Unexpected... Tales of Unease: The Complete Series, Network Distribution, DVD Boxset, out now.

I was far too young to have watched this series of short, sharp shocks at the time although some of the children’s “horror” anthology series were more than a match in terms of their ability to unsettle. Even Tom’s Midnight Garden had me worried about waking up in the Victorian era, such was the magical power of suggestion, ghostly ideas and filmmaking skill at the time.

There are various theories about the preponderance of uncanny tales at certain times more than others, but the late sixties bled into the nervy seventies and an outbreak of stories designed to take us away from everyday fears and towards the supernatural and the strange. We like to lose ourselves in other fears, and the older the house, the deeper the shadows as the characters in these inventive, gobbets of terror show. They may only have been half an hour long but they are engaging and forceful all the more so for their vintage, as swinging sixties couples suddenly encounter deeper realities than Biba…

Tales of Unease was based on a series of horror anthologies edited by John Burke and have rarely been seen since broadcast in 1970. This is the first time of home media for the series and it’s an entertaining time capsule that resonates with the atmosphere of the source material helped by Network’s cover design that looks like one of the Pan paperbacks we used to devour in junior school.

 

Susan George

Ride, Ride (1970)

This first story, written by Michael Hastings and directed by David Askey, is a classic story of a haunting that may or may not be from an event that has yet to happen. You can over analyse; the trick is always in the reveal and the shiver of fatal recognition.

Here a group of art school students are planning for their end of term show and the college party. Nothing could be more confidently normal than the banter between Derek (Anthony Jackson), Susan (Janet Lees Price) and Gerald (James Hazeldine) and the story is well paced without telegraphing its supernatural elements. Derek’s not too fussed about the party but he finds himself there anywhere dancing with one of the girls before spotting a beautiful blonde called Sarah (Susan George, one of The It Girls of the times) who seems as half-hearted as he is about the dance.

She asks Derek to take her home on his motorbike, and, as we start to second guess where this is going promptly disappears… Derek investigates the following day and, well, what do you think happened?

 

Calculated Nightmare (1970)

A change of pace in John Burke’s story which addresses the eternal issues of business automation and human resources which, as you youngsters may not know, was as much a pre-occupation in the seventies as now. Perhaps we could see the future more clearly when it was science fiction rather than creeping reality?

Anyway, two executives in charge of “rationalising” the workforce, Mr Johnson (Michael Culver) and Mr Harker (John Stratton) find themselves something of a ghost in the machine as a disgruntled worker uses their own building’s technology against them… Chilling, especially given their calculated view of workers’ value. Sometimes the sums don’t add up.

The Black Goddess (1970)

It’s back to the supernatural for Jack Griffith’s tale of mortal dread in the ancient depths of a Welsh colliery. Port Talbot-born Ronald Lewis plays Bill Rees who suddenly starts sensing a shadowy presence in the rocks a mile underground. His pal, Iestyn (David Lloyd Meredith) can see nothing and we proceed with the push and pull between the normal and abnormal that is the foundation for all these stories. Slowly, without playing his hand too hard, director Gareth Davies ramps up the tension and the very real threat from a collapsing tunnel. Not one for claustrophobics this.

 

It's Too Late Now (1970)

Of all these takes this is the one that most feels like Roald Dahl’s later Tales of the Unexpected, with a put-upon wife, Sarah (veteran legend Rachel Kempson) run ragged providing for her writer husband’s every need as he taps relentlessly away at his latest novel, shut in his office. The author (Kenneth Keeling) is very successful but also single minded and, not only had he bricked up his windows to stop the distractions of daylight, he also expects to be waited on hand and foot without the annoyance of having to interact with Sarah… you do wonder how he manages to use the bathroom?

Written by Andrea Newman, you wonder if she was drawing on experience as finally the worm turns and Sarah decides if her husband wants to be left alone then she can arrange that by locking him in… only now doe she reach out and try to reconnect with a woman he hasn’t really “seen” in a long time…

 

Superstitious Ignorance (1970)

This one’s about the housing market, or at least the kind of area that we now find in North London that is gentrified and unaffordable to all but the highest paid or longest lived. Written by Michael Cornish, it starts off with a hip young couple driving their beach buggy from Knightsbridge stores up to a Victorian pile in Westbourne Grove (or similar) with plenty of potential.

Jeremy Clyde is upwardly mobile executive Edward and his partner Penny is played by Tessa Wyatt, another It! Girl of the period. Despite their keenness on this run-down bargain, the family inhabiting, Mrs. Laristo (Eve Pearce) and her family of waifs, try at every turn to put them off… the atmosphere builds and again it’s the contrast between those convinced of everyday reality and those who fear the unreal.

 

Presumably Peter Wyngarde wasn't available...

Bad Bad Jo Jo (1970)

This is the strangest moods of all the stories and the hardest to enjoy, with Roy Dotrice playing writer Kayo Hathaway who has created a gonzo character called Bad Bad Jo Jo, an extravagant adventurer who has been incredibly successful winning Kayo a legion of fans who would nowadays be called geeks. Kayo is nasty and bored with his success and his devotees but agrees to be interviewed by one called Frank (Richard Pendrey) who he toys with in condescending ways.

Perhaps Kayo has underestimated the influence of his casually sociopathic creation on his fans though and, no matter how detached and aloof he feels in his wealth, a cracked imagination is a great leveller… This was written by written by James Leo Herlihy, who also wrote Midnight Cowboy, and it shows.

 

The Old Banger (1970)

From the unsettling to the ridiculous still, if you like period motor vehicles and homing pigeons you’ll love this. Written by Richardson Morgan it features one of my favourite actors, Terence Rigby (Z-Cars, Get Carter, The Beiderbecke Affair, everything else…) as John, a pigeon fancier married to Pinkie (Susan Partridge) who must be a saint to put up with his hobbies. John’s also a but tight with his money, buying them an old banger that he can’t even start. Eventually deciding to get rid of the car, he kicks it and the engine jumps into life, this is a chance too good to miss and so he drives the car south of the river, parks it on a back street and assumes that’s the end of it. But… what if cars were like homing pigeons? You hadn’t reckoned on that had you, John?

 

This is an unsettling and entertaining series that brings a frisson of old fears and plenty of good performances. You can buy it direct from Network…if you dare!