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Dahl in 1954 | |
Born | 13 September 1916 Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales |
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Died | 23 November 1990 (aged 74) Oxford, England |
Occupation | Novelist, poet, screenwriter |
Education | The Cathedral School, Llandaff St Peter's School, Weston-super-Mare Repton School |
Period | 1942–1990 |
Genre | Fantasy, suspense |
Spouse |
|
Children | 5, including Tessa, Ophelia and Lucy |
Relatives | Sophie and Phoebe Dahl (granddaughters) Nicholas Logsdail (nephew) |
Military career | |
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Branch | Royal Air Force |
Service years | 1939–1946 |
Rank | Squadron leader |
Service number | 774022 (aircrew) 84990 (commissioned) |
Wars |
Roald Dahl (/ˈroʊ.əldˈdɑːl/;[1] 13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and fighter pilot.[2] His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide.[3]
Born in Wales to Norwegian immigrant parents, Dahl served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He became a flying ace and intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing commander. He rose to prominence as a writer in the 1940s with works for both children and adults, and he became one of the world's best-selling authors.[4][5] He has been referred to as 'one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century'.[6] His awards for contribution to literature include the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, and the British Book Awards' Children's Author of the Year in 1990. In 2008, The Times placed Dahl 16th on its list of 'The 50 greatest British writers since 1945'.[7]
Dahl's short stories are known for their unexpected endings, and his children's books for their unsentimental, macabre, often darkly comic mood, featuring villainous adult enemies of the child characters.[8][9] His books champion the kindhearted, and feature an underlying warm sentiment.[10][11] Dahl's works for children include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG, The Twits and George's Marvellous Medicine. His adult works include Tales of the Unexpected.
- 1Early life
- 5Writing
- 7Filmography
Early life
Childhood
Roald Dahl was born in 1916 at Villa Marie, Fairwater Road, in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, to Norwegian parents, Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Dahl (née Hesselberg).[12] Dahl's father had emigrated to the UK from Sarpsborg in Norway, and settled in Cardiff in the 1880s with his first wife, a Frenchwoman named Marie Beaurin-Gresser. They had two children together, Ellen Marguerite and Louis, before her death in 1907.[13] His mother came over and married his father in 1911. Dahl was named after the Norwegian polar explorerRoald Amundsen. His first language was Norwegian, which he spoke at home with his parents and his sisters Astri, Alfhild, and Else. Dahl and his sisters were raised in the Lutheran faith, and were baptised at the Norwegian Church, Cardiff, where their parents worshipped.[14]
Mrs Pratchett's former sweet shop in Llandaff, Cardiff, has a blue plaque commemorating the mischief played by young Roald Dahl and his friends, who were regular customers.[15]
In 1920, when Dahl was three years old, his seven-year-old sister, Astri, died from appendicitis. Weeks later, his father died of pneumonia at the age of 57.[16] Later that year, his younger sister Asta was born.[13] With the option of returning to Norway to live with relatives, Dahl's mother decided to remain in Wales. Her husband Harald had wanted their children to be educated in English schools, which he considered the world's best.[17]
Dahl first attended the Cathedral School, Llandaff. At the age of eight, he and four of his friends (one named Thwaites) were caned by the headmaster after putting a dead mouse in a jar of gobstoppers at the local sweet shop,[6] which was owned by a 'mean and loathsome' old woman called Mrs Pratchett.[6] The five boys named their prank the 'Great Mouse Plot of 1924'.[18] Gobstoppers were a favourite sweet among British schoolboys between the two World Wars, and Dahl would refer to them in his creation, Everlasting Gobstopper, which was featured in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.[19]
Dahl transferred to a boarding school in England: St Peter's in Weston-super-Mare. His parents had wanted him to be educated at an English public school and, because of the regular ferry link across the Bristol Channel, this proved to be the nearest. Dahl's time at St Peter's was unpleasant; he was very homesick and wrote to his mother every week but never revealed his unhappiness to her. After her death in 1967, he learned that she had saved every one of his letters, in small bundles held together with green tape.[20] In 2016, to mark the centenary of Dahl's birth, his letters to his mother were abridged and broadcast as BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week.[21] Dahl wrote about his time at St Peter's in his autobiography Boy: Tales of Childhood.[22]
Repton School
Dahl attended Repton School in Derbyshire from 1929 to 1934
