Tales of the Unexpected

The series was originally titled Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected for its first two series, adapting stories from Dahl's anthologies Tales of the Unexpected, Kiss Kiss, and Someone Like You.

Roald Dahl introduced most of his own stories with short monologues explaining what inspired him to write them, a practice he progressively abandoned after the third series.

Dahl had previously hosted a similar American anthology series for CBS called Way Out in 1961, which ran for 14 episodes and shared themes and concept with The Twilight Zone, some of whose stories were later reused for Tales of the Unexpected.

Unlike other horror anthologies such as The Twilight Zone, the series largely avoided supernatural, science-fiction or fantasy elements, with only a few exceptions like 'William and Mary', 'Royal Jelly', and 'The Sound Machine'.

The televised adaptation of 'The Landlady' gave a more definitive resolution to the story's ending than Dahl's original written version, which left the protagonist's fate ambiguous.

Interior scenes were recorded at Anglia Television's studios in Norwich, while location filming mainly took place across East Anglia, though later episodes were set in other countries, with many filmed in the United States.

The show attracted a wide array of notable guest stars over its run, including Joan Collins, John Gielgud, John Mills, Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Joseph Cotten, and Janet Leigh.

The series' theme music was composed by Ron Grainer, and the dancer featured in the opening titles was Karen Standley.