Tales of the Unexpected

[Whatineed]

Someone has uploaded the entire program series on YouTube. And the quality is fantastic. A friend also told me they are shown on Sky too, but I've never come across them.

I haven't watched since I was around 8 or 9 and those episodes I remember scared the living daylights out of me. Now enjoying a blast from the past afternoon.

What I never appreciated at the time, were the well known actors and actresses. Currently watching Susan George and Brian Blessed. 😁

First episode had Pamela Stephenson who was breathtakingly good looking.

Also so many women in house coats! 🤣👌

Loved it when I got to watch it as a child. Read the book as a teen. Do you think it's suitable for a 12yo?

I would think it's OK for 12, especially as what dark tv means today compared to the 70's - perhaps kids are a bit more robust, and this is a bit more cheesey to them than anything.

We used to watch it just to stay up as late as possible on the weekend.

Thank you, OP!

There is also the Hammer House of Horror series on ITV-X

I love all the retro, period details on 70s TV - the clothes and cars and interiors

Have all the TOTU on DVD, watched them as children and enjoy catching up with them from time to time although knowing all the stories, the endings are now most definitely expected!
Agree, they are a window into the (then) famous and up & coming in the acting world.

I'll have to have a peek at those.

I'm sure I remember one where there were people at a dinner party that survived a plane crash by eating the bodies of those that perished.

Again I think I was around 9 or 10. 😅

Ah the 70s...!

I like the Christmas episode, The Christmas Party. Really reminiscent of 1970s Christmases.

They're often on Sky Arts around 6:30 / 7:00pm but yes, they've been on YouTube for years. Some better than others but great fun.

I love the one with the husband that's always late and the house lift. And Flypaper is so chilling.

Royal jelly! Still plays on my mind.

I don’t think I could watch them again.

Same for hammer house of horror. The house that bled to death.

Nor the twilight zone. With the gremlin tearing apart an airplane’s wing.

They disturbed me as a kid , but they are so bad as an adult that they're amusing.

I guess for the adults watching at the time they'd have been a bit like League of Gentlemen or Inside No 9.

Ooohh I loved these. I'd like to watch these with my DD.

Can I ask please what's the ones you have found with good quality? I don't use you tube much, do I have search for a certain user or something?

Here you go

youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXhyaOtvjvQYQbWqetoW-1T9pXugk5W_n&si=YEqFzepwfwjTr2jN

I loved league of gentlemen at the time. But again I think I’ve become weak as I’ve got older and couldn’t revisit. I still quote from it though 😂

@Whatineed thank you 🤩 I will watch these.
I'm in bed with covid at the minute so this is just what's needed for the bank holiday tomorrow x

The amount of quality actors that featured and are still going today will always be a source of wonder to me. Everything about TOTU is just sublime.

Get well soon!

Royal Jelly with Timothy West and Blue Marigold with Toyah stick in my mind

I've been recording these on Sky as I never saw them the first time round. They're so well acted and paced.

There's a DVD collection of them and the ones on telly always seem to be the ones from the collection.

But I saw a cracking one a couple of weeks ago: two bookshop owners trying to collect unpaid bills from the estates of recently dead "connoisseurs".

They approach the male members of the families so as not to distress the widows because the books they are billing for are pornography, mostly Victorian accounts of the demi-monde (wouldn't work today, but this is pre-internet).

They pick on Hugh Fraser and his daffy mum, who was devoted to her husband and is not sure how she will manage without him. The ideal victim.

Won't spoil the end, but the clue is in plain sight all the time, it was brilliant. The look on the wife's face at the end is chilling.

There're other: a two hander with Eli Wallace as a business man dealing with a hit man; Dorothy Tutin gets conclusive proof that her husband is playing away; Miriam Margolyes married to an unfaithful chemist who wants to marry his mistress; the unfaithful husband lamped will a leg of lamb.....

And if you're watching Sky Arts, hang on for the Alfred Hitchcock Presents..... More of the same in black and white.

I remember the fascination with Royal Jelly supplements and only ever thought about that TOTU episode. 😅

Am I right in thinking Martin from Ever Decreasing Circle (remember that?) was in one as a cafe owner? I seem to remember him not being able to read or write but hid it.

I love watching these. What always strikes me is how yellow the teeth are,

Im so conditioned to brilliant white teeth that l can’t step back from it.

The leg of lamb episode....awesomely brilliant..

The Orderly World of Mr Appleby is superb.

That was the Susan George and Brian Blessed episode!

I’m sure I’ve seen that leg of lamb idea used in another deans. She cooks the leg of lamb?