From 1929, when he was 13, Dahl attended Repton School in Derbyshire. Dahl disliked the hazing and described an environment of ritual cruelty and status domination, with younger boys having to act as personal servants for older boys, frequently subject to terrible beatings. His biographer Donald Sturrock described these violent experiences in Dahl's early life.[23] Dahl expresses some of these darker experiences in his writings, which is also marked by his hatred of cruelty and corporal punishment.[24] According to Boy: Tales of Childhood, a friend named Michael was viciously caned by headmaster Geoffrey Fisher. Writing in that same book, Dahl reflected: “All through my school life I was appalled by the fact that masters and senior boys were allowed literally to wound other boys, and sometimes quite severely.. I couldn’t get over it. I never have got over it.”[25] The master was later selected as the Archbishop of Canterbury and crownedQueen Elizabeth II in 1953. (According to Dahl's biographer Jeremy Treglown,[26] the caning took place in May 1933, a year after Fisher had left Repton; the headmaster was in fact J. T. Christie, Fisher's successor.) Dahl said the incident caused him to 'have doubts about religion and even about God'.[27]
He was never seen as a particularly talented writer in his school years, with one of his English teachers writing in his school report 'I have never met anybody who so persistently writes words meaning the exact opposite of what is intended.'[28] Dahl was exceptionally tall, reaching 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) in adult life.[29] He played sports including cricket, football and golf, and was made captain of the squash team.[30] As well as having a passion for literature, he developed an interest in photography and often carried a camera with him.[16]
During his years at Repton, the Cadbury chocolate company would occasionally send boxes of new chocolates to the school to be tested by the pupils.[31] Dahl would dream of inventing a new chocolate bar that would win the praise of Mr Cadbury himself; this inspired him in writing his third children's book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), and to refer to chocolate in other children's books.[32]
Throughout his childhood and adolescent years, Dahl spent the majority of his summer holidays with his mother's family in Norway. He wrote about many happy memories from those visits in Boy: Tales of Childhood, such as when he replaced the tobacco in his half–sister's fiancé's pipe with goat droppings.[33] He noted only one unhappy memory of his holidays in Norway: at around the age of eight, he had to have his adenoids removed by a doctor.[34] His childhood and first job selling kerosene in Midsomer Norton and surrounding villages in Somerset are subjects in Boy: Tales of Childhood.[35]
After school
After finishing his schooling, in August 1934 Dahl crossed the Atlantic on the RMS Nova Scotia and hiked through Newfoundland with the Public Schools Exploring Society.[36][37]
In July 1934, Dahl joined the Shell Petroleum Company. Following two years of training in the United Kingdom, he was assigned first to Mombasa, Kenya, then to Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika (now Tanzania). Along with the only two other Shell employees in the entire territory, he lived in luxury in the Shell House outside Dar es Salaam, with a cook and personal servants. While out on assignments supplying oil to customers across Tanganyika, he encountered black mambas and lions, among other wildlife.[27]
Fighter ace
Dahl's leather flying helmet on display in the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Great Missenden
In August 1939, as the Second World War loomed, the British made plans to round up the hundreds of Germans living in Dar-es-Salaam. Dahl was commissioned as a lieutenant into the King's African Rifles, commanding a platoon of Askari men, indigenous troops who were serving in the colonial army.[38]
In November 1939, Dahl joined the Royal Air Force as an aircraftman with service number 774022.[39] After a 600-mile (970 km) car journey from Dar es Salaam to Nairobi, he was accepted for flight training with sixteen other men, among whom only three survived the war. With seven hours and 40 minutes experience in a De Havilland Tiger Moth, he flew solo;[40] Dahl enjoyed watching the wildlife of Kenya during his flights. He continued to advanced flying training in Iraq, at RAF Habbaniya, 50 miles (80 km) west of Baghdad. Following six months' training on Hawker Harts, Dahl was commissioned as a pilot officer on 24 August 1940, and was judged ready to join a squadron and face the enemy.[39][41]
Dahl was flying a Gloster Gladiator when he crash landed in Libya
He was assigned to No. 80 Squadron RAF, flying obsolete Gloster Gladiators, the last biplanefighter aircraft used by the RAF. Dahl was surprised to find that he would not receive any specialised training in aerial combat, or in flying Gladiators. On 19 September 1940, Dahl was ordered to fly his Gladiator by stages from Abu Sueir (near Ismailia, in Egypt) to 80 Squadron's forward airstrip 30 miles (48 km) south of Mersa Matruh. On the final leg he could not find the airstrip and, running low on fuel and with night approaching, he was forced to attempt a landing in the desert.[42] The undercarriage hit a boulder and the aircraft crashed. Dahl's skull was fractured and his nose was smashed; he was temporarily blinded.[43] He managed to drag himself away from the blazing wreckage and passed out. He wrote about the crash in his first published work.[43]
Dahl was rescued and taken to a first-aid post in Mersa Matruh, where he regained consciousness, but not his sight. He was transported by train to the Royal Navy hospital in Alexandria. There he fell in and out of love with a nurse, Mary Welland. A RAF inquiry into the crash revealed that the location to which he had been told to fly was completely wrong, and he had mistakenly been sent instead to the no man's land between the Allied and Italian forces.[44]
A Hawker Hurricane Mk 1, the aircraft type in which Dahl engaged in aerial combat over Greece.
