Tales Of The Unexpected

Year

1979

Genre

Horror, Thriller

Country

UK

Director

Actors

Roald Dahl

Description

A British anthology series featuring tales of horror, mystery and suspense. Most episodes featured a twist ending, and many of them were based on short stories by well-known writer Roald Dahl, who also served as the show's host during its first two seasons.

Episodes

• Season 1: 1. Man From The South, The (1979). A young American couple on holiday meet a mysterious old gentleman who makes them a macabre wager.
• Season 1: 2. Mrs. Bixby And The Colonel's Coat (1979). Unable to show her dentist husband Cyril the fur coat her lover has given her Mrs. Bixby pawns it and pretends that she found the ticket. She gives it to Cyril to redeem on her behalf but is taught that two can play at her game when he comes home with rather less than she expected, and she sees that his dental assistant will be warm for the winter.
• Season 1: 3. William And Mary (1979). When her husband William dies Mary Pearl is shocked that his will stipulates that his brain should be kept alive and observing her from the lounge sideboard. She determines that, even though he is dead, she will continue to annoy him.
• Season 1: 4. Lamb To The Slaughter (1979). When her policeman husband Patrick callously announces that he is leaving her, Mary Marney hits and kills him with the frozen leg of lamb she has bought for their dinner. Thinking quickly, she calls his colleagues, claiming that she came in from the shops and found him dead. Whilst they speculate over what kind of weapon killed him she invites them all to a roast lamb dinner.
• Season 1: 5. Landlady, The (1979). Arriving in Bath to take up his first job away from home young Billy Weaver decides to take a room with a charmingly maternal if eccentric landlady. Her dog and cat are both stuffed and the only other names in her guest-book seem vaguely familiar to him but he cannot think why. Sadly he will never find out as he drinks the tea which the landlady has poisoned to add him to her collection.
• Season 1: 6. Neck (1979). Invited to a weekend house party by Sir Basil Turton and his younger wife Natalia, John Bannister is struck by the lady's infidelity.She tries to undo his pyjamas and is plainly having an affair with another guest Major Haddock. Jelks, Sir Basil's loyal butler, has also noticed and when Natalia gets her head stuck in an abstract sculpture he knows precisely how to cut her down to size.
• Season 1: 7. Edward The Conqueror (1979). Elderly marrieds Edward and Louisa discover a stray cat in their garden. It reacts so positively to Louisa's classical piano playing that she is convinced the cat is the reincarnation of Franz Liszt. Edward grows tired of her obsession and decides to get rid of the cat. Louisa exacts revenge,
• Season 1: 8. Dip In The Pool, A (1979). An American gambler on a trans-Atlantic liner goes into the pool that bets on how far ship sails each day. Expecting bad weather, he bets a low distance, but then the weather fines up. He must come up with a plan to slow the ship down.
• Season 1: 9. Way Up To Heaven, The (1979). Mrs. Foster has a plane to catch in order to visit her daughter and first grand-child. Her husband is an inveterate and somewhat sadistic dawdler, who appears to do it on purpose in order to rile her. As a result she misses one plane but can catch the next flight in the morning. Mr. Foster attempts to slow her down again but when he is trapped in the lift she exacts a very final revenge on him.
• Season 2: 1. Royal Jelly (1980). Bee-keeper Albert Taylor and his wife Mabel are concerned that their baby daughter is underweight and seems reluctant to take any nourishment until, that is, Albert decides to feed her on Royal Jelly from his hives. He feeds himself on it as well, becoming almost addicted to it and with very macabre results.
• Season 2: 2. Skin (1980). In post-war Paris Drioli, an elderly down-and-out, sees a painting for sale by his old friend Soutine, who is now a best-selling artist. Thirty years earlier Soutine tattooed a portrait of Drioli's wife onto his back and it has become extremely valuable. But it is on his back and therefore worthless. How come it is eventually on public exhibition?
• Season 2: 3. Galloping Foxley (1980). On a train journey William Perkins is convinced that the passenger seated opposite him is 'Galloping' Foxley, who made his life a misery when they were at school together and relives the unpleasant experience before the stranger identifies himself.
• Season 2: 4. Hitch-Hiker, The (1980). Flash American Paul Duveen stops to give elderly Irish vagrant Michael Fish a lift in his new BMW. Michael is a pickpocket, which comes in very handy after his encouragement to Paul to break the speed limit has attracted the attention of a traffic cop on a motor-bike, who waves them over. After the cop has gone Michael shows a happy Paul that he stole the cop's notebook and evidence but before long Paul will be anything but happy.
• Season 2: 5. Poison (1980). Harry, a young teacher working in India but about to return home is petrified when a poisonous snake creeps into his bed and sits on his belly. His friend Timber happens by and they call a local doctor. The snake is parted from Harry's body and the others leave but...
• Season 2: 6. Fat Chance (1980). Mary Burge's figure has ballooned over the years since she first married her pharmacist husband John because she is a great comfort eater. John is tired of her and turns to legal secretary Frances, who becomes his mistress. Mary, however, will not divorce him and Frances is issuing an ultimatum. He decides to put his pharmaceutical skills into play and poison his wife's chocolates. However, not everything will go to plan.
• Season 2: 7. Taste (1980). Richard Pratt, a pretentious wine expert, is one of several dinner party guests at the home of stockbroker Mike Schofield.Pratt claims to be able to identify any wine from its bouquet but Schofield has picked a really rare wine that he is so convinced Pratt will fail to recognize that he includes his house and his daughter in the wager to everyone else's horror. . .particularly when Pratt guesses it right. Fortunately for the rest of the family the dutiful housekeeper has discovered Mr. Pratt's glasses in a room where they should not be.
