailles.

Everyone was only amused to further learn that his licence was a fake and the very impressive record of 5,000 flying hours in the logbook that he had produced before law officers was nothing else but a figment of his imagination.

Imagination recognising no horizon and self-advertising are after all the qualities for which Igor and his twin brother Grichka have been known to the French public for more than three decades now.

The occasion this time was the promotion of their newly published oeuvre, sold at the supermarket’s bookshop.Brothers Bogdanov became famous in the late 1970s hosting a TV programme Time X that dealt with the cosmos, planets and yes, with visitors from other galaxies.

Though celebrities they remained all these years, their record is so full of controversies that any effort to do research into their achievements ends up with phrases beginning with the conditional expression ‘they claim...’ as if no one is ready to take responsibility for confirming what the brothers say they are.

‘They claim’ to be descendents of Russian nobility; ‘they claim’ to have doctorates in mathematics and theoretical physics; ‘they claim’ to be the original authors of a number of scientific works including a best-seller called God & Science that was later contested in a lawsuit as plagiarised version of a book by a US-based Vietnamese scholar.

Ignatius Antoniadis, a French scientist who, like everyone else was fascinated by Bogdanov brothers, says he later woke up to the fact that their entire adventure was little else than self-promotion. In an interview to daily Le Monde he said: “I had at first a positive opinion of their essays.

Alas, I understand now that I was mistaken! The rather forced scientific terms they use frequently are a sham behind which hide total nonsense and ignorance of even basic physical principles.”

But most amusing perhaps is a remark by Dr Daniel Sternheimer of the University of Bourgogne. He says “talking with Bogdanov brothers about physics and mathematics is rather like Prof.

Henry Higgins trying to make the Cockney flower-girl Eliza Doolittle speak with an Oxford pronunciation”.

However, the twins refused to take seriously such frequent pronouncements by scholars and, unabated, they launched another TV show X Rays in which they spoke with a selected audience asking questions that were already fed to it with answers prepared in advance. They remained popular stars for a few more years.

Then came suddenly an end to the glorious Bogdanov episode! Their TV show Science X lasted only two months in November and December 2008, as if even the most ardent fans had by now started getting fed up with the twins.

Another desperate effort in 2010 called Two steps from future proved to be the last by the Bogdanovs and the television channel suddenly ruptured the contract for ‘lack of sufficient audience’.

But the fact that has most certainly added to the twins’ decline is their physical appearances that have taken stranger aspects as they reach the age of 65. Their cheekbones have grown outsize and their chins drop downwards.

At the same time their lips have fattened and their hairstyles have turned unnaturally darker, thicker and boyish.

Many magazines publishing their photographs have speculated that the brothers could be going through successive series of aesthetic operations; in other words, plastic surgery.

But why? People normally go through such pain, and expenses, to look younger and more beautiful. But why take all this trouble to look bizarre and unnatural?

Another guess has it that their revamping could be the result of an overdose of hormones that the brothers are taking to stay young forever.

Then there are those who believe the explanation lies in the fact that the Bogdanovs will go through anything to stay constantly in the limelight, even if it comes to disfiguring themselves.

But there also exists a section of TV fans with the theory that the twins actually are not human beings but visitors to our planet from outer space.

Questioned on the subject during a TV interview, Igor and Grichka remained vaguely elusive and cited a quote from Cardinal Paul de Gondi, a 17th century French statesman: “The only way to come out of ambiguity is to take risks.”

But, to come back to the fake pilot’s licence, Igor Bogdanov is to appear before the Versailles Tribunal on Tuesday (March 4) and, if found guilty, could be sentenced to three months in prison and a fine of 10,000 euros.

—The writer is a journalist based in Paris. (ZafMasud@gmail.com)