We scared ourselves this week, at Ollie&Agnes, by watching Tales of The Unexpected on YouTube! As soon as the title music started to play, and the shadowy woman started dancing, chills ran through us and we were filled with fear and a sense of foreboding. Like fools we continued…as we decided it was a form of warped nostalgia.
We have no idea why we suddenly thought of this 80’s show; but we felt driven to hear that music again and see those iconic titles…And although we cannot talk with much authority on the subject of the plots (because we were too young and not supposed to see it) we watched a couple on YouTube and they were dark!
We did, however, remember the music vividly (as something terrifying from childhood) and those iconic titles. The titles involved the shadow of a woman (with a short, Purdi style hair-cut, which found popularity in the 80’s as well as the 60’s) dancing to the scarily upbeat music; amid a seemingly out-of-control fire and was interspersed with a roulette wheel (go figure), gun, pack of cards and skulls (in case you didn’t get that this was going to be dark!).
The BBC bird, and friend of Ollie&Agnes, remembers dancing like the Purdi woman in the flames when the music came on but admitted it scared the hell out of her; while Knitting Sall, in an understated fashion, described the music as a ‘bit spooky’ and thought some of the twists were disturbing! She remembered one where a man’s wife disappeared and when the police went to his house they found wet concrete in his garage, so they dug it up and found nothing. They apologised, left and then he got her out of the freezer and put her in the hole and covered it with concrete!!!
This British TV series (for those who don’t know) was aired between 1979 and 1988 (you can now buy episodes on Amazon). Some of the early stories were based on work by Roald Dahl (he also introduced some of them too); they featured well-respected actors like Derek Jacobi, Brian Blessed and Elaine Stritch and always involved someone coming to a dire end in an ‘unexpected’ twist. Some of the stories are still scarily, and sadly, relevant today.
Do do do, do do do do do do…go on dare you!
(Or you could just satisfy your nostalgic urges by buying vintage!!!)