• Season 2: 8. My Lady Love, My Dove (1980). Pamela and Arthur Beauchamp invite a younger married couple, the Snapes, for the weekend, during which they will play cards for money. Before they arrive prurient Pamela gets her reluctant husband to bug the Snapes' room so she can hear them in bed. The Snapes clean their hosts out at cards and a bigger surprise awaits when Pamela listens to their bedroom conversation.
• Season 2: 9. Georgy Porgy (1980). Following an unconventional upbringing by his mother George Duckworth, now a vicar, has an odd attitude to women. He visualizes his female parishioners undressed but is scared of physical contact. When the seductive Julia joins his congregation she turns out to be a man-eater in every sense.
• Season 2: 10. Depart In Peace (1980). Hearing from his old friend Gladys Ponsonby of the talented if unconventional artist John Roydon, art dealer Lionel gets Roydon to visualize Lionel's fiancee Janet nude and paint her accordingly. Janet, however, does not see the joke, for which Lionel pays bitterly, in the literal sense.
• Season 2: 11. Umbrella Man, The (1980). An elderly con-man works a scam whereby he steals an umbrella from a rack in a public building and sells it to another person, who needs it to shield them from the rain. In the process, a mix-up with the umbrellas means that he exposes a couple who are cheating on the woman's husband and leads to fisticuffs.
• Season 2: 12. Genesis & Catastrophe (1980). In 1889 Austrian customs officer Alois is desperate that his wife Klara will pull through a difficult labour and that she and her baby son will survive. They do. They call the child Adolf.
• Season 2: 13. Mr Botibol's First Love (1980). Mr. Botibol has built a small concert hall in his house where he conducts imaginary recitals to gramophone records. In a music shop he meets Irene, a fellow music lover, and invites her to join in one of his concerts. Unfortunately, she can genuinely play the piano, which sours the mood for Mr. Botibol. Imagination is all to him.
• Season 2: 14. Back For Christmas (1980). Orchid-loving doctor Carpenter is married to Hermione but in love with the younger Samantha. He and his wife are due to fly to America, so that when he kills Hermione and cuts her up and buries her in the garden, he believes that her disappearance will be covered. Unfortunately for him, she is able to avenge herself even from the grave.
• Season 2: 15. Orderly World Of Mr. Appleby, The (1980). Arthur Appleby is something of a Bluebeard. He has killed his previous wives and used the insurance money to open a succession of antique shops, each one in a new town. When he meets Martha he marks her down as his next victim. However, she is not stupid and tells him that if anything untoward happens to her she has left instructions that Appleby is to be dealt with. Unfortunately something is about to happen which, for once, is not his fault.
• Season 2: 16. Man At The Top, The (1980). Hardy, a young sailor down on his luck, is left stranded when his ship sails without him so he robs a man but accidentally kills him. His girlfriend Diane informs him that the one man who can help him, the 'man at the top' is Sam Madrid. However, Hardy is in for a shock when he realizes that he has already met Madrid.
• Season 3: 1. Flypaper, The (1980). The police are dragging the marshes for a missing school-girl and a sinister man is approaching other young girls. When he tries to accost young Sylvia on a bus, Sylvia is relieved when a motherly middle-aged woman comes to her rescue and sends him away. Sylvia goes back to the woman's trailer home to have tea with her. Unfortunately this woman is not a nice person at all and Sylvia is caught like a fly on a fly-paper.
• Season 3: 2. Picture Of A Place, A (1980). Con artist Merv Pottinger travels the East Anglian countryside, telling unsuspecting elderly people that their valuable art treasure is fairly worthless and that he will do them a favour by taking it off their hands. However, when he meets Hazel, whose son is struggling to keep on their run-down old farm, he thinks that he can get her to part with an Old Master for pea-nuts. In fact she is a far better confidence trickster than him.
• Season 3: 3. Proof Of Guilt (1980). George Stamford has come to avenge himself on Mr.Chillingham and is discovered in the latter's locked office with Chillingham dead of a gun-shot wound. However, there is no gun to be found and no apparent means of disposing of one. Inspector Walters has to work out how it was done and if George really is a man with an iron constitution.
• Season 3: 4. Vengeance Is Mine Inc. (1980). Tired of freezing in their room and living out of tins, enterprising lads Tom and George set up Vengeance Is Mine,Inc. For a small fee they will punch anyone their client feels deserves it. Former actress Mrs. Wilbur wants them to attack snooty critic Lionel Brewster and even gives them disguises and helps them plan it. Could she perhaps have an ulterior motive in wanting to incriminate someone else in the assault on Brewster?
• Season 3: 5. Girl Can't Always Have Everything, A (1980). Suzy Starr and Pat Lewis are struggling actresses in a provincial touring production of 'The Importance of Being Earnest'. Herbert, a middle-aged widower, who has become rich via manufacturing toys, puts money into the production and falls for Suzy, who snaps up the expensive gifts he gives her. They get married but she is only using him and is having affairs with other men, leading Herbert to request a divorce. Suzy wants the best of both worlds and asks for Pat's help, not realizing that this is Pat's perfect opportunity to teach her that a girl can't have ...
• Season 3: 6. Parson's Pleasure (1980). Crooked antique expert Cyril Boggis dresses as a vicar and calls on Suffolk farmsteads offering to take old furniture off the occupants' hands for a fee. Of course, he knows when the furniture is valuable and none more so than the dresser he sees at Farmer Rummins' run-down place. So as not to create suspicion he tells Rummins that he is only interested in the legs. This is a bad plan on his part because Rummins and his lads have difficulty getting the object of Cyril's greed through the door and decide on drastic action.
