Tales of the Unexpected

Tales of the Unexpected (Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected) is a British television series that aired between 1979 and 1988. Each episode told a story, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, with an unexpected twist ending. Every episode of series one, twelve episodes of series two, two episodes of series three, two episodes of series four, and one episode of series nine 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. The dancer in the opening titles was Karen Standley. Format The series originally adapted various stories from Roald Dahl's anthology books. Despite being produced on a low budget, the series attracted notable guest stars, including Susan George, Siân Phillips, José Ferrer, Joseph Cotten, Janet Leigh, John Gielgud, John Mills, Wendy Hiller, Denholm Elliott, Katy Jurado, Hilary Tindall, Joan Collins, Rod Taylor, Ian Holm, Brian Blessed, Siobhán McKenna, Brad Dourif, Michael Gambon, Cyril Cusack, Julie Harris, Michael Hordern, Derek Jacobi, Anna Neagle, Elaine Stritch, Andrew Ray, Harry H. Corbett, Zoë Wanamaker, Charles Dance, Michael Ontkean, Toyah Willcox and Timothy West.