History Series / TalesOfTheUnexpected

''Tales of the Unexpected'' was aired between 1979 and 1988 by Creator/{{ITV}}. It was produced by Anglia Television, and it proved a big success for them.

* LighterAndSofter: Compared to rest of the series, "The Boy Who Could Talk to Animals" is this. With a boy bidding to save from being eaten riding off with it at the end.As opposed to the episodes "A Harmless Vanity" and "Scrimshaw" for instance. [[spoiler: Which both involve beachside settings and murder.]]

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Miller in "Would You Believe It?" morally protests Tanner's plan to steal the statue several times. Miller in "Literature/{{She Fell Among Thieves|1964}}" is fine with the theft and specifically teamed up with Tanner to learn about smuggling.
* AdultsAreUseless: The adults who aren't downright dangerous in "The Flypaper" are either ineffectual or uncaring.

%% * BlackSheep: Charlie Prince, the upper-class sponger in "The Best of Everything."

* HorrorHost: Tales from the first two series were introduced by [[NightmareFuelStationAttendant the grandfatherly, perpetually cardigan clad]] Creator/RoaldDahl. Later they were introduced by Creator/JohnHouseman.

* HorrorHost: Tales from the first two series were introduced by [[NightmareFuelStationAttendant the grandfatherly, perpetually cardigan clad]] Creator/RoaldDahl.

** "A Woman's Help" - Wealthy invalid Elizabeth Bourdon makes her husband Richard's life a misery - so and addition to having an affair with his wife's [[HospitalHottie attractive nurse]], the two are plotting to slowly kill Mrs. Bourdon. But Elizabeth finds out and fires the hot nurse, deciding ''she'll'' pick the replacement. She picks one who much more matronly. [[spoiler: She happens to be Richard's mother. And she ''really'' cares about her son's happiness.]]

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: "A Woman's Help" - Wealthy invalid Elizabeth Bourdon makes her husband Richard's life a misery - so and addition to having an affair with his wife's [[HospitalHottie attractive nurse]], the two are plotting to slowly kill Mrs. Bourdon. But Elizabeth finds out and fires the hot nurse, deciding ''she'll'' pick the replacement. She picks one who much more matronly. [[spoiler: She happens to be Richard's mother. And she ''really'' cares about her son's happiness.]]

* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: In "I'll Be Seeing You," [[HenpeckedHusband put-upon Roland]] makes sweet love with his kind and understanding mistress Anna. [[spoiler:(This may change when, thanks to an eye transplant, Anna ends up with the icy blue eyes of Roland's hateful wife.)]]

* AdaptationalLocationChange: "All The Way to Heaven" in the original story the Fosters live in New York City with Mrs. Foster going to Paris. In the TV episode they live in London, and Mrs. Foster is going to New York City.
* AdaptationalNationality: ''Mr.'' Foster in "All The Way to Heaven" becomes a Brit.

* ScammingTheBereaved: The booksellers in "Clerical Error" send fake invoices for expensive pornography to the families of prominent, recently deceased men, hoping the families will pay to avoid a scandal.

* {{Parody}}: Prankster radio comedy show ''Radio/TheBurkiss Way''envisioned Anglia TV being so strapped for cash that the creative directors worked by pulling letters blindfold from a Scrabble bag and making anagrams from them. Burkiss had two harrassed producers deciding that they could get ''Somebody or Other's Tales of the Unexpected'' from the available letters, but the nine letters left over were so horribly random that nothing they could do with them could ever make a plausible name in ''any'' language.

* NewSeasonNewName: In the first series it was ''Roald Dah's Tales of the Unexpected''. The second series, using fresh material by other writers, was ''Tales of the Unexpected (introduced by Roald Dahl''. In the third seeason, after Dahl severed his association with the production, it simply became ''Tales of the Unexpected''.

* BigNO: the FamousLastWords of [[spoiler:Yves]] in "A Time to Die" [[spoiler: When he gets blown up by the bomb he set to get his wife.]]

* KarmaHoudini: In "Wet Saturday," [[spoiler: Mr. Princey apparently gets away with framing an innocent neighbor for a murder commited by his daughter.]]

* AdaptationalNationality: ' Mr.'' Foster in "All The Way to Heaven" becomes a Brit.

Not to be confused with the much less successful 1977 series ''Quinn Martin's Tales of the Unexpected''. This series was also aired on Creator/{{ITV}} in the UK, but under the name ''[[MarketBasedTitle Twist In The Tale]]''.

The tone varied from story to story but on the whole it has been described as like ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'', but with a [[BlackComedy darkly humorous]] slant, especially in the Roald Dahl stories. The show had a low budget but the writing lead to an amazing list of Guest Stars including: Cyril Cusack, Anna Neagle, Creator/BrianBlessed, Timothy West, John Gielgud, Richard Johnson, Elaine Stritch, Creator/GloriaGrahame, Creator/PeterCushing, Creator/JohnMills, Julie Harris, Creator/WendyHiller, Creator/JosephCotten, Creator/DerekJacobi, Creator/JanetLeigh and Siobhan [=McKenna=].

%% * NotSoDifferent: [[spoiler: Elderly Mrs Grady and the young punk who tries to rob her in]] "Vicious Circle" [[spoiler: except Mrs. Grady is smarter.]]

* OvertookTheSeries: It started out adapting Creator/RoaldDahl stories, but lasted for seven and a half seasons after it had used them all up...

* AdaptationExpansion: "Flypaper" is based on a ''very'' [[http://kidslink.bo.cnr.it/irrsaeer/fly/flytes.html short story]] by Elizabeth Taylor (not [[Creator/ElizabethTaylor THAT one]]).[[spoiler: The short story never names a specific threat, going for all-around paranoia. The episode ends with the ''very'' strong implication that the lonely schoolgirl who the story revolves is about to be the next victim of a loving couple of pension-age murderous paedophiles.]]

* TheCassandra: Bookseller and con artist Michael Carey in "Clerical Error" [[spoiler: repeatedly tells his brother that trying to extort money from the Standings is too risky.]]

* CoolOldLady: Mrs. Standing in "Clerical Error" [[spoiler: helps her son entrap the booksellers who falsely claim her late husband ordered some very pricy pornographic books from them.]]

%% * VillainousBreakdown: Tanner in "Would You Believe It?" [[spoiler: when he realizes the statue he stole is Lot's Wife--and she has dissolved in the rain.]]

* BiblesFromTheDead: The booksellers in "Clerical Error" send fake invoices for expensive pornography to the families of prominent, recently deceased men, hoping the families will pay to avoid a scandal.