Tales of the unexpected

[ann22]

Anyone remember 'Tales of the Unexpected'? It used to be on on a Saturday night. Who could forget the theme music? I used to be petrified watching it! The first one I saw was 'The Man From The South' about a man betting this other chap that his lighter had 10(?) lights left in it, if he was right the rich chap would give him his flashy car and if he lost he'd have to let the rich fella chop his little finger off. It was dead tense with your man having his hand pinned to a table and the other fella waiting with the knife.
There were others like 'Neck' with rich b*tch Joan Collins getting her head stuck in this contraption and some fella who she'd been giving dog's abuse to earlier having to help her.
'Skin' about this old man with a tattoo by a famous artist on his back and some greedy fella trying to get him to let him remove the skin off his back.
There was a great one I can't remember the name of with this girl being chased by a creep, she ended up running into a farmhouse for help where all is not what it seems.
One of the best ones 'Royal Jelly' about a weird obsessive bee keeper feeding his new baby royal jelly.
Anyone else remember these?

[aron123]

Re: Tales of the unexpected

I remember this series very well, used to watch it religiously with my mum every saturday, we loved it.
Remember the great music and the dancing lady in flames at the start, and then sitting in his chair Roald Dahl would introduce his latest story.
I remember 'the man from the south' being one of my favorite episodes, very scary,
I think one guy bet the rich guy he could light his very reliable lighter 10 times in a row without it misfiring once, then halfway through another guy came in and stopped the sadistic game, saying that the rich guy had no car and no money left to bet with as he had won it all off him playing lots of theses games with him years ago, at a price.
Then he held his hands up to reveal the price he paid, he had about two fingers left!.... great stuff.
They dont make em like that anymore.

[ann22]

Re: Tales of the unexpected

I had a different ending in my head..I had an image in my mind of your man going round to the rich fella's house and his wife - a Dorothy Lamour(from the Bob Hope films) lookalike answering the door and handing him the keys of the car, half of her fingers were missing...maybe your man who interrupted the game had some missing too and then the bit with the wife came later..or maybe I dreamt it.

[aron123]

Re: Tales of the unexpected

You could be right, ive looked up the story on the web and there seems to be a few slightly different versions but all of them involve a woman at the end with missing fingers.
Its been so long since i seen that episode its a little cloudy, or maybe its just senility setting in.

[ann22]

Re: Tales of the unexpected

You can read the short story here Aron.. Maybe you've read it. It seems like a mixture of what we both remember. In this the wife interupts the game..
As a child the sight of a person with a few fingers missing really scared me, I watched loads of other episodes through my fingers.

Man From the South--Roald Dahl (1916-1990)

[memoman]

Re: Tales of the unexpected

A number of Tales of the unexpected series are avaliable to rent/buy on dvd.(Around 2 discs per series) I Have seasons 1,2,5,6.

[old git]

Re: Tales of the unexpected

Remember the one where wife would polish the floor,so the husband would fall and then claim the insurance.This time the husband descovered the con and told the wife if anything would happen to him then the police had been told of the plan.The fone then rings and its for her,as she walks towards to fone she slips on the polished floor and dies! whoops!!!!

[AFBulimia]

Re: Tales of the unexpected

I believe the story about the lighter was also made into a 'Twilight Zone' for the 80s series (Which wasn't even slightly as good as the old black and white one, IMHO).

The 'Tales' one ended with the guy getting the car keys from the wife and the 'TZ' one ended with someone walking into the bar with no fingers.

[darren]

Re: Tales of the unexpected

yes this one does sound familiar although not seen it in a very long time.

just starting to watch it again..
Surprised there where nine series.
ran from 79 to 88.

I believe the story about the lighter was also made into a 'Twilight Zone' for the 80s series (Which wasn't even slightly as good as the old black and white one, IMHO).

The 'Tales' one ended with the guy getting the car keys from the wife and the 'TZ' one ended with someone walking into the bar with no fingers.

[flappy62]

Re: Tales of the unexpected

There were many well-known English actors in this series and later on a lot of well-known American actors.

[wispa lover]

Re: Tales of the unexpected

Its currently being repeated on Sky Arts. My mother has been recording the episodes and I keep hearing the theme tune now and again. Does it bring back memories?

[I. R. Fincham]

Re: Tales of the unexpected

There was a great one I can't remember the name of with this girl being chased by a creep, she ended up running into a farmhouse for help where all is not what it seems.

The Flypaper

[ann22]

Re: Tales of the unexpected

Its currently being repeated on Sky Arts. My mother has been recording the episodes and I keep hearing the theme tune now and again. Does it bring back memories?

I've been recording them and watching religiously! I've even seen the early ones with Roahl Dahl introducing. Last year at a car boot sale, I found the book of short stories which are the book versions of thd first series. It was great!

[CrystalBall]

Re: Tales of the unexpected

The earlier ones (first two or three series) that were written by Roald Dahl were the best, e.g. 'The Landlady'. The later ones from a variety of writers were not so good. I always thought it was on Sunday night but could be wrong.

[duffer]

Re: Tales of the unexpected

The chap who voiced Scott the pilot of Thunderbird 1 was in one episode.