In February 1941, Dahl was discharged from hospital and passed fully fit for flying duties. By this time, 80 Squadron had been transferred to the Greek campaign and based at Eleusina, near Athens. The squadron was now equipped with Hawker Hurricanes. Dahl flew a replacement Hurricane across the Mediterranean Sea in April 1941, after seven hours' experience flying Hurricanes. By this stage in the Greek campaign, the RAF had only 18 combat aircraft in Greece: 14 Hurricanes and four Bristol Blenheim light bombers. Dahl flew in his first aerial combat on 15 April 1941, while flying alone over the city of Chalcis. He attacked six Junkers Ju 88s that were bombing ships and shot one down. On 16 April in another air battle, he shot down another Ju 88.[45]
On 20 April 1941, Dahl took part in the Battle of Athens, alongside the highest-scoring British Commonwealth ace of World War II, Pat Pattle, and Dahl's friend David Coke. Of 12 Hurricanes involved, five were shot down and four of their pilots killed, including Pattle. Greek observers on the ground counted 22 German aircraft downed, but because of the confusion of the aerial engagement, none of the pilots knew which aircraft they had shot down. Dahl described it as 'an endless blur of enemy fighters whizzing towards me from every side'.[46][47]
In May, as the Germans were pressing on Athens, Dahl was evacuated to Egypt. His squadron was reassembled in Haifa. From there, Dahl flew sorties every day for a period of four weeks, shooting down a Vichy French Air ForcePotez 63 on 8 June and another Ju 88 on 15 June, but he began to get severe headaches that caused him to black out. He was invalided home to Britain. Though at this time Dahl was only a pilot officer on probation, in September 1941 he was simultaneously confirmed as a pilot officer and promoted to war substantive flying officer.[48]
Diplomat, writer and intelligence officer
After being invalided home, Dahl was posted to an RAF training camp in Uxbridge. He attempted to recover his health enough to become an instructor.[49] In late March 1942, while in London, he met the Under-Secretary of State for Air, Major Harold Balfour, at his club. Impressed by Dahl's war record and conversational abilities, Balfour appointed the young man as assistant air attaché at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. Initially resistant, Dahl was finally persuaded by Balfour to accept, and took passage on the SS Batori from Glasgow a few days later. He arrived in Halifax, Canada, on 14 April, after which he took a sleeper train to Montreal.[50]
Coming from war-starved Britain, Dahl was amazed by the wealth of food and amenities to be had in North America.[51] Arriving in Washington a week later, Dahl found he liked the atmosphere of the US capital. He shared a house with another attaché at 1610 34th Street, NW, in Georgetown. But after ten days in his new posting, Dahl strongly disliked it, feeling he had taken on 'a most ungodly unimportant job'.[52] He later explained, 'I'd just come from the war. People were getting killed. I had been flying around, seeing horrible things. Now, almost instantly, I found myself in the middle of a pre-war cocktail party in America.'[53]
Dahl was unimpressed by his office in the British Air Mission, attached to the embassy. He was also unimpressed by the ambassador, Lord Halifax, with whom he sometimes played tennis and whom he described as 'a courtly English gentleman'. Dahl socialized with Charles E. Marsh, a Texas publisher and oilman, at his house at 2136 R Street, NW, and the Marsh country estate in Virginia.[44][54] As part of his duties as assistant air attaché, Dahl was to help neutralise the isolationist views still held by many Americans by giving pro-British speeches and discussing his war service; the United States had entered the war only the previous December, following the attack on Pearl Harbor.[55]
At this time Dahl met the noted British novelist C. S. Forester, who was also working to aid the British war effort. Forester worked for the British Ministry of Information and was writing propaganda for the Allied cause, mainly for American consumption.[56]The Saturday Evening Post had asked Forester to write a story based on Dahl's flying experiences; Forester asked Dahl to write down some RAF anecdotes so that he could shape them into a story. After Forester read what Dahl had given him, he decided to publish the story exactly as Dahl had written it.[57] He originally titled the article as 'A Piece of Cake' but the magazine changed it to 'Shot Down Over Libya' to make it sound more dramatic, although Dahl had not been shot down; it was published in the 1 August 1942 issue of the Post. Dahl was promoted to flight lieutenant (war-substantive) in August 1942.[58] Later he worked with such other well-known British officers as Ian Fleming (who later published the popular James Bond series) and David Ogilvy, promoting Britain's interests and message in the US and combating the 'America First' movement.[55]
This work introduced Dahl to espionage and the activities of the Canadian spymaster William Stephenson, known by the codename 'Intrepid'.[59] During the war, Dahl supplied intelligence from Washington to Prime Minister Winston Churchill. As Dahl later said: 'My job was to try to help Winston to get on with FDR, and tell Winston what was in the old boy's mind.'[57] Dahl also supplied intelligence to Stephenson and his organisation, known as British Security Coordination, which was part of MI6.[54] Dahl was once sent back to Britain by British Embassy officials, supposedly for misconduct—'I got booted out by the big boys,' he said. Stephenson promptly sent him back to Washington—with a promotion to wing commander rank.[60] Toward the end of the war, Dahl wrote some of the history of the secret organisation; he and Stephenson remained friends for decades after the war.[61]
Upon the war's conclusion, Dahl held the rank of a temporary wing commander (substantive flight lieutenant). Owing to the severity of his injuries from the 1940 accident, he was pronounced unfit for further service and was invalided out of the RAF in August 1946. He left the service with the substantive rank of squadron leader.[62] His record of five aerial victories, qualifying him as a flying ace, has been confirmed by post-war research and cross-referenced in Axis records. It is most likely that he scored more than those victories during 20 April 1941, when 22 German aircraft were shot down.[63]
Post-war life
Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl
Dahl married American actress Patricia Neal on 2 July 1953 at Trinity Church in New York City. Their marriage lasted for 30 years and they had five children:
- Olivia Twenty (20 April 1955 – 17 November 1962);
- Chantal Sophia 'Tessa' (born 1957), who became an author, and mother of author, cookbook writer and former model Sophie Dahl (after whom Sophie in The BFG is named).;[64]
- Theo Matthew (born 1960);
- Ophelia Magdalena (born 1964);
- and Lucy Neal (born 1965).[65]
On 5 December 1960, four-month-old Theo Dahl was severely injured when his baby carriage was struck by a taxicab in New York City. For a time, he suffered from hydrocephalus. As a result, his father became involved in the development of what became known as the 'Wade-Dahl-Till' (or WDT) valve, a device to improve the shunt used alleviate the condition.[66][67] The valve was a collaboration between Dahl, hydraulic engineer Stanley Wade, and London's Great Ormond Street Hospital neurosurgeon Kenneth Till, and was used successfully on almost 3,000 children around the world.[68]
In November 1962, Dahl's daughter Olivia died of measles encephalitis, age seven. Her death left Dahl 'limp with despair', and feeling guilty about not having been able to do anything for her.[68] Dahl subsequently became a proponent of immunisation and dedicated his 1982 book The BFG to his daughter.[69][70] After Olivia's death and a meeting with a Church official, Dahl came to view Christianity as a sham.[71] While mourning her loss, he had sought spiritual guidance from Geoffrey Fisher, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. He was dismayed by Fisher telling him that, although Olivia was in Paradise, her beloved dog Rowley would never join her there.[71] Dahl recalled years later: “I wanted to ask him how he could be so absolutely sure that other creatures did not get the same special treatment as us. I sat there wondering if this great and famous churchman really knew what he was talking about and whether he knew anything at all about God or heaven, and if he didn't, then who in the world did?[71]
In 1965, his wife Patricia Neal suffered three burst cerebral aneurysms while pregnant with their fifth child, Lucy. Dahl took control of her rehabilitation over the next months; Neal had to re-learn to talk and walk, but she managed to return to her acting career.[72] This period of their lives was dramatised in the film The Patricia Neal Story (1981), in which the couple were played by Glenda Jackson and Dirk Bogarde.[73]
Dahl signing books in Amsterdam, Netherlands, October 1988
Neal and Dahl divorced in 1983. He married Felicity d'Abreu Crosland, niece of Francis D'Abreu who was married to Margaret Ann Bowes Lyon - 1st cousin of the late Queen Mother, at Brixton Town Hall, South London. Dahl and Crosland had previously been in a relationship.[74] Felicity (known as Liccy) gave up her job and moved into 'Gipsy House', Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire, which had been Dahl's home since 1954.[75]
In 1983 Dahl reviewed Tony Clifton's God Cried, a picture book about the siege of West Beirut by the Israeli army during the 1982 Lebanon War.[76] He wrote that the book would make readers 'violently anti-Israeli', stating: 'I am not anti-Semitic. I am anti-Israel.'[77] Dahl told a reporter in 1983: 'There's a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity .. I mean there is always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn't just pick on them for no reason.'[77] In 1990, during an interview with The Independent, Dahl explained that his issue with Israel began when they invaded Lebanon in 1982: “they killed 22,000 civilians when they bombed Beirut. It was very much hushed up in the newspapers because they are primarily Jewish-owned. I’m certainly anti-Israeli and I’ve become antisemitic in as much as that you get a Jewish person in another country like England strongly supporting Zionism.”[78] As a result of these views, in 2014 the Royal Mint decided not to produce a coin to commemorate the centenary of Dahl's birth because he was considered to be 'associated with antisemitism and not regarded as an author of the highest reputation'.[78] Dahl had Jewish friends, including philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin, who commented: 'I thought he might say anything. Could have been pro-Arab or pro-Jew. There was no consistent line. He was a man who followed whims, which meant he would blow up in one direction, so to speak.'[77] Amelia Foster, director of the Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden, says: 'This is again an example of how Dahl refused to take anything seriously, even himself. He was very angry at the Israelis. He had a childish reaction to what was going on in Israel. Dahl wanted to provoke, as he always provoked at dinner. His publisher was a Jew, his agent was a Jew.. and he thought nothing but good things of them. He asked me to be his managing director, and I'm Jewish.'[79]
In the 1986 New Years Honours List, Dahl was offered an appointment to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), but turned it down. He reportedly wanted a knighthood so that his wife would be Lady Dahl.[80][81] In 2012, Dahl was featured in the list of The New Elizabethans to mark the diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. A panel of seven academics, journalists and historians named Dahl among the group of people in the UK 'whose actions during the reign of Elizabeth II have had a significant impact on lives in these islands and given the age its character'.[82] In September 2016, his daughter Lucy received the BBC’s Blue PeterGold badge in his honour, the first time it has ever been awarded posthumously.[83]
Writing
Roald Dahl's story 'The Devious Bachelor' was illustrated by Frederick Siebel when it was published in Collier's (September 1953).
Dahl's first published work, inspired by a meeting with C. S. Forester, was 'A Piece of Cake', on 1 August 1942. The story, about his wartime adventures, was bought by The Saturday Evening Post for US$1,000 (a substantial sum in 1942) and published under the title 'Shot Down Over Libya'.[84]
Switch On or Off the slider against the Automatically hide the taskbar in desktop or tablet mode option in order to Hide and Show Windows 10 Taskbar Automatically. In this way, your taskbar will hide until you hover your mouse pointer to taskbar area.The taskbar will be locked and you can not make a change in your Windows 10 Taskbar. Taskbar section will be the first one. Taskbar not hiding when fullscreen.
