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Tales of the Unexpected Season 5 Episodes
Season 5 Episode Guide
18 Episodes 1982 - 1982
Episode 1
Blue Marigold
25 mins
Myra, known as Marigold, is the face of an advertising campaign, but her life is falling apart. She spends some time in a psychiatric hospital, and when she is discharged she goes to live with her sister--and runs into those whom she blames for her problems.
Episode 2
The Eavesdropper
25 mins
The eavesdropper's Moira who, whilst in a restaurant, overhears a woman at an adjacent table tell her friend how she had a weekend in Paris with her lover, Donald. Moira's aghast. her husband named Donald, he was in Paris, supposedly on business, and the woman, Louise, has a distinctive watch which she says was given to her by Donald, which looks exactly like the one Donald gave to Moira, which got 'mislaid'.
Episode 3
Operation Safecrack
24 mins
Sam 'The Touch' Morrissey is the most famous safe-cracker in Britain and advertising executive Jack Harrison uses him in an elaborate live television stunt to promote his company. Sam has to break into the impregnable new Holdwell 801 safe in the studio, thereby claiming the twenty-five thousand pounds in an envelope in the safe. Time starts to run out and it looks as if Sam has failed. Fortunately for Sam he came to the studio with another skill as well as safe-cracking.
Episode 4
Run, Rabbit, Run
26 mins
Ten years after he was, as a young soldier billeted in Paris at the end of World War Two, Robert Simpson returns to the house where he stayed, owned by Resistance hero Hector Vareille. Hector was a bully to his put-upon wife Nathalie, who had to do everything as he always sat in the same chair and never left the house. Robert is writing a book about the Resistance but Hector is now dead and Nathalie tells the former soldier how she turned the tables on her overbearing husband.
Episode 5
Stranger in Town
26 mins
An eccentrically-dressed stranger gets off a train and within a few days has endeared himself to the citizens of the town with his jovial behaviour and magical tricks. He is known as Sir Columbus. However, when he calls upon prominent citizen Mr. Latham, he is neither jovial or eccentric, he is out for revenge. But then who would suspect such a delightfully off-the-wall middle-aged gentleman of being capable of murder?
Episode 6
The Moles
26 mins
Edward and George are friends whose businesses are in financial trouble but neither can get a loan from the bank, which makes them feel like robbing it. They enlist the help of an elderly safe-cracker called Meakins and, over the course of a weekend when the bank is closed, they tunnel into it from the shop next door. They successfully enter the vault after much arguing but, sadly for them they neglected to observe the notice on the door of the bank before they began their operation.
Episode 7
Decoy
30 mins
Asher several women are killed in a neighborhood park, constable Mary Bryan reluctantly agrees to go as a decoy. The chief suspect's Timothy Burton, who frequents the park, and, with a police presence to back her up, Bryan gets him into conversation. But is he really the murderer?
Episode 8
Pattern of Guilt
26 mins
Keith Briscoe is a police doctor who is involved with the case of a serial killer who murders women and leaves clues at the scene of the crime. He is anxious to divorce his second wife Elaine in order to get back to Faye, the wife he left for Elaine but Elaine is not going to give him a divorce. Maybe the facts that he has learnt whilst working on the case can provide him with a means to an end.
Episode 9
A Harmless Vanity
26 mins
When her best friend Liz tells her that husband George is having an affair with the much younger Carol, Mary Hitchman decides to meet her rival and invites her to a civilized beach party, having first enjoyed a glamorous make-over, enabling her to wear a sexy green bikini. This will all lead to George losing his mistress, though not in the way Mary had expected.
Episode 10
Death Can Add
26 mins
Oliver Platt is defrauding his firm Bulmont Investments, not just out of greed but revenge as his father killed himself when a similar firm, for whom he worked, would not give him a loan to pay off his debts. Alan Corwin, an auditor, tumbles to Oliver's deception and demands a quarter of a million in hush money. Oliver puts the money in a brief-case along with a bomb, due to go off at six o'clock when Corwin will be in an aeroplane. Unfortunately for Oliver, his devoted secretary Leila cannot stand by and see her man beaten so she takes action. . .
Episode 11
Light Fingers
28 mins
Ralph Stackpole runs a glove factory but gloves are being stolen on a regular basis, throwing suspicion on all those employed there, including Cotter, his designer. Henry brings in Semple, a private detective who comes up with a plan to trap the thief and at breakfast Henry explains it to his usually disinterested wife Joan. As a consequence stolen items start to crop up in the most unlikely places.
Episode 12
Death in the Morning
27 mins
Recently married to wealthy country squire Ian Karen Masterson feels not only alienated in his large house but senses an evil spirit trying to get rid of her. She befriends neighbour Linda Larch, who suggests this may be the spirit of Ian's first wife who died in a car crash, but when Karen comes across a book of witchcraft she suspects that Linda may not be the good friend she had thought and has to take supernatural action of her own.
Episode 13
What Have You Been up to Lately?
26 mins
Fergus Locke, an irascible and frankly washed-up actor, has a row over money with his put-upon wife, during which he kills her. He flees to London and meets Richard Mellor, another failed thespian who depends on his wealthy other half for funds. When a radio news flash reports the death of Mrs. Locke, Fergus escapes in Richard's car and is involved in a high speed chase, after which he crashes the motor. Crawling from the wreckage he makes a grisly discovery.
Episode 14
The Absence of Emily
26 mins
Magistrate Norma allows her sister Emily, a children's author, and Emily's failure of a husband Bob to live in a house in her grounds. Bob's first wife died in mysterious circumstances and when Emily disappears Norma is deeply suspicious that she has come to harm despite Bob's assurances that she has merely gone somewhere quiet to complete her latest book. However, the opportunistic Bob comes to realise that it could be in his interests to play along with Norma's doubts.
Episode 15
In the Bag
25 mins
As safe-breakers go, Sam is the best. He is painstaking and thoroughly cautious and consequently has never been caught, which is why Cara wants his services. As a result of a lover's tiff her family's jewels have been taken from her and locked in a safe, which she wants him to open. He is not overly happy when she opts to come with him for the job, but he has disguises for them so that they can make a quick getaway. But is this to be the first mistake in Sam's illustrious career?
Episode 16
A Man with a Fortune
26 mins
Californian vineyard owner John Smith strikes up a conversation with a young woman called Eva whom he meets in a bar. He tells her that he has come to England to trace his ancestry and that he is going to the Norfolk village of Bedham, from where they originated. When Eva tells her flat-mate Janet, Janet, seeing the opportunity to bag herself a rich man, contrives a meeting with Smith in a records library, claiming that she too is going to trace her forebears in Bedham. However, Eva hears no more from her and, when she goes down to Bedham to look for her, she is told a disturbing story by the local vicar.
Episode 17
Who's Got the Lady?
26 mins
'The Patrician Lady', a priceless painting, is coming from France on loan to Parnell's London gallery but, at its unveiling, there is an explosion and gun-shots, suggesting a robbery although it is all over in seconds. The painting is still in place but the name 'Zarchetti' is stamped on the back of the canvas, suggesting a switch. Since the real painting is presumed stolen, Parnell's girlfriend Bernice, a talented forger, makes several copies of the original which are palmed off as the original and offered to interested parties. But did 'The Patrician Lady' really leave the gallery?
Episode 18
The Skeleton Key
26 mins
Andy, a hospital radiographer, is losing his girlfriend Emma to the self-centred Max, who is planning to take her on a romantic holiday. When Max complains of pains and Andy sees him in a professional capacity, an opportunity for revenge arises. Did Max really swallow that key, or is Andy just making him suffer ?
