Tales of the Unexpected is a British television series which aired between 1979 and 1988. Each episode told a story, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, with an unexpected twist ending. Early episodes were based on short stories by Roald Dahl collected in the books Tales of the Unexpected, Kiss Kiss and Someone Like You.
The series was made by Anglia Television for ITV with interior scenes recorded at their Norwich studios whilst location filming mainly occurred across East Anglia. The theme music for the series was written by composer Ron Grainer.
Although similar in theme and title, the show is not related to the American anthology television series, Quinn Martin's Tales of the Unexpected, which ran for one season in 1977.
There is a horrific storyline in which a dog is decapitated and kept alive by artificial means and photographic evidence of it is shown to a character fairly late in the story. A truly horrible thing.
"The Man From The South" revolves around a man wagering his small finger in a bet. Spoiler: he does not lose his finger, but the episode ends with another character revealing that they lost multiple fingers in a similar fashion. There is a close-up shot of their hand, with two fingers missing.