His first children's book was The Gremlins, published in 1943, about mischievous little creatures that were part of Royal Air Force folklore.[85] The RAF pilots blamed the gremlins for all the problems with the aircraft.[86] While at the British Embassy in Washington, Dahl sent a copy to the First LadyEleanor Roosevelt who read it to her grandchildren,[85] and the book was commissioned by Walt Disney for a film that was never made.[87] Dahl went on to create some of the best-loved children's stories of the 20th century, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG, The Twits and George's Marvellous Medicine.[6]
Dahl also had a successful parallel career as the writer of macabre adult short stories, which often blended humour and innocence with surprising plot twists.[88] The Mystery Writers of America presented Dahl with three Edgar Awards for his work, and many were originally written for American magazines such as Collier's ('The Collector's Item' was Collier's Star Story of the week for 4 September 1948), Ladies Home Journal, Harper's, Playboy and The New Yorker.[89] Works such as Kiss Kiss subsequently collected Dahl's stories into anthologies, and gained significant popularity. Dahl wrote more than 60 short stories; they have appeared in numerous collections, some only being published in book form after his death (see List of Roald Dahl short stories). His three Edgar Awards were given for: in 1954, the collection Someone Like You; in 1959, the story 'The Landlady'; and in 1980, the episode of Tales of the Unexpected based on 'Skin'.[88]
Roald Dahl's vardo in the garden of his house, 'Gipsy Cottage', in Great Missenden, where he wrote Danny, the Champion of the World in 1975.
One of his more famous adult stories, 'The Smoker', also known as 'Man from the South', was filmed twice as both 1960 and 1985 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and also adapted into Quentin Tarantino's segment of the 1995 film Four Rooms.[90] This oft-anthologised classic concerns a man in Jamaica who wagers with visitors in an attempt to claim the fingers from their hands. The 1960 Hitchcock version stars Steve McQueen and Peter Lorre.[90]
Dahl acquired a traditional Romanichalvardo in the 1960s, and the family used it as a playhouse for his children at home in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. He later used the vardo as a writing room, where he wrote Danny, the Champion of the World in 1975.[91] Dahl incorporated a Gypsy wagon into the main plot of the book, where the young English boy, Danny, and his father, William (played by Jeremy Irons in the film adaptation) live in a vardo.[92] Many other scenes and characters from Great Missenden are reflected in his work. For example, the village library was the inspiration for Mrs Phelps' library in Matilda, where the title character devours classic literature by the age of four.[93]
His short story collection Tales of the Unexpected was adapted to a successful TV series of the same name, beginning with Man From the South.[94] When the stock of Dahl's own original stories was exhausted, the series continued by adapting stories by authors that were written in Dahl's style, including the writers John Collier and Stanley Ellin.[95]
Some of his short stories are supposed to be extracts from the diary of his (fictional) Uncle Oswald, a rich gentleman whose sexual exploits form the subject of these stories.[96] In his novel My Uncle Oswald, the uncle engages a temptress to seduce 20th century geniuses and royalty with a love potion secretly added to chocolate truffles made by Dahl's favourite chocolate shop, Prestat of Piccadilly, London.[96]Memories with Food at Gipsy House, written with his wife Felicity and published posthumously in 1991, was a mixture of recipes, family reminiscences and Dahl's musings on favourite subjects such as chocolate, onions and claret.[97][98]
Children's fiction
'He [Dahl] was mischievous. A grown-up being mischievous. He addresses you, a child, as somebody who knows about the world. He was a grown-up – and he was bigger than most – who is on your side. That must have something to do with it.'
—Illustrator Quentin Blake on the lasting appeal of Dahl's children's books.[6]
Dahl's children's works are usually told from the point of view of a child. They typically involve adult villains who hate and mistreat children, and feature at least one 'good' adult to counteract the villain(s).[6] These stock characters are possibly a reference to the abuse that Dahl stated that he experienced in the boarding schools he attended.[6] Dahl's books see the triumph of the child; children's book critic Amanda Craig said, 'He was unequivocal that it is the good, young and kind who triumph over the old, greedy and the wicked.'[11] While his whimsical fantasy stories feature an underlying warm sentiment, they are often juxtaposed with grotesque, darkly comic and sometimes harshly violent scenarios.[8][10]The Witches, George's Marvellous Medicine and Matilda are examples of this formula. The BFG follows it in a more analogous way with the good giant (the BFG or 'Big Friendly Giant') representing the 'good adult' archetype and the other giants being the 'bad adults'. This formula is also somewhat evident in Dahl's film script for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Class-conscious themes also surface in works such as Fantastic Mr Fox and Danny, the Champion of the World where the unpleasant wealthy neighbours are outwitted.[57][99]
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Dahl also features characters who are very fat, usually children. Augustus Gloop, Bruce Bogtrotter and Bruno Jenkins are a few of these characters, although an enormous woman named Aunt Sponge features in James and the Giant Peach and the nasty farmer Boggis in Fantastic Mr Fox is an enormously fat character. All of these characters (with the possible exception of Bruce Bogtrotter) are either villains or simply unpleasant gluttons. They are usually punished for this: Augustus Gloop drinks from Willy Wonka's chocolate river, disregarding the adults who tell him not to, and falls in, getting sucked up a pipe and nearly being turned into fudge. In Matilda, Bruce Bogtrotter steals cake from the evil headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, and is forced to eat a gigantic chocolate cake in front of the school. In The Witches, Bruno Jenkins is lured by the witches (whose leader is the Grand High Witch) into their convention with the promise of chocolate, before they turn him into a mouse.[100] Aunt Sponge is flattened by a giant peach. When Dahl was a boy his mother used to tell him and his sisters tales about trolls and other mythical Norwegian creatures and some of his children's books contain references or elements inspired by these stories, such as the giants in The BFG, the fox family in Fantastic Mr Fox and the trolls in The Minpins.[101]
Receiving the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, Dahl encouraged his children and his readers to let their imagination run free. His daughter Lucy stated 'his spirit was so large and so big he taught us to believe in magic.'[57]
Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.
