Tales of Unease

This rarely seen anthology series from 1970 is finally available on DVD and contains all seven episodes. Although neither eerie nor in any way terrifying, each tale instead opts for menace, black humour and occasionally an unsettling atmosphere. Starring, among a host of others, Susan George, Jeremy Clyde, Roy Dotrice, Terence Rigby and many more – each tale offers its unique spin on the mysterious, with stories from novelists John Burke and ‘Midnight Cowboy’ author James Leo Herlihy to name just a few.

Much in the vein of ‘Tales of the Unexpected’, we kick off with RIDE, RIDE in which young art student Derek (Anthony Jackson) looks rather bored during a night out in a disco, with the dance floor taken up by fellow students. Finally, things seem to take a more exciting turn when he is approached by the mysterious Sarah (Susan George), who asks him to take her home on his motorbike. Initially hesitant, seeing how her house is almost 70 miles away and there might be an issue with petrol, Sarah simply answers “You got to take me home” before climbing on the motorbike, with Derek finally giving in. As the two ride along the road, flanked by fields and forests, Derek turns around to ask his strange passenger for directions but low and behold, she’s gone… seemingly vanished into thin air! Utterly baffled by what has just happened and also a little angry over having wasted precious petrol, Derek can’t really find much sleep that night and decides to make inquiries the following day, eventually arriving in a rather secluded village where Sarah’s father is working in the garden of his house. Asking the old man after Sarah, he is shocked when her father informs him that his daughter died three weeks ago in an accident… Confused, Derek is certain that this must be a different Sarah and asks his fellow students whether they can remember a girl of her description who approached him during the disco dance. To his astonishment, his friends claim there was no disco dance the other night because the dance in question won’t take place until the following Saturday… Here then comes the twist and we can guess what really happened when Derek took Sarah home…

CALCULATED NIGHTMARE is as witty as it is poignant (perhaps now more so than ever). Mr. Johnson (Michael Culver) and Mr. Harker (John Stratton) are two dastardly business executives lacking any kind of compassion towards their fellow employees, in particular the company’s ‘underlings’ slaving away on the floor below where the heating never seems to be on – where by contrast it’s always cosy and warm for those working on the upper floors. Suffice to say this level of unfairness also applies during hot weather conditions, with those of lower ‘rank’ not getting air con in the office – we learn more about these dire conditions when Moira (Ursula Mohan) and her colleague Dave (Larry Dann) chat during lunchtime in the canteen. However, Johnson and Harker get a taste of their own medicine when a long-suffering and disgruntled employee decides to hack into the building’s management system – leaving the two executives trapped on their floor without air conditioning, functioning elevator and no phones except one… which is now ringing… As the voice at the other end of the line begins to make demands and blackmails the two men into changing their numerous policies (including redundancies) it becomes clear that Harker and Johnson find themselves trapped in more than just one way…

Set in Wales, we follow miners Bill Rees (Ronald Lewis) and Iestyn Morgan (David Lloyd Meredith) deep into a coal pit where the latter suspects his colleague might be going barmy as he never stops rambling on about an apparent BLACK GODDESS which supposedly haunts the pits and calls for human sacrifice. Fellow miners John and Tommy equally put Bill’s confused state of mind down to the fact that the pit’s claustrophobic and dark atmosphere is beginning to play havoc with his mind. But when the pit caves in and the men find themselves trapped, Bill’s ramblings about a Black Goddess demanding a human sacrifice turns out to be a frightful reality…

IT’S TOO LATE NOW is a two-hander set in an isolated country house in which a successful writer (Kenneth Keeling) goes about his daily work rattling away on his typewriter in an upstairs room. When his devoted and long-suffering wife Sarah (Rachel Kempson) takes a tray of sandwiches to his study and asks for the tenth time what he would like for dinner – only to be ignored by him yet again – something inside her finally snaps and she locks him in the room. During the following hours (days?) she reflects on her sad marriage, the baby she lost and with her husband not caring, the baby she will now never have because she’s too old, and his intellectual friends always looking down on her during dinner parties while he takes her for granted and treats her like a doormat. As her husband’s frantic knocking against the door gets louder and he pleads with her to engage in a meaningful conversation she begins to wonder whether anything would change at all if she gave in to his begging… This ‘domestic’ horror is full of pathos and is superbly played by Rachel Kempson.

