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Tales of the Unexpected : Season 1
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Air date: 24 Mar '79 - 9 episodesTales of the Unexpected is a British television series which aired between 1979 and 1988. Each episode told a story, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, with an unexpected twist ending. Early episodes were based on short stories by Roald Dahl collected in the books Tales of the Unexpected, Kiss Kiss and Someone Like You. The series was made by Anglia Television for ITV with interior scenes recorded at their Norwich studios whilst location filming mainly occurred across East Anglia. The theme music for the series was written by composer Ron Grainer. Although similar in theme and title, the show is not related to the American anthology television series, Quinn Martin's Tales of the Unexpected, which ran for one season in 1977.
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List of Episodes (9)
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Tales of the Unexpected (1979)
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1. Man From the South
24 Mar '79A young American sailor on shore leave in the West Indies is tempted by a crazy bet. To win a new Jaguar, all he need do is to make his cigarette-lighter light ten times without any failures. In return, he has to stake one of his fingers. But what is the truth about Carlos, the high-rolling old man who has proposed the bet?
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Tales of the Unexpected (1979)
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2. Mrs Bixby and the Colonel's Coat
31 Mar '79Bixby is a New York dentist. Once a month, for many years, his wife goes to Baltimore by train to visit her aunt. She does not tell Bixby about her affair with the Colonel, a single man with a big house near Baltimore, who is the real reason for all these visits.One Christmas, Mrs Bixby gets a parting gift from the Colonel - a splendid mink coat. So that she can explain the coat to her husband, she devises a complicated scheme which depends on pawning the coat and then 'finding' the pawn ticket.
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Tales of the Unexpected (1979)
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3. William and Mary
07 Apr '79William Pearl, a philosophy don at an Oxford college, dies of cancer, and his widow, Mary, gets a letter from him. William tells her about his colleague John Landy's scheme for keeping William's brain alive after his death. He also advises Mary not to smoke, not to drink, not to use lipstick, and not to buy a television - and William had spent the long years of their life together disapproving of what Mary wanted to do. Mary calls John Landy and goes to visit what is left of William. She decides
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Tales of the Unexpected (1979)
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4. Lamb to the Slaughter
14 Apr '79An enraged detective's wife kills her husband by smashing in his skull with a heavy blunt instrument - but no murder weapon can be found, and the police are baffled. The answer to the riddle lies under the detectives' noses - or, rather, it did...
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Tales of the Unexpected (1979)
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5. The Landlady
21 Apr '79Billy Weaver, a seventeen-year-old Londoner, arrives in Bath late at night to take up a new job. He finds a room for the night at a bed-and-breakfast house run by a sweet old woman. As he signs the guest book, Billy feels sure he recognizes the names of the two previous guests. Where on earth can he have heard them before? As he drinks a cup of tea with a curiously bitter-almond flavour, the owner of the boarding house is telling Billy she is an amateur taxidermist...
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Tales of the Unexpected (1979)
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6. Neck
28 Apr '79Unworldly art collector Basil Turton inherits his father's publishing empire (and his title) and marries Natalia, an East European with a decidedly Machiavellian streak. Six years on, the new Lady Turton is not just wearing the trousers but also being far from discreet about her lovers. Sir Basil's butler, Jelks, strongly disapproves of it all. Then Lady Turton gets her head stuck in a valuable work of art...
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Tales of the Unexpected (1979)
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7. Edward the Conqueror
05 May '79An elderly couple, Edward and Louisa, find their life invaded by a stray cat. The cat's knowledgeable response to Louisa's piano playing, and the pattern of warts on its face, convince her that pussy is a reincarnation of Franz Liszt, the composer. Liszt, the cat, does not trouble to conceal his dislike for Edward, who is becoming dangerously jealous...
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Tales of the Unexpected (1979)
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8. A Dip in the Pool
12 May '79William Botibol, an American passenger on a British cruise ship, is anxious to win the rich sweepstake for predicting the distance the ship will travel in twenty-four hours - and William realizes that if the captain were to need to go back to pick up a man overboard, then his own ticket should win. So long as someone sees him go over the side, there can be no real problem...
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Tales of the Unexpected (1979)
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9. The Way Up to Heaven
19 May '79An elderly American couple, the Fosters, are planning a six-week trip to Paris to visit their grandchildren. Foster gets left behind, and his wife writes to him every week... on her return home, she does not seem very surprised to find that the lift in their house is stuck between two floors.
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