Like many people, this takes me back to the 80s when I used to settle down on a Sunday night to a wagon wheel and a bottle of strawberry crusha and watch these enjoyable and surprisingly taut mini thrillers. Some of the best actors of the day graced these storylines and I often wondered how Anglia tv could afford to pay their presumably inflated fees while spending so little on the wobbly sets and ropy lighting! I don't suppose I will ever know!
Various of these episodes have left my consciousness altogther, however some of the better written ones gradually heave up their trace memories as you watch, which can be a disconcerting yet generally pleasant experience.
Many of the episodes are wonderfully cheesy, some could never be made today as they would be deemed politically incorrect, however it could be argued that this is part of the pleasure of re-watching these old war-horses: there is a paradoxical innocence mixed with a rather unsalubrious, probably unconscious reflecting of that period's attitudes towards things like race, gender and sexuality. I always like how there is often a ridiculously over the top depiction of the "high life"; the way rich people are automatically meant to live, with an excruciating array of Rolls Royces, "swanky" apartments and expensive suits, how the "other half" were supposed to live, I suppose, that juxtaposes with the way poor people are meant to live!It was very class conscious when you look back on it. All very impressive to a schoolboy of 13 as I was at the time!
One episode that I do not recall, and never want to see again is the episode called The Flypaper, originally transmitted in August 1980, starring Stephanie Cole and Alfred Burke. It concerns the successful trapping of a lonely schoolgirl by a late middle-aged married couple who pose as strangers but are actually working together. At the beginning of the story a young girl's body is found on the outskirts of this isolated town, and the final "twist" leave us in no dobut that this will be the fate of this girl as well. Considering this episode was transmitted to an audience still distressingly familiar with the likes of The Moors Murderers, I am stunned this this depiction of a male/famale abduction team ever saw the light of day. How was it possible that at no point in the filming and planning of this programme, no one voiced their concerns that the content was deeply disturbing and sickeningly reminscient of real life crime that can never be reprocessed as enjoyable entertainment. I doubt if you could even transmit this episode today and perhaps that is why I have never seen it on the various tv re-runs this series has enjoyed.
The other episodes are sterling stuff, including a supern appearance by Joan Collins which returned Tales of the Unexpected to what it does best:delightful morality plays in which greedy or generally nasty people always get their comeuppance....