In recent weeks we've discovered a great TV show, and it only took us 55 years to stumble upon it.
It was while Googling Roald Dahl's Tales Of The Unexpected, after an episode of it had popped up on a cable channel, that we discovered we weren't as familiar with Roald Dahl's TV work as we thought. Everyone of our vintage remembers Tales Of The Unexpected. I even remember watching the first series, way back in 1979, and even a Peter Cook parody of Dahl's fireside introductions, which joked about how Dahl had made his name sound more exotic by removing the 'n' from the middle of it.
What I'd never come across before was its predecessor, 'Way Out (the apostrophe's part of the title), a similar anthology series that ran for 14 weeks on CBS in the States, from March to July 1961 (when I was just a twinkle) and never shown in the UK.
A series of horror/thriller tales, it shares one story in common with Tales Of The Unexpected, Dahl's own William And Mary, which was remade in 79 with Elaine Strich in the lead role. The other stories in Way Out are by American writers, each prefaced and back-announced by Dahl giving beautifully dark and sardonic monologues reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. His name, by the way, is pronounced Roo-ahld Dahl in these shows, which must be the way he preferred it.
The significant thing is that almost all of them are on Youtube and, though not of the highest definition (never having been given an official DVD or even VHS release, the only available copies are bootlegs) they are a treat to watch. Taking you right back in time to a primitive era of American TV, where the shows were shot on video (unlike the 35mm film classics we're used to, like The Dick Van Dyke show we're enjoying on Netflix, and of course Bilko), Way Out also has the distinction of being one of the last US TV dramas to be made in New York, before all but late night comedy and chat shows moved to LA.
The stories have an eerie quality, added to by the distancing patina of age and lo-fidelity. And, though a couple of stories are hacky and run of the mill, most stand out with moodiness, surprising twists and genuine spookiness. They do, however, share another common factor which you can't miss after you've watched a few, and that's old fashioned 1950s misogyny. More than half feature men wanting to kill their wives or vice versa.
My favourite is The Overnight Case by Nicholas Pryor, a mind-twisting dream-within-a-dream story that knocks spots off Inception. Dissolve To Black is reminiscent of a recent Inside No 9 set in a TV studio; Side Show has all the best qualities of EC's Tales From The Crypt comic; and The Croaker features a child actor who went on to be John Boy in The Waltons.
The feature that dates these Way Out episodes more than anything is the sponsorship and the product placement. There are ads throughout for L & M cigarettes, plugging them as if they're pretty well a health food, and throughout his intros Roald Dahl is rather conspicously smoking a fag.
I can heartily recommend these to everyone. (The Way Out episodes, not the L&M cigarettes which, spoiler alert, turned out not to be very good for poor Roald in the long run).
'Way Out on Youtube
William & Mary by Roald Dahl
I Heard You Calling Me by Sumner Locke Elliot
The Croaker by Phil Reisman
False Face by Larry Cohen
Dissolve To Black by Irving Gaynor Neiman
Death Wish by Irving Gaynor Neiman
The Overnight Case by Nicholas Pryor
Hush Hush by Bob Van Scoyk
Side Show by Elliott Baker
20/20 by Jerome Ross
Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video
The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre do a tiny bit more Shakespeare in Halifax (Oct 26), Wolverhampton (Oct 28), Nottingham (Nov 4), and Goole (Nov 17) this autumn, returning with a brand new show in 2018. Stay tuned.
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