• Season 3: 7. Stinker, The (1980). Meek accountant Harold Tinker, despised by his ambitious ,younger wife Phyl, meets Jack Cutler, an old school contemporary. Cutler used to call Harold 'Stinker Tinker' and generally made his life a misery. Now, with little recollection of the past, Cutler offers Harold a well-paid job, which he takes, chiefly for Phyl's sake. But Cutler still calls him 'Stinker' and, at a dinner party with the two men and their wives, Harold is convinced by her behaviour that Phyl is having an affair with his boss. It is time for the worm to turn, with fatal results.
• Season 3: 8. I'll Be Seeing You (1980). Roland Trent is in love with Anna, who is gradually losing her sight but could have an operation to save it. Unfortunately it is not cheap. Roland is married to Vivienne but she is no more in love with him than he is with her. Furthermore she controls the purse-strings and is initially not keen to help the Other Woman though eventually she agrees to finance the operation but only if Roland never sees Anna again. Roland, however, has other ideas to get the best of both worlds.
• Season 3: 9. Party, The (1980). It is coming up to Christmas and Henry Knox, manager of Peckham's toy factory, is doubly incensed. First, he has heard a rumour that the factory will be subject to a take-over by a foreign firm who will not want to keep him. Then he learns that young Leighton, another employee, is organizing a staff disco the night before the works' Christmas party that Henry has always arranged. Wandering into the empty room in the pub where the disco is due to be held Henry finds it is laid out for a formal dinner, and imagining that it is in honour of the in-comers he sets fire to ...
• Season 4: 1. Would You Believe It? (1981). Miller and Tanner are archaeologists in Jordan who unearth a striking statue of a beautiful woman looking over her shoulder. They load it onto their truck and drive through a rainstorm in order to get to Israel to sell the statue. However, when the rain has cleared the statue has completely disappeared. They are mystified. If they had known who was the subject of the statue and what it was made of they might have taken more care.
• Season 4: 2. Vicious Circle (1981). Whom would you consider to be the more dangerous? Rex Tobin, the young thief who breaks into Mrs. Grady's flat to rob her? Or dear little old Mrs. Grady herself, who, when Tobin falls and hurts himself, bandages his ankle, makes him tea, and promises to let him go if he will behave himself in future? He might be making all the right noises but she has all the right moves. . .
• Season 4: 3. Boy Who Talked With Animals, The (1981). Young David can communicate with animals. On holiday in the Caribbean he soothes a huge beached turtle which has been captured by local fishermen for display at the tourist hotel. Next morning boy and turtle have both disappeared.
• Season 4: 4. Best Of Everything, The (1981). Meek clerk Arthur Price is desperately in love with the sweet Ann, the boss's daughter but is too shy to ask her out. By chance he meets charming if pushy Charlie Prince who is homeless and, in return for Arthur letting him move his large trunk into his lodgings and become his room-mate, Charlie gives him sound advice on wooing Ann with the result that the couple get engaged. Charlie has now outlived his usefulness and the newly confident Arthur has no qualms about getting rid of his mentor as he and Ann prepare to go away together. Will he get away with it?
• Season 4: 5. Woman's Help, A (1981). Arnold Bourdon is controlled by his wealthy wife Elizabeth, who is an invalid. He hires a young nurse, Miss Greco, to look after Elizabeth but finds himself attracted to her and they consider bumping Elizabeth off so that they can marry. Elizabeth catches them kissing and fires Miss Greco. Arthur brings in three possible candidates to be the new nurse and lets his wife choose which one will replace Miss Greco. Sadly for her she makes the wrong choice.
• Season 4: 6. Shatterproof (1981). Gerry Williams returns to his New York apartment to discover that an assassin called Smith has been sent by his young and faithless wife Ellen to kill him. Staring down the barrel of a gun allows Gerry to think fast, very fast, and he tells the young killer that he has a fortune stashed away in the safe hidden behind a picture on the wall. Can he divert the gun-man's attention for long enough to gain the upper hand?
• Season 4: 7. Sound Machine, The (1981). During a sunny suburban summer before the Second World War Mr. Klausner develops a box which amplifies the tiniest sound and, for example, records the screams of flowers as they are being cut. His next-door neighbour is less impressed by his invention. Likewise the doctor who regards Mr. Klausner as a case for treatment.
• Season 4: 8. Never Speak Ill Of The Dead (1981). Buddies Sim and Bob arrive at the house of their friend Dr. David Rankin one Sunday morning to go fishing, and find him in the cellar cementing over a newly laid floor. His wife Irene is not at home and Rankin tells them that she is staying with friends. However her infidelity is well-known around the village and Bob and Sim make the mistake of surmising that Bob has killed and buried his wife. They think he cannot hear their discussion as he is out of the room, but he can, with lethal results.
• Season 4: 9. Best Policy, The (1981). Harry Flock's super-efficiency is rewarded when he is appointed as the acting bank manager at his local branch. The appointment is followed by allegations of embezzlement and money disappearing but there is no evidence of any discrepancy in Harry's excellent records. Has he been set up? Or is his book-keeping just too good to be true?
• Season 4: 10. Last Bottle In The World, The (1981). Sophie Kassoulas and her wine importer uncle Charles recall a past incident when her lover, Max, editor of a wine magazine, asked Charles what he thought was the finest of all vintages. Charles nominated an 1864 Bordeaux claret for its rarity - it was quite simply the last remaining bottle in the world. Sophie's millionaire husband Kyros bought it for ten thousand pounds with which to celebrate their wedding anniversary but he was wise to her affair with Max who, along with Charles, was invited to the anniversary party for Kyros to demonstrate his revenge.
• Season 4: 11. Kindly Dig Your Grave (1981). Madame Lagrue is a Parisian art gallery proprietress notorious for exploiting struggling young painters by dishonest means so that she creams off large profits from their work. her latest victim is young American Graham but Graham is fortunate enough to have waitress Fatima as his model, and lover, getting her pregnant. For Fatima is a very smart girl who hatches a plan that will publicly expose Madame Lagrue's underhand dealings - in every sense.
