A Twist in the Tale: A Nostalgic Look at Tales of the Unexpected
Ah yes, Tales of the Unexpected.
It felt like a rather British version of The Twilight Zone with its stiff upper lip, Queen’s English and that shot of Roald Dahl sitting in his chair by the fireside introducing the episodes. Roald Dahl? Say what? Yes, the children’s writer Roald Dahl was not just a writer of weird and wonderful fiction for the young folk but his adult fiction was rather marvellous too.
The TV series was launched in March 1979 and was originally called Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected. However his name was dropped later on as there were two writers working on the show. It ran for nine seasons and came to an end in 1988.
Re-watching various episodes was quite exciting as I began to see some famous faces. There were appearances from Joan Collins, Janet Leigh, Timothy West, Brian Blessed and others. Some of them would have just been starting their careers and others were already well established.
So what was it all about? Tales of the Unexpected was an anthology series that always featured an unexpected twist in the tale, usually something dark and sinister. It has been classified as fantasy but I would say it dips its toe quite frequently into the horror genre.
Some may think they are silly little tales but to those of us who watched the series as kids would have remembered the effect they had on them and people also remembered certain episodes that gave them nightmares. Whilst doing a little research the episode that keeps cropping up is Royal Jelly, I have to confess that I only saw that very recently and yes I can confirm it is bat shit crazy.
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. (Synopsis via IMDB).
The story may sound absolutely nuts but in reality the episode was done in such a way that it did not seem ridiculous. That is what this series did well, it was subtle and unnerving. Yet its opening sequence that included a dancing lady, a roulette wheel, a gun and some tarot cards didn’t really match up to the weirdness of the programme itself – I often laugh about that because it looks more like the opening sequence to a James Bond film than something sinister like Tales of the Unexpected.
The anthology structure of this series is rarely used these days, the idea of binge watching episodes from Netflix or Amazon seems to be the way we watch programmes these days.
The simplicity of it and the various tales told through the pen of Roald Dahl is what brought me to it. As a fan of anthologies such as the Hammer House of Horror and the Amicus films – Tales of the Unexpected contained tight and compelling tales.
Even watching it all these years later I truly appreciate the skill of storytelling and I love to indulge in a little bit of nostalgia. We see the English countryside, quaint little towns, old cars and the fashion of the time. Who doesn’t like a little bit of nostalgia?