Dahl was also famous for his inventive, playful use of language, which was a key element to his writing. He would invent new words by scribbling down his words before swapping letters around and adopting spoonerisms and malapropisms.[102] The lexicographer Dr Susan Rennie stated that Dahl built his new words on familiar sounds, adding:
He didn't always explain what his words meant, but children can work them out because they often sound like a word they know, and he loved using onomatopoeia. For example, you know that something lickswishy and delumptious is good to eat, whereas something uckyslush or rotsome is not definitely not! He also used sounds that children love to say, like squishous and squizzle, or fizzlecrump and fizzwiggler.[102]
In 2016, marking the centenary of Dahl's birth, Rennie compiled The Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary which includes many of his invented words and their meaning.[102] Rennie commented that some of Dahl's words have already escaped his world, for example, Scrumdiddlyumptious: 'Food that is utterly delicious'.[102] In his poetry, Dahl gives a humorous re-interpretation of well-known nursery rhymes and fairy tales, providing surprise endings in place of the traditional happily-ever-after. Dahl's collection of poems Revolting Rhymes is recorded in audiobook form, and narrated by actor Alan Cumming.[103]
Screenplays
For a brief period in the 1960s, Dahl wrote screenplays. Two, the James Bond film You Only Live Twice and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, were adaptations of novels by Ian Fleming.[104] Dahl also began adapting his own novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was completed and rewritten by David Seltzer after Dahl failed to meet deadlines, and produced as the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). Dahl later disowned the film, saying he was 'disappointed' because 'he thought it placed too much emphasis on Willy Wonka and not enough on Charlie'.[105] He was also 'infuriated' by the deviations in the plot devised by David Seltzer in his draft of the screenplay. This resulted in his refusal for any more versions of the book to be made in his lifetime, as well as an adaptation for the sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.[106]
Influences
Interior of Dylan Thomas's writing shed. Dahl made a replica of it in his own garden in Great Missenden where he wrote many of his stories
A major part of Dahl's literary influences stemmed from his childhood. In his younger days, he was an avid reader, especially awed by fantastic tales of heroism and triumph. Amongst his favourite authors were Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray and Frederick Marryat, and their works went on to make a lasting mark on his life and writing.[107] Finding too many distractions in his house, Dahl remembered the poet Dylan Thomas had found a peaceful shed to write in close to home. Dahl travelled to visit Thomas's hut in Carmarthenshire, Wales in the 1950s and, after taking a look inside, decided to make a replica of it to write in.[108]
Dahl liked ghost stories, and claimed that Trolls by Jonas Lie was one of the finest ghost stories ever written. While he was still a youngster, his mother, Sofie Dahl, would relate traditional Norwegian myths and legends from her native homeland to Dahl and his sisters. Dahl always maintained that his mother and her stories had a strong influence on his writing. In one interview, he mentioned: 'She was a great teller of tales. Her memory was prodigious and nothing that ever happened to her in her life was forgotten.'[109] When Dahl started writing and publishing his famous books for children, he created a grandmother character in The Witches and later stated that she was based directly on his own mother as a tribute.[110][111]
Television
In 1961, Dahl hosted and wrote for a science fiction and horror television anthology series called Way Out, which preceded the Twilight Zone series on the CBS network for 14 episodes from March to July.[112] One of the last dramatic network shows shot in New York City, the entire series is available for viewing at The Paley Center for Media in New York City and Los Angeles.[113] He also wrote for the satirical BBC comedy programme That Was the Week That Was, which was hosted by David Frost.[114]
The British television series, Tales of the Unexpected, originally aired on ITV between 1979 and 1988.[115] The series was released to tie in with Dahl's short story anthology of the same name, which had introduced readers to many motifs that were common in his writing.[94] The series was an anthology of different tales, initially based on Dahl's short stories.[94] The stories were sometimes sinister, sometimes wryly comedic and usually had a twist ending. Dahl introduced on camera all the episodes of the first two series, which bore the full title Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected.[116]
Death and legacy
Dahl's gravestone, St Peter and St Paul's Church, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire
Roald Dahl died on 23 November 1990, at the age of 74 of a rare cancer of the blood, myelodysplastic syndrome, in Oxford,[117] and was buried in the cemetery at St Peter and St Paul's Church in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England. According to his granddaughter, the family gave him a 'sort of Viking funeral'. He was buried with his snooker cues, some very good burgundy, chocolates, HB pencils and a power saw. Today, children continue to leave toys and flowers by his grave.[118] In November 1996, the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery was opened at the Buckinghamshire County Museum in nearby Aylesbury.[119] The main-belt asteroid 6223 Dahl, discovered by Czech astronomer Antonín Mrkos, was named in his memory in 1996.[120][121]
In 2002, one of Cardiff Bay's modern landmarks, the Oval Basin plaza, was renamed Roald Dahl Plass. Plass is Norwegian for 'place' or 'square', alluding to the writer's Norwegian roots. There have also been calls from the public for a permanent statue of him to be erected in Cardiff.[122] In 2016, the city celebrated the centenary of Dahl's birth in Llandaff. Welsh Arts organisations, including National Theatre Wales, Wales Millennium Centre and Literature Wales, came together for a series of events, titled Roald Dahl 100, including a Cardiff-wide City of the Unexpected, which marked his legacy.[4]
Dahl's charitable commitments in the fields of neurology, haematology and literacy during his life have been continued by his widow since his death, through Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity, formerly known as the Roald Dahl Foundation.[97] The charity provides care and support to seriously ill children and young people throughout the UK.[123] In June 2005, the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in the author's home village Great Missenden was officially opened by Cherie Blair, wife of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, to celebrate the work of Roald Dahl and advance his work in literacy education.[124] Over 50,000 visitors from abroad, mainly from Australia, Japan, the United States and Germany, travel to the village museum every year.[125]
Matilda the Musical has been shown in the West End since November 2011, and on Broadway since April 2013
In 2008, the UK charity Booktrust and Children's LaureateMichael Rosen inaugurated The Roald Dahl Funny Prize, an annual award to authors of humorous children's fiction.[126][127] On 14 September 2009 (the day after what would have been Dahl's 93rd birthday) the first blue plaque in his honour was unveiled in Llandaff.[128] Rather than commemorating his place of birth, however, the plaque was erected on the wall of the former sweet shop (and site of 'The Great Mouse Plot of 1924') that features in the first part of his autobiography Boy. It was unveiled by his widow Felicity and son Theo.[128] In 2018, Weston-super-Mare, the town described by Dahl as a 'seedy seaside resort', unveiled a blue plaque dedicated to him, on the site of the since-demolished boarding school Dahl attended, St Peter's.[129] The anniversary of Dahl's birthday on 13 September is celebrated as 'Roald Dahl Day' in Africa, the United Kingdom and Latin America.[130][131][132]
In honour of Dahl, the Royal Gibraltar Post Office issued a set of four stamps in 2010 featuring Quentin Blake's original illustrations for four of the children's books written by Dahl during his long career; The BFG, The Twits, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Matilda.[133] A set of six stamps was issued by Royal Mail in 2012, featuring Blake's illustrations for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Twits, The Witches, Matilda, Fantastic Mr Fox, and James and the Giant Peach.[134] Dahl's influence has extended beyond literary figures. For instance film director Tim Burton recalled from childhood 'the second layer [after Dr. Seuss] of connecting to a writer who gets the idea of the modern fable – and the mixture of light and darkness, and not speaking down to kids, and the kind of politically incorrect humour that kids get. I've always like that, and it's shaped everything I've felt that I've done.'[135]Steven Spielberg read The BFG to his children when they were young, stating the book celebrates the fact that it's OK to be different as well as to have an active imagination: 'It's very important that we preserve the tradition of allowing young children to run free with their imaginations and magic and imagination are the same thing.'[136] Actress Scarlett Johansson named Fantastic Mr Fox one of the five books that made a difference to her.[137]
'Arguably the Shakespeare of children's literature, from Fantastic Mr Fox to Matilda and The BFG, filmmakers and animators are still drawing from the enormous vat of material he created.'
—'Britain's top ten children's literature superstars'. The Independent, 2012.[138]
Regarded as 'one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century',[6] Dahl was named by The Times one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.[7] He ranks amongst the world's best-selling fiction authors with sales estimated at over 250 million,[3][5][8] and his books have been published in almost 60 languages.[4] In 2003 four books by Dahl, led by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at number 35, ranked among the Top 100 in The Big Read, a survey of the British public by the BBC to determine the 'nation's best-loved novel' of all time.[139] In surveys of UK teachers, parents and students, Dahl is frequently ranked the best children's writer.[140][141] In a 2006 list for the Royal Society of Literature, Harry Potter creator J. K. Rowling named Charlie and the Chocolate Factory one of her top ten books every child should read.[142] In 2012, Matilda was ranked number 30 among all-time best children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a monthly with primarily US audience. The Top 100 included four books by Dahl, more than any other writer: Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, and The BFG.[143] In 2012, Dahl was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life he most admires.[144][145] In a 2017 UK poll of the greatest authors, songwriters, artists and photographers, Dahl was named the greatest storyteller of all time, ranking ahead of Dickens, Shakespeare, Rowling and Spielberg.[146] In 2017, the airline Norwegian announced Dahl's image would appear on the tail fin one of their Boeing 737-800 aircraft. He is one of the company's six 'British tail fin heroes', joining Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, England World Cup winner Bobby Moore, novelist Jane Austen, pioneering pilot Amy Johnson and aviation entrepreneur Freddie Laker.[147][148]
Filmography
Writing roles
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1950 | Suspense | Story | 1 episode |
1952 | CBS Television Workshop | ||
Lux Video Theatre | |||
1954 | Philip Morris Playhouse | ||
Danger | |||
1955 | Star Tonight | ||
Cameo Theatre | |||
1958 | Suspicion | ||
1958-61 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | 7 episodes | |
1961 | 'Way Out | 1 episode | |
1962 | That Was the Week That Was | ||
1964 | 36 Hours | Feature film | |
1965-67 | Thirty-Minute Theatre | 3 episodes | |
1967 | You Only Live Twice | Screenplay | Feature film |
1968 | Late Night Horror | Writer | 1 episode |
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang | Screenplay | Feature film | |
Jackanory | 10 episodes | ||
1971 | The Road Builder | Feature film | |
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory | Story/screenplay | ||
1976 | James and the Giant Peach | Story | TV movie |
1979-88 | Tales of the Unexpected | Writer/story | 26 episodes |
1985 | The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Story | 1 episode |
1989 | The BFG | TV movie | |
The Book Tower | Writer | 1 episode | |
Danny the Champion of the World | Story | TV movie |
Presenting roles
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1961 | 'Way Out | Host | 5 episodes |
1965 | Thirty-Minute Theatre | Narrator | 1 episode |
Non-presenting appearances
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1969 | The 41st Annual Academy Awards | Himself | Audience member |
1978 | Read All About It | 1 episode | |
This Is Your Life | 1 episode | ||
1979-85 | Tales of the Unexpected | 32 episodes | |
1989 | Going Live! | 1 episode |
Publications
References
- ^'NLS: Say How, A-D'. Library of Congress. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
- ^Sturrock, Donald, Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl, p. 19. Simon & Schuster, 2010.
