Product Description

Like his children’s books, Roald Dahl’s adult stories never fail to surprise, though they take more chilling flights of fancy. Darkly humorous and playfully macabre, each standalone episode in this acclaimed series is a brilliantly acted little gem of creepy delight. Episode casts feature a cavalcade of stars, including John Alderton, Joan Collins, Joseph Cotten, José Ferrer, Michael Gambon, Susan George, John Gielgud, Julie Harris, Derek Jacobi, John Mills, and Elaine Stritch. With introductions by Roald Dahl.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70009 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-09-28
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 25 minutes

Amazon.com
The wicked wit of Roald Dahl's fiction is superbly adapted in the first two seasons of Tales of the Unexpected. Premiering on British TV in 1979, this first-rate anthology series had the added advantage of Dahl himself as host, introducing each 25-minute episode from a cozy English fireside and bringing his own dark, playfully macabre sensibility to the stories that followed. In the delicious tradition of O. Henry, the author's twisted sense of irony inspired superior adaptations from several of England's finest dramatists (most notably Ronald Harwood, Oscar®-winner for The Pianist), and in turn their teleplays attracted an impressive array of high-caliber British and American actors including John Gielgud, John Mills, Joseph Cotten, Gloria Grahame, Susan George, Julie Harris, Derek Jacobi, Michael Gambon, Elaine Stritch, Joan Collins, and many more.

Shot on videotape, these 25 episodes compensate for modest budgets by emphasizing excellence in dialogue, direction, and performance, all heightened by the sophisticated savagery of Dahl's cynical but never off-putting appreciation for the dark side of humanity. Unlike the mostly supernatural twists of The Twilight Zone, murder and other kinds of extreme misbehavior provide the motivation for these Tales, most of which deliver a highly refined sense of devious delight. For the final three episodes, Dahl generously includes other authors of his ilk including John Collier, whose story "Back for Christmas" inspires a particularly grisly scenario. Consistently high in quality, these overlooked gems deliver quintessentially British twists of fate, each worthy of a sly and devilish grin. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Very entertaining and many are familiar
Here is a boxed set of four DVDs that is a real treat. Back in 1979 and 1980, British television watchers were treated to an anthology show called "Tales of the Unexpected." It was hosted by writer Roald Dahl and featured some of Britain's top stars in 25-minute tales with twist endings, very much in the tradition of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "The Twilight Zone." Indeed, one or two of these stories were also shown on the Hitchcock series.


Now Acorn Media has released "Tales of the Unexpected, Set 1" which includes the complete first two seasons. In all, we have 25 tales, 21 of which are by Dahl. (He might be more familiar as the author of "Charlie & the Chocolate Factory" that appeared with a similar title as a fantasy film.)


Along the way, you will enjoy sterling performances by such notables as John Mills, Derek Jacobi, Joan Collins (in a stunning double role), John Gielgud, Julie Harris, Joseph Cotten, and Elaine Stritch. Some of the tales are fantastic ("The Landlady," "Royal Jelly"), some grisly ("Back for Christmas"), some charming ("The Umbrella Man"), and some just a tad disappointing at the end ("The Man at the Top").


Still, I greatly enjoyed the 625 minutes of running time, and you will too. The special features are some production notes, cast filmographies of the stars, and a Roald Dahl biography.

Check Your Bed for Snakes!!!
I remember watching these, as a high school student, syndicated in North Carolina back in 1979 or the early 1980's and really enjoying them. I've always wanted to see more of these and re-watch the few I did catch way back then. The stories were quite worthy of the Alfred Hitchcock tradition and are better than the later "new" "Hitchcock" series that premiered in 1985. The "snake-in-the-bed" episode was the most suspenseful television show I've ever seen and even scarier than the classic black & white Hitchcock episode. Just when you thought it was safe to crawl under the covers...

Nasty Tales To Be Expected
These 25 tales are based on stories written by Roald Dahl, excepting four: Fat Chance (Robert Bloch), Back for Christmas (John Collier), The Orderly World of Mr. Appleby (Stanley Ellin), and The Man at the Top (Edward D. Hoch). Each tale requires one-plus minutes of introductory credits and 23 minutes of story, totaling 600 minutes. Favorably, there are no supernatural elements. Rather, the tales concern stupidity, hate, murder, adultery, larceny, infidelity, greed, deception, revenge, cunning, cheating, delusions, narcissism, and misunderstandings (is there anything else?) in which Dahl sometimes exhibits flashes of brilliance.

This reviewer assigned each tale a rating, ranging from zero (one such) to five stars. The resulting average rating was 2.68 stars. The six tales comprising the four 5-star entries: (Man From the South, Neck, Hitch Hiker, and Umbrella Man); and the two 4-star entries: (Taste and Back for Christmas); would nicely fill one DVD, well worth a quarter of the total price of this collection. The seven 3-star tales: (Lamb to the Slaughter, Edward the Conqueror, Skin, Galloping Foxley, Poison, Depart in Peace, and Genesis & Catastrophe) would fill another DVD; again, at a quarter of the total price, this would be a reasonable buy. The remaining twelve tales are a waste of time and money, lacking any merit whatever.

Principal actors with very good performances (some appearing more than once) include Michael Aldridge, Peter Bowles, Joan Collins, Joseph Cotton, Cyril Cusack, Jose Ferrer, John Gielgud, Julie Harris, Wendy Hiller, Derek Jacobi, John Mills, Ron Moody, Sian Phillips, Anthony Steel, Elaine Stritch, Rod Taylor, and Jack Weston.

Acorn Media packages this set nicely, with each of the four DVDs being contained in its own (thick style) keep-case. (Why doesn't everyone adopt those sleek, thin-style keep-cases? Think of the shelf space saved!) Each DVD has a nicely executed picture and filmography of its major cast members (worth exactly .32 stars). Color picture quality is very satisfying. The mono sound is adequate. This "Set 1" of DVDs comprises the 25 episodes of Seasons 1 and 2, implying that Seasons 3 and 4 will be forthcoming. Prospective buyers, be advised: You WILL find half of these disappointing.