Television series
Tales of the Unexpected
Other titles called Tales of the Unexpected: the 1977 series (NBC).
- Drama
- Dip in and out
An anthology of unease from ITV's golden age of Sunday-night dread: half-hour stories, mostly lifted from Roald Dahl, where ordinary people—husbands, wives, insurance men—make one small bad decision and pay for it in a final, cruel twist. Dry, elegant, faintly theatrical, hosted at first by Dahl himself. Best watched one episode at a time, ideally alone, ideally at night.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like short, self-contained stories with a dry, slightly wicked wit, the sort of tidy, morality-tinged fable that Roald Dahl's grown-up stories made so satisfying.
Skip it if you want a continuing story or a sustained mood, since each half-hour is a standalone with fresh characters and the studio-bound look of its era can feel creaky.
What it asks of you: Each episode runs about twenty-five minutes and stands alone, so it is easy to dip in and out, and the pace stays brisk.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Alfred Hitchcock Presents1955
This is the show Unexpected was quietly copying homework from—Hitchcock's clipped introductions, the same cruel little parables about ordinary people undone by greed or vanity, wrapped up in twenty-five tidy minutes.
But Black-and-white episodes can feel stiff and stagey by modern pacing standards, and the moralising sometimes lands heavier than the twist itself.
Inside No. 92014
The closest living relative—Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith reinvent the twenty-five-minute twist anthology for a modern audience, mixing genuine dread with jokes so dark they practically need a hazard sign.
But Some episodes lean more into farce than fear, which can feel a shade too knowing if you want it played straight.
Black Mirror2011
Swap Dahl's suburban avarice for our collective tech dread, but the engine's identical: ordinary people, one bad decision, a twist that reframes everything you just watched.
But Episodes run much longer and often skip the wry humour entirely for straight-up bleakness—less tea and biscuits, more existential dread.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Tales of the Unexpected
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Dead of Night1945
Same portmanteau structure and the same very English unease—ordinary rooms and ordinary people where something is quietly, terribly off—decades before Anglia Television put it on a weekly schedule.
The great-grandparent of the whole genre—a British portmanteau horror film built from five nested stories, ending on the ventriloquist's dummy sequence that still unsettles decades later.
But It's a black-and-white feature from 1945, so pacing and performance style are of their era and may feel slow to modern eyes.
More like this (7)
The Twilight Zone1959
Rod Serling's original anthology proves the twist-ending format is basically eternal—same bite-sized dread, same moral sting, just swapped for Cold War paranoia instead of English drawing rooms.
But Some episodes show their age in effects and pacing, and the sci-fi trappings can feel more overt than Dahl's quieter cruelty.
Tales from the Crypt1989
Same twist-anthology bones, dialled up into gleeful gore and pun-heavy hosting from the Crypt Keeper—if you want your comeuppance served splattery instead of stiff-upper-lip, this is the place.
But It trades Dahl's dry English wit for American schlock-horror camp, which can feel broad if you preferred the show's restraint.
Christopher Lee's Ghost Stories for Christmas2000
The BBC's own yearly ritual of unease—short, literary, atmospheric adaptations that share Unexpected's love of a quiet English setting curdling slowly into something wrong.
But These lean ghostly and melancholic rather than gleefully vicious—less twist, more slow creeping dread that lingers instead of snapping shut.
Creepshow2019
A comic-book-styled horror anthology stuffed with practical gore and pitch-black jokes—proof the format survives just fine when you replace English tea with American drive-in trash.
But It's gorier and cheaper-looking than Unexpected ever was, more grindhouse comic than polished television drama.
The Outer Limits1963
Another vintage anthology built on the reveal—science fiction rather than domestic malice, but the same pleasure of watching a story fold itself inside out in the last two minutes.
But Heavier on monsters and special effects than character, and its earnestness can feel a world away from Dahl's dry cynicism.
American Horror Story2011
A wilder, maximalist descendant—each season its own self-contained nightmare, still chasing that anthology thrill of not knowing the rules until the story's already got you.
But It's sprawling, soapy and often deliberately over the top—nothing like Unexpected's restraint or its neat half-hour economy.
Love, Death & Robots2019
Both are anthologies built entirely on the twist and the tone-shift—Dahl's suburban sting reborn as animated, X-rated shorts for the streaming age, proving the format just needed a new coat of paint.
Same anthology pulse in a completely different skin—animated, often gleefully grotesque, each short free to swing from tender to horrific to outright filthy joke inside twenty minutes.
But Explicit violence and sex sit alongside the cleverness, so it's a much rowdier, more adult experience than Sunday-night ITV ever was.
People
Recommended by
Inside No. 9, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Philco Television Playhouse, Memento Mori, Hammer House of Horror