• Season 4: 12. Completely Foolproof (1981). Tycoon Joe Brisson is two-timing his wife Lisa, who finds out and wants a divorce - and half of his very considerable fortune, to which end she has forced his hand in admitting to shady deals. He is about to leave for Europe when a disgruntled employee tries to kill him. Joe persuades the man to take part in a plot to wipe out Lisa which he is sure will be 'completely foolproof'. As it happens, Lisa is thinking along similar lines.
• Season 4: 13. There's One Born Every Minute (1981). Arthur and Margaret Pearson are a quiet little suburban couple who inherit fifty thousand pounds when a relative dies. They tentatively invest it in property with the questionable Edward Cox. Arthur is in fact two-timing his wife with a mistress called Joy and is planning to take off but then disaster strikes as Edward is revealed as a con artist who has gone off with all the money. But is he the only one and may he not have an accomplice playing the same game as Arthur?
• Season 4: 14. Bosom Friends (1981). When hard-working Nell invites her old school friend Emma to come and stay in her ramshackle country cottage to help her make ends meet, she is unaware that she has landed herself with a free-loader who has a lifetime's experience of not paying her way. Nell is so anxious to get rid of her unwelcome tenant that she resorts to a murderous plan.
• Season 4: 15. Glowing Future, A (1981). Betsy is devastated when her long-time partner Jack tells her that he is moving to Australia to marry another woman and begins to pack chests of his belongings - some of them shared items - to send ahead. An enraged Betsy lashes out at him. As a result, thanks to Betsy's efforts, Jack's new girlfriend will have an extra surprise when she opens his luggage.
• Season 4: 16. Way To Do It, The (1981). Living a dreary life and dominated by his wealthy Aunt May, Roger Carson takes to gambling and, due to the wiles of the lovely but devious casino hostess Suzie, he has quickly run up a gambling debt of twenty thousand pounds. Aunt May refuses to pay it but Roger is aware that, as her sole heir, he will inherit everything when she dies. All he has to do is skip the country, having already arranged for someone else to kill Aunt May without being aware that they did so, thus demonstrating the perfect way to do it.
• Season 4: 17. Hijack (1981). An aeroplane flying from London to Edinburgh with a party of surgeons on board is apparently taken over by a hi-jacker. He has taken the stewardess prisoner in a toilet and will shoot her if his demands are not met. This involves a landing at Manchester airport and the delivery onboard of two parachutes and a million pounds. As the plane goes on its way the passengers are informed that the hi-jacker has bailed out. But did he ever exist? And how innocent are the crew in all of this?
• Season 5: 1. Blue Marigold (1982). Myra - known as Marigold - is the celebrated face of the Blue Marigold advertising campaign. However, when she appears in a television commercial, she is told that her voice is unsuitable and another girl, Sophie, will be dubbing her. At the same time her married lover Paul leaves her. She is already hitting the bottle and suffering mood swings and she has a breakdown, being admitted to a psychiatric home. On discharge she goes to live with her sister Beryl at a sea-side resort. Here she meets Sophie, who is getting married to Paul, but he too has undergone an ...
• Season 5: 2. Eavesdropper, The (1982). The 'eavesdropper' is married Moira who, whilst in a restaurant, overhears a younger woman at an adjacent table tell her friend how she had a weekend in Paris with her lover Donald. Moira is aghast. Not only is her husband called Donald, he was in Paris, supposedly on business, the previous weekend. To make matters worse, the woman, Louise, has a distinctive watch which she says was given to her by Donald. And it looks exactly the same as one Donald gave to Moira and then got 'mislaid'. Should Moira approach this woman? Or is it all a bizarre coincidence?
• Season 5: 3. Operation Safecrack (1982). Sam 'The Touch' Morrissey is the most famous safe-cracker in Britain and advertising executive Jack Harrison uses him in an elaborate live television stunt to promote his company. Sam has to break into the impregnable new Holdwell 801 safe in the studio, thereby claiming the twenty-five thousand pounds in an envelope in the safe. Time starts to run out and it looks as if Sam has failed. Fortunately for Sam he came to the studio with another skill as well as safe-cracking.
• Season 5: 4. Run, Rabbit, Run (1982). Ten years after he was, as a young soldier billeted in Paris at the end of World War Two, Robert Simpson returns to the house where he stayed, owned by Resistance hero Hector Vareille. Hector was a bully to his put-upon wife Nathalie,who had to do everything as he always sat in the same chair and never left the house.Robert is writing a book about the Resistance but Hector is now dead and Nathalie tells the former soldier how she turned the tables on her overbearing husband.
• Season 5: 5. Stranger In Town (1982). An eccentrically-dressed stranger gets off a train and within a few days has endeared himself to the citizens of the town with his jovial behaviour and magical tricks.He is known as Sir Columbus. However, when he calls upon prominent citizen Mr.Latham he is neither jovial or eccentric, he is out for revenge. But then who would suspect such a delightfully off-the-wall middle-aged gentleman of being capable of murder?
• Season 5: 6. Moles, The (1982). Edward and George are friends whose businesses are in financial trouble but neither can get a loan from the bank, which makes them feel like robbing it. They enlist the help of an elderly safe-cracker called Meakins and,over the course of a weekend when the bank is closed they tunnel into it from the shop next door. They successfully enter the vault after much arguing but, sadly for them they neglected to observe the notice on the door of the bank before they began their operation.
• Season 5: 7. Decoy (1982). Following the murders of young women in a local park Woman Police Constable Mary Bryan agrees, somewhat reluctantly, to go undercover as a decoy. The chief suspect is a man called Timothy Burton, who frequents the park, and, with a police presence to back her up Constable Bryan gets him into conversation. But is he really the murderer? Might the real killer still be close at hand and prepared to strike again?
• Season 5: 8. Pattern Of Guilt (1982). Keith Briscoe is a police doctor who is involved with the case of a serial killer who murders women and leaves clues at the scene of the crime. He is anxious to divorce his second wife Elaine in order to get back to Faye, the wife he left for Elaine but Elaine is not going to give him a divorce. Maybe the facts that he has learnt whilst working on the case can provide him with a means to an end.
• Season 5: 9. Harmless Vanity, A (1982). When her best friend Liz tells her that husband George is having an affair with the much younger Carol, Mary Hitchman decides to meet her rival and invites her to a civilized beach party, having first lost weight and enjoyed a glamorous make-over, enabling her to wear a sexy red bathing suit identical to Carol's. This will all lead to George losing his mistress, though not in the way Mary had expected.
• Season 5: 10. Death Can Add (1982). Oliver Platt is defrauding his firm Bulmont Investments, not just out of greed but revenge as his father killed himself when a similar firm, for whom he worked, would not give him a loan to pay off his debts. Alan Corwin, an auditor, tumbles to Oliver's deception and demands a quarter of a million in hush money. Oliver puts the money in a brief-case along with a bomb, due to go off at six o'clock when Corwin will be in an aeroplane. Unfortunately for Oliver, his devoted secretary Leila cannot stand by and see her man beaten so she takes action. . .
• Season 5: 11. Light Fingers (1982). Ralph Stackpole runs a glove factory but gloves are being stolen on a regular basis, throwing suspicion on all those employed there, including Cotter, his designer. Henry brings in Semple, a private detective who comes up with a plan to trap the thief and at breakfast Henry explains it to his usually disinterested wife Joan. As a consequence stolen items start to crop up in the most unlikely places.
• Season 5: 12. Death In The Morning (1982). Recently married to wealthy country squire Ian Karen Masterson feels not only alienated in his large house but senses an evil spirit trying to get rid of her. She befriends neighbour Linda Larch,who suggests this may be the spirit of Ian's first wife who died in a car crash but when Karen comes across a book of witchcraft she suspects that Linda may not be the good friend she had thought and has to take supernatural action of her own.
• Season 5: 13. What Have You Been Up To Lately? (1982). Fergus Locke, an irascible and frankly washed-up actor, has a row over money with his put-upon wife, during which he kills her. He flees to London and meets Richard Mellor, another failed thespian who depends on his wealthy other half for funds. When a radio news flash reports the death of Mrs. Locke, Fergus escapes in Richard's car and is involved in a high speed chase, after which he crashes the motor. Crawling from the wreckage he makes a grisly discovery.
• Season 5: 14. Absence Of Emily, The (1982). Magistrate Norma allows her sister Emily, a children's author, and Emily's failure of a husband Bob to live in a house in her grounds. Bob's first wife died in mysterious circumstances and when Emily disappears Norma is deeply suspicious that she has come to harm despite Bob's assurances that she has merely gone somewhere quiet to complete her latest book. However, the opportunistic Bob comes to realise that it could be in his interests to play along with Norma's doubts.
• Season 5: 15. In The Bag (1982). As safe-breakers go, Sam is the best. He is painstaking and thoroughly cautious and consequently has never been caught, which is why Cara wants his services. As a result of a lover's tiff her family's jewels have been taken from her and locked in a safe, which she wants him to open. He is not overly happy when she opts to come with him for the job, but he has disguises for them so that they can make a quick getaway. But is this to be the first mistake in Sam's illustrious career?
• Season 5: 16. Man With A Fortune, A (1982). Californian vineyard owner John Smith strikes up a conversation with a young woman called Eva whom he meets in a bar. He tells her that he has come to England to trace his ancestry and that he is going to the Norfolk village of Bedham, from where they originated. When Eva tells her flat-mate Janet, Janet, seeing the opportunity to bag herself a rich man, contrives a meeting with Smith in a records library, claiming that she too is going to trace her forebears in Bedham. However, Eva hears no more from her and, when she goes down to Bedham to look for her, she is told ...
• Season 5: 17. Who's Got The Lady? (1982). 'The Patrician Lady', a priceless painting, is coming from France on loan to Parnell's London gallery but, at its unveiling, there is an explosion and gun-shots, suggesting a robbery although it is all over in seconds. The painting is still in place but the name 'Zarchetti' is stamped on the back of the canvas, suggesting a switch. Since the real painting is presumed stolen, Parnell's girlfriend Bernice,a talented forger,makes several copies of the original which will be palmed off as the original and offered to interested parties. But did 'The Patrician Lady' really ...
• Season 5: 18. Skeleton Key, The (1982). Andy, a hospital radiographer, is losing his girlfriend Emma to the self-centred Max, who is planning to take her on a romantic holiday. When Max complains of pains and Andy sees him in a professional capacity, an opportunity for revenge arises. Did Max really swallow that key, or is Andy just making him suffer ?
• Season 6: 1. Passing Opportunity, A (1983). Frank Jesmond is on hard times and in danger of losing his family when a man named Laughlin gives him a job as a hitman, the mark being Peter Madison, a school contemporary of Frank who has done very well for himself in the States and is back on a visit. Frank arrives at Peter's hotel and introduces himself, and, for old times sake, the two men go to Peter's room for a drink. As they talk, Frank's purpose starts to waver and he finds himself susceptible to a new deal.