Set in South London’s Kennington district, local residents Susan (Pinkie Johnstone) and John Partridge (Terence Rigby) decide it’s about high time to take their OLD BANGER to the scrap yard but no sooner is the car is sold to the ‘scrappie’ it is spotted again on the various streets that are familiar to the couple. When Susan traces the route on a map, it would seem the car’s mysterious re-appearance follows a straight line, which leads straight back to the Partridge’s home… Here, a bit more explanation would not have gone amiss and the episode doesn’t provide any satisfactory conclusion.

The two stand-out episodes are SUPERSTITIOUS IGNORANCE and BAD BAD JO JO. In the first one, young lovers Edward (Jeremy Clyde) and Penny (Tessa Wyatt) are set to purchase their dream house, utterly ramshackle as it appears to be, in an up- and coming area. However, when estate agent Faithwell (Leonard Trolley) introduces the couple to landlady Mrs. Laristo (Eve Pearce) it becomes all too clear that the eccentric woman is anything but keen on selling the house, even going as far as preventing the couple from inspecting the building’s various rooms. Although Mrs. Laristo’s ethnicity is not stated; it would appear that she may be of gypsy origin and her mind is filled with superstitious nonsense, warning the couple that evil prevails in the house and her children attempt to prevent the couple from inspecting the upper floors by blocking the staircase. When an incensed Edward has had just about enough and forces his way into a room of which the hysterical landlady claims is the most ‘evil’ of all, he and his nervous fiancée are surprised at how lovely it looks…but… Although the ending isn’t exactly supernatural it comes as a shock nonetheless.

In the second one, Roy Dotrice camps it up as successful author Kayo Hathaway who is an Englishman in New York (judging by the skyscrapers outside his window anyway). Sporting a ludicrous Liberace-inspired bouffant hairstyle, Kayo has found fame and fortune with a comic strip called BAD BAD JO JO, a cartoon character who is a white supremacist wearing an Uncle Sam top hat accompanied by his yokel of a mother. Both hate blacks, native Americans, hippies, Commies and homosexuals unlike Kayo, whose own and extremely liberal philosophies couldn’t be further removed from those of his creation! One afternoon, journalist Frank Jones (Richard Pendrey) turns up for an interview, only to be reprimanded by a polite yet bored Kayo for using typical American expressions like ‘Gosh’ or ‘Jeeze’ or ‘Golly’. Nonetheless, he puts on a brave face while pouring himself one drink after another and, playing with his little pet dog, obligingly answering Jones’ questions to the best of his ability. When Jones apologises for his apparent incompetence he offers to call it a day, however, before he leaves he asks Kayo whether it would be alright to meet Dennis (Ian Trigger), the journalist’s best mate and apparently a massive fan of the ‘Bad Jo’ comics. To emphasize things even further, Jones then points out that Dennis is waiting downstairs at the building’s entrance. Always keen on meeting fans, Kayo – who has just scored a big fat contract which will see his creation come to life on the movie screen - agrees and almost immediately regrets his decision when Dennis turns out to be a nerdy fella of short build and with a heavy Southern drawl. However, after Jones and Dennis promise to entertain Kayo with a little sketch they have prepared, the host’s irritation first turns to bemusement and, within minutes, to sheer horror once he realises what the cosplay is all about… Riotously funny and deeply disturbing in equal measure, Roy Dotrice is in top form here and is (almost) upstaged by Ian Trigger’s ott performance as, no, not old Mother Goose but old Mother Redneck.

The release, which can be ordered only via www.networkonair.com directly, features a limited web-exclusive O-card (while stock lasts) plus a Limited Edition booklet by archive TV-historian Andrew Pixley.