Sky Arts- Tales Of The Unexpected

[JediJim]

Anyone else watching any of these from the 70s/80s? I was too young to remember them on tv.
Roald Dahl introduced the first few series, typical setting for a horror story, him sat in an armchair by the fireplace.
Some of the stories are quite dark , some amusing and mostly pretty predictable! Even though they are really dated, easy watching.
One that I saw recently was one of the original ones, Derek Jacobi plays a weird character who wonders around a town being the town jester. Only at the end, it turns out he was in disguise and is after revenge on a man that had framed him for a crime years earlier.
Also a man and a woman who are con artists plan to rob a mans house when he’s out, only to find he returns earlier than they thought and catches them in the act!
Anyone else got any memories?

I used to watch these when I stayed with my Nan in the 80s - we would go up to bed and she would make tea in her teasmade and put the black and white telly on. I was only about 7 or 8, I grew upon these!

Remember the one where Susan George bashed her husband over the head with a frozen leg of lamb?
By the time the detectives were at the house investigating his death, the meat was roasting nicely in the oven.
They were even invited to sit down and eat it for dinner.
She got away with it!

Yes I remember that episode @Montal

Yes I love it - was too young to watch it when it was on originally but I remember the music with the dancing woman being on telly!

There’s a great one with Joan Collins, loads of famous people were in them.

I was only talking about these today! My 20 year old colleague knew the leg of lamb and the Royal jelly ones. Amazing how they have moved through the generations.

There was a one where a man invents a machine that can talk to plants or something. He was then horrified when he was forever tormented by the sounds of screaming in pain that could he could now hear from trees that had snapped branches or potatoes being put into boiling water.

I've probably remembered that all wrong but it's a distinct memory as I found it massively unsettling.

The first couple of series were Roald Dahl stories. Lamb to the slaughter is probably one of the most well known ones with younger people as it's sometimes used in GCSEs.

You can watch most of them on YouTube.

@nakedavengeragain that was The Sound Machine.

- for the show

fleurmach.com/2014/01/24/roald-dahl-the-sound-machine/ - for the text

Roald Dahl wrote many of them. I loved them as a child (grew up in the 60s/70's) but don't remember too much about them. We all used to do the lady dance at school!

One of the stories that I remember from one of the sky channels years ago was about a school girl being followed by a creepy older man. When shes being followed on a bus an old woman rescues her and invites her back to her caravan for a drink, only for the creepy man to come in, it was a trap. Remember thinking how sinister it was, probably because it could be realistic.

I am getting shivers just reading this thread. Some of them were absolutely terrifying

Am hiding the thread now before I have nightmares!

I can remember the one where blood started coming through the ceiling and out of the pipes. It was scary

montal DH used to joke that he would bump me off that way

I watched one the other day about an American ex soldier from ww2 who was visiting England and the bar he used to visit.
It had fake palm trees inside it. I have to confess that I didn’t understand the plot at all on that one, the ending went right over my head! Anyone seen this one?

Yes! He was talking about his lost love. The twist was that she was alive and a right bitch! Down among the sheltering palms. I've got the box set AMA!

Thanks Pastypie makes sense now.!

I loved Tales of the Unexpected, the first couple of series were the best, the later ones weren't brilliant.
Some of my favourites are: fat chance, genesis and catastrophe, back for Christmas, parsons pleasure, the way up to heaven, probably others but those are the ones off the top of my head.

pinkyrosie I think that was a Hammer House episode- The House That Bled To Death. It gave me nightmares!

Oooh!! I used to watch these when I was in my last couple of years at School, I think, 1980/81/82?
Sometimes with my ‘first love’ boyfriend or sometimes on my own whilst baby-sitting😱 Hated the walk home after watching them!!
The earlier ones were very clever, well written and always a twist in the tale! Got them on DVD a few years back, not all have aged well, but some are still good. Particularly like the one with Joan Collins and Pauline Collins!

I watched these growing up and then rewatched them back in 2017 when DS was a newborn. Most of them were bone chilllingly good! The Charles Dance episode where he ends up murdering his wife's long lost daughter and the nice old woman who invited a school girl to her caravan for tea and biscuits (I think), only for woman and her husband to kill the girl were very scary.

MontalbanoFan I saw that one about the leg of lamb the other day. I enjoyed it but Susan George's acting was woeful😊

@Pinkyrosie that was Hammer House of Horror. It terrified me!

Is Sky arts a free channel?

There was a hammer house of horror episode where diana dors and others were werewolves, was terrifying. And the childs birthday party where the pipes poured blood everywhere was awful. Many of Tales of the unexpected were based on roald dahls short stories, one collection i think is called switch bitch. Great tv i think, is there a modern equivalent ?