• Season 6: 2. Memory Man, The (1983). Colin Mearns scrapes a living with a business helping people improve their memory but it is not a huge success and his girl-friend wants out. Then a Mr. King turns up, seeking Colin's help. He is agitated and rather bad-tempered, having placed a bag in a left luggage locker at a station but forgotten the details and the combination. Colin is certainly able to help but, unaware that Mr. King is really a safe-cracker who keeps his tools in the bag, unfortunately becomes too curious for his own good.
• Season 6: 3. Sad Loss, A (1983). Claire Hawksworth and her boyfriend Dave are struggling to keep up the payments on their Caribbean hotel and had always counted on Claire's wealthy Aunt Alicia leaving her all her money. However, Alicia informs the couple that she is changing her will in favour of her new grand-child. The pair decide that Alicia should meet with an unfortunate swimming accident before the will can be altered and duly despatch her. However, they had reckoned without a letter Alicia had sent to her solicitor.
• Season 6: 4. Clerical Error (1983). Whilst winding up his late father's affairs for his invalid mother Paul Standing comes across an invoice from a London book-shop and goes to meet the owners, the Carey brothers, who claim that Paul's father owes them money for pornographic books they sent him. In fact the brothers are crooks who scour the obituary columns for the names of deceased worthies and then hit their relatives with the lie that the dead man owed them for erotic reading material, knowing that the ignorant next of kin will pay up to avoid a scandal.However Paul and his mother invite the Careys ...
• Season 6: 5. Heir Presumptuous (1983). Rich skinflint George Devon has two nephews, David and Donald, who are identical twins. George is murdered by one of them after refusing him a loan, and the house-keeper sees him leaving the murder scene. The trouble is that she cannot tell them apart and both of them have cast-iron alibis. Local Sheriff Milt Singleton has to work out a means of telling them apart and nailing the killer.
• Season 6: 6. Where's Your Sense Of Humour? (1983). George Forester is an annoying practical joker,who tries the patience of work colleague Frank Parker and his wife Laura. When the latest jape,involving the sabotaging of a business dinner party,costs Frank promotion and George's wife Julie goes to Edinburgh,leaving him alone in the house, Laura sees an opportunity to put an end to George's pranks for good.
• Season 6: 7. Down Among The Sheltering Palms (1983). Gerry T Armstrong is on holiday in England, revisiting some of the places he saw when he was a young GI. The old dance hall is now a tawdry nightclub but Gerry is still looking for a girl he met there during the war. Why does he become increasingly desperate as the night drags on?
• Season 6: 8. Vorpal Blade, The (1983). Elderly - uniformed - Teuton Von Baden tells colleague Winterluck a tale from his youth when he was a student in Heidelberg over fifty years earlier. A fellow student Cassan was a bully but a fine swordsman who one day challenged another youth, Macker, to a fight when he found Macker in bed with his girlfriend. Cassan chose Von Baden to be his second, giving him the perfect opportunity to do away with the over-bearing and unpopular student. As Von Baden explains how he utilized the 'Vorpal Blade' another twist reveals that both old men are in fact war criminals being ...
• Season 6: 9. Wrong 'Un, The (1983). Helmut Weinrich is a German businessman who has just closed a successful deal in Coventry. Feeling very satisfied and now alone for the evening, he impulsively picks up the bar tab of a pretty girl called Molly and invites her back to his hotel room, despite the warning of the hotel detective that Molly is a 'wrong-un'.
• Season 6: 10. Luncheon, The (1983). Author Tony Medway is thrilled to receive a phone call from Susan Mandeville, inviting him to a restaurant to discuss making a film of his book. After all,Susan is married to an influential film producer and the deal could make Tony's fortune. Unfortunately, the restaurant of Susan's choice,Blundell's, is very expensive. Tony has budgeted himself to have a fairly inexpensive and minimal meal but Susan keeps going for items he can barely afford. Never mind, it will all come right because of her husband, won't it? Assuming he still is her husband.
• Season 6: 11. Tribute, The (1983). Three aristocratic ladies now living in reduced circumstances, agree to have lunch together as a tribute to Dench, the woman who worked as a nanny for all of them in many years ago. As they reminisce, it becomes clear that through their meanness and snobbery, they all treated Dench rather poorly. But maybe their lowly servant can have the last laugh?
• Season 6: 12. Hit And Run (1983). Dr. Roger Ashburn is heart-broken when his beloved but selfish wife Mary leaves him, in highly public fashion, leaving her wedding ring to be found during a dinner party Roger is giving for a colleague and his wife. In order to get his life back together he decides to get a job in a hospital in a different town, to make a new start. Then, one day, all too familiar patient is brought in. . .
• Season 6: 13. Youth From Vienna (1983). Television interviewer Caroline Coates is promoted to being her station's news anchorwoman and is anxious to look her very best. Dr. Humphrey Baxter, a brilliant scientist, is working on a formula, to be marketed as 'Youth From Vienna', to stop the ageing process. Caroline, however,whilst happy to make use of Humphrey, sees the younger, better-looking Alan Brodie as a fitter partner. Humphrey is obviously unhappy at this and forces Caroline to make an unforeseen decision.
• Season 6: 14. Turn Of The Tide, The (1983). Slade is a criminal lawyer who is facing disgrace and asks his colleague Spalding to help cover up for him but Spalding is impervious to corruption and refuses so he needs to be disposed of. Slade lies in wait for him as he takes his customary early morning swim, kills him and drags the body into the sea. But Slade has reckoned without the turn of the tide...
• Season 7: 1. Dirty Detail, The (1984). When Fred Pearson was in the army during the Vietnam War his life was made a misery by hectoring Sergeant Guedo who repeatedly gave him 'dirty detail' punishments. As a result he has no self-confidence and has been unable to hold down a job since his discharge. One day he goes into his local bar to drown his sorrows and sees Guedo, boasting about his war exploits, as brash and unpleasant as ever. Now is the time for Fred to get his revenge.. .
• Season 7: 2. Best Chess Player In The World, The (1984). G.B. Shaw is certainly a gifted chess player. But as he tells his opponent over a game, he is in fact the greatest in the world. To prove it he explains how he planned the perfect murder, after discovering his wife was unfaithful.
• Season 7: 3. Proxy (1984). Media tycoon Sutton and his two friends are all being blackmailed by a woman with whom all three had past affairs, the disclosure of which could ruin them. Then the woman is found dead. The three men have to dispose of the body without any suspicion linking them to her falling on them. Fortunately William, the faithful chauffeur, comes up with a fool-proof plan.
• Season 7: 4. Have A Nice Death (1984). In New York to promote his new book 'Women Weeping' British author Sam Luke jauntily dismisses claims that it is sexist in a television interview. However, when he returns to his hotel suite unpleasant things start to happen. A phone caller rings to say' "Have a nice death," after which a package containing one of his books arrives and explodes upon opening. Sam is starting to get scared. If only he was at home with his wife everything would be all right. Wouldn't it?
• Season 7: 5. Number Eight (1984). A driver picks up a hitch-hiker, perhaps not the wisest thing to do when the radio is full of the news of serial murderer the 'Will-o-the-Wisp' killer and the description given of him fits that of the hitcher. Furthermore the passenger seems quite obsessed with the killer to the driver's discomfort. He even knows how many victims there have been. Or does he?
• Season 7: 6. Last Of The Midnight Gardeners, The (1984). Walter Oates, editor of a magazine which publishes crime stories is married to Jane but is having an affair with his secretary Edna, and the two women meet when Edna stands in for an absent guest at a dinner party. Walter is running a competition with a cash prize for the reader who submits the best murder mystery, though most of the entries are rubbish. Then Jane challenges him to write a story. Under an assumed name, given that he is the editor. But when life mirrors art, even an assumed name is little defence.
• Season 7: 7. Gift Of Beauty, The (1984). Elizabeth kills her husband because she wants to be with her young lover Ray - who, incidentally, helped in the murder - but she feels insecure because of the age gap and so she has a face lift, as well as taking part in an exhaustive exercise regime to help her keep her figure. And then, one day, she sees a flyer, recommending an anti-ageing process known as the Gift of Beauty. Is this really the answer to her prayers, or is it a means to an end in punishing a guilty woman?
• Season 7: 8. Wet Saturday (1984). On a wet Saturday Mr. Princey learns that his unbalanced daughter Millicent has hit and killed the man with whom she was obsessed but did not love her with a croquet mallet. Mr. Princey cannot afford a scandal at any cost. When a family friend comes visiting Princey gets his dim son George to attack him ,with a view to making it look as the murder was a case of self-defence. Never has family solidarity been so important. Nothing must go wrong. Will it?
• Season 7: 9. Sauce For The Goose (1984). Having arranged the death of her very wealthy husband in order to be with her young lover Stephen - and lavish her late husbands riches on him - Olivia is extremely annoyed by his cavalier attitude when he sees himself as a free agent and takes up with Gloria. He must be taught a lesson.
• Season 7: 10. Bird Of Prey (1984). Jack and Edna's pet parrot dies after laying an unusually large egg which hatches out into a very ugly and fairly large black bird. Initially it does not speak but Jack comes to like it, unlike his wife. Jack suspects Edna of infidelity and comes to see the bird as an ally who will check up on her behaviour for him. Needless to say he is in for a surprise.
• Season 7: 11. I Like It Here In Wilmington (1984). Garment manufacturer Harry Elton is in big trouble. Thanks to his business partner Marvin's lack of foresight in predicting the next season's fashions, he stands to lose all his cash and face bankruptcy. But Harry likes it in the town of Wilmington, where he and his wife Roberta enjoy a very good life-style. He does not want to see it go. However, if his wife 'went' and he collected on her life insurance policy, he could maintain his comfortable existence. . .
• Season 7: 12. Accidental Death (1984). Steve and Jane are a couple of thieves who travel the country pretending to be market researchers for Silvertone metal polish whilst they find suitable homes to burgle. In a hotel bar they meet the eccentric old Percy, who, despite his tatty appearance, is rumoured to have a hidden fortune. The couple decide to break into his house but Percy has caught an earlier bus home and surprises them. He will cause them more trouble than they could have imagined.
• Season 7: 13. Reconciliation, The (1984). James Howgill finds his marriage to Caroline unfulfilling and wants a divorce but she sees nothing wrong and refuses. He therefore hires fastidious private eye H.A.K. Bates in the hopes that he can catch her out with another man but the story the detective comes back with leads him to see his wife in a renewed light, resulting in a reconciliation. Did Caroline stage manage this by any chance?
• Season 7: 14. Mugger, The (1984). Government minister Gerald Overton goes to a party without his wife Jennifer, where he holds forth on his views on law and order - re-claiming power for the ordinary citizen - to some acclaim. After being sidetracked by the seductive Mary Tregallas, he is walking home when he is barged by a man in a park. He then finds his wallet missing and goes after the man and recovers it from him. However, when he gets home Jennifer points out to him that before he went out he dropped his wallet in the house. . . And there is worse to come.
• Season 7: 15. Open Window, The (1984). Holidaying in Connecticut, Gregory visits an isolated hunting lodge and meets a girl called Jane, who tells him a disturbing story about an accident which befell members of her family when they went through 'the open window' on a hunting expedition. Is she lying or will the figures really return as her mother expects?
• Season 8: 1. People Don't Do Such Things (1985). Terence and Gwen Carter are a conventional married couple, disapproving of the womanizing ways of Reeve Baker, Terence's friend and tax accountant. Terence is shocked, then, when Gwen tells him that she and Reeve are in love and plan to go off together. Despite her husband's entreaties she leaves him but soon afterwards is found murdered. All the evidence points to Reeve as the perpetrator and he is duly sent for trial. Did he kill her or was he framed? Either way, people don't do such things...or do they?
• Season 8: 2. In The Cards (1985). Madame Myra foretells in a tarot card reading that her client Charlie will come into a lot of money...but die shortly afterwards. Although she does not find him attractive she marries him in the hopes of becoming a wealthy widow after the prophecy comes true. He does indeed come into money and die soon afterwards but, unfortunately for her,she is not there to see it happen.
• Season 8: 3. Nothin' Short Of Highway Robbery (1985). Newt and Marcie are driving through the desert and stop off at a gas station. They are told by Harry, the proprietor, that their car is in need of extensive repairs and suggest that, while he fixes it, they have a meal at his wife's cafe. When the couple are presented with the bill for the repairs and the meal they are shocked at the expense, declaring it "nothin' short of highway robbery". The tables are about to be turned because Newt and his wife were on a journey to do something highly illegal and they have come prepared.
• Season 8: 4. Scrimshaw (1985). Brenda leads a solitary and drink-fuelled existence on the island of Key West. Her alcoholism is caused by an incident from the past but when a figure from that past, old college friend Eric, arrives things begin to look up for her. The point is,does he have an ulterior motive for seeing her?
• Season 9: 1. Skeleton In The Cupboard (1987). Robert Smythe, a wealthy businessman, hears from a young woman called Jane Fisher that she is looking for a member of the MG club who got married twenty years earlier and lives in the town of Elmston, both of which apply to him. However, twenty years earlier he was involved in a hit and run when, driving his MG, he knocked over a little girl and kept driving without stopping. He is fearful of exposure and must keep the fact from his wife. At all costs. . .
• Season 9: 2. Colonel's Lady, The (1988). Colonel George Peregrine's comfortable life is disturbed when his wife writes a bestselling raunchy novel. When he finally reads it, he becomes convinced that she has been having an affair.
• Season 9: 3. Surgeon, The (1988). Wealthy Prince Zawi gives surgeon Robert Sandy a diamond for saving his life. The diamond is extremely valuable and, as a precaution against it being stolen, Robert hides it in a very safe place indeed. However, whilst he and his wife are out, the house is robbed and the diamond is stolen. Next day a colleague of Robert's is operating on a man who has swallowed something unusual - Robert's diamond. So how did it get inside him?
• Season 9: 4. Verger, The (1988). Albert Dobson is a very good verger who has served the church for years. But when the modernising new vicar discovers Albert cannot read or write, he soon leaves him no choice but to resign. Albert and his wife Milly face an impoverished unwanted retirement, until chance gives Albert the idea of opening a quality tea shop. But can they make a go of such a shop in a modern world that seems to have little patience for their old-fashioned approach?
• Season 9: 5. Facts Of Life, The (1988). Young Nicholas Lillie has led a sheltered rural existence, but when he does well in the county fencing competition he is selected to play in the championships in London, much against the wishes of his narrow-minded father. Along with his fencing teacher and headmaster he goes to the big city but loses the contest to champion James Barron-Irvine, who admires his performance and takes him for a night on the town. Here he meets the lovely Zoe, who sees him as little more than a country innocent and ripe pickings. But he is not...
• Season 9: 6. Wink Three Times (1988). Ten years previously the rich but gauche Babs Colport was persuaded by her friend Holly to hire and meet gigolo Dominic in a hotel bedroom. At the same time the equally bashful provincial solicitor Jeremy Tyler came to the hotel and was set up by Giles, an old school mate. A series of musical beds followed but with a happy outcome as, ten years later,a married couple return to the location where they first met.
• Season 9: 7. Dead Don't Steal, The (1988). Married Ken Johnson runs a charter plane service with his lover and air stewardess Lilian, who indulges in a little smuggling on his behalf. Then disaster strikes for him,as his wife discovers the affair and Lilian says she is leaving him for another man and the smuggling will end. In a rage he kills her and disposes of the body. But to his astonishment she appears to come back from the dead and ensures that justice catches up with him.
• Season 9: 8. Finger Of Suspicion, The (1988). American Stephen Baker has cracked open many a safe in his time but he now lives a peaceful existence with his Arab wife Soroya in her native country. The local police come to the house and arrest him for a crime he swears he did not do and take him to meet two Scotland Yard detectives with a view to his extradition. Soroya has to think fast to come up with a plan to convince the police that her husband is innocent.
• Season 9: 9. Time To Die, A (1988). Yves Drouard is a wealthy man but his marriage has gone stale. His wife Marthe has been unable to have children and she, like him, is being unfaithful. Yves' mistress Violette is younger and has just announced that she is pregnant. Yves decides he will kill his wife by rigging up an explosive device which will go off if she tries to leave the building. But then he changes his mind. . .fatally.
• Season 9: 10. Mr. Know-All (1988). Elly Somerton is working for the summer as a hotel receptionist. She is intrigued by Max Kelada, a roguish archeology professor who is disarmingly honest with her about the tricks he uses to get women into bed. But when a rival of Kelada attempts to humiliate him, it turns out that Mr Know-All may not he the heartless seducer he professes to be.

Comments

Duration

0 minutes

Filesize

0 MB

Video

- resolution: 

Audio