- ^ ab'Roald Dahl: As popular - and profitable - as ever'. BBC. 18 August 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
- ^ abc'Roald Dahl centenary: 'Tremendous things' promised for 2016'. BBC News. BBC. 6 July 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
- ^ ab'Fans gather for Dahl celebration'. BBC. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^ abcdefgh'Once upon a time, there was a man who liked to make up stories ..'The Independent. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^ ab'The 50 greatest British writers since 1945'. The Times. 5 January 2008. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^ abc'Britain celebrates first Roald Dahl Day'. TODAY (today.com). NBC News. Associated Press. 13 September 2006. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'Aldi removes Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes from its Australian stores over the word 'slut''. The Independent. 30 November 2015.
- ^ ab'Roald Dahl's greatest philosophical quotes ever'. The Guardian. 30 November 2015.
- ^ ab'Roald Dahl and the darkness within'. BBC. 15 October 2015.
- ^Philip Howard, 'Dahl, Roald (1916–1990)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.
- ^ ab'Roald Dahl Timeline • Roald Dahl Facts'. Roald Dahl Facts. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
- ^Colin Palfrey (2006) Cardiff Soul: An Underground Guide to the City
- ^'Blue plaque marks Dahl sweet shop'. BBC. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
- ^ ab'Roald Dahl biography'. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^Jill C. Wheeler (2006) Roald Dahl p. 9. ABDO Publishing Company, 2006.
- ^Michael D. Sharp (2006) Popular Contemporary Writers p. 516. Marshall Cavendish, 2006.
- ^John Ayto (2012). The Diner's Dictionary: Word Origins of Food and Drink. p. 154. Oxford University Press.
- ^'Roald Dahl's School Days'. BBC Wales. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
- ^Readers: Donald Sturrock and Rory Kinnear, Abridged by: Katrin Williams, Producer: Duncan Minshull (5 June 2016). 'Book of the Week, Love from Boy - Roald Dahl's Letters to His Mother'. Book of the Week. BBC Radio.
- ^Dahl, Roald (1984). Boy: Tales of Childhood. Puffin Books. ISBN978-0-14-130305-5.
- ^Sturrock, Donald (8 August 2010). 'Roald Dahl's schooldays were filled with the ritual cruelty of fagging for older boys and with terrible beatings'. Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
- ^'WEB LINKS: corporal punishment in British schools'. www.corpun.com. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
- ^'Boarding School Magic - Los Angeles Review of Books'. Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
- ^Jeremy Treglown, Roald Dahl: A Biography (1994), Faber and Faber, page 21. Treglown's source note is as follows: 'Several people who were at the top of Priory House at the time have discussed it with me, particularly B.L.L. Reuss and John Bradburn.'
- ^ abDahl, Roald (1984). Boy: Tales of Childhood. Jonathan Cape.
- ^Liukkonen, Petri. 'Roald Dahl'. Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 10 February 2015.
- ^Roald Dahl – Penguin UK AuthorsArchived 1 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine – Penguin UK
- ^Shavick, Andrea (1997) Roald Dahl: the champion storyteller p.12. Oxford University Press, 1997
- ^'Repton School 'helped inspire Dahl' to write Charlie'. BBC. 14 July 2015.
- ^Roald Dahl (derivative work) and Quentin Blake (2005). Roald Dahl's Incredible Chocolate Box. ISBN978-0-14-131959-9.
- ^Boy and Going Solo, p.128 – p.132
- ^Boy and Going Solo, p.68 – 71
- ^Dahl, Roald (1984) Boy: Tales of Childhood p.172. Puffin Books, 1984
- ^Sturrock, Donald (2010). Storyteller: The Authorised Biography of Roald Dahl. London: HarperPress. pp. 93–94. ISBN978-0007254767.
- ^'Roald Dahl (British author)'. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^Donald Sturrock Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl, p.116. Simon and Schuster, 2010
- ^ abIssue 34964. London Gazette. 8 October 1940. page 5907
- ^Sturrock (2010: 120)
- ^Conant, Jennet (2008). The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington. p. 3. Simon and Schuster
- ^Sturrock, Donald (9 August 2010). 'Roald Dahl: the plane crash that gave birth to a writer'. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^ abAlan Warren (1988) Roald Dahl pp.12, 87. Starmont House, 1988
- ^ abDahl, