Originally based on stories by Roald Dahl, few would have predicted the early 1980’s success of Tales Of The Unexpected, which ran to a grand total of 112 stories.

The typical structure is emulated here in the 18 episodes that comprise the fifth series (the longest of the nine series, which finally ran out of steam in 1988). A suburban tale of creepiness will usually spiral towards a “twist” ending (many of which can be spotted a few miles away) as familiar faces from the British acting fraternity act their socks off against suitably creeky sets.

Originally introduced by Dahl himself, these later episodes stood apart from their creator (though Dahl only provided a handful of the original tales, he was kept on to give the more slipshod stories a certain cache) and the quality has substantially dipped from the earlier series.

It’s perhaps telling though that the dearth of caliber in other shows at the time meant that something as sleight as Tales Of The Unexpected could attract such luminaries as Sir John Mills, Janet Leigh and Frank Sinatra (Jr!).

Released on Monday 5th November 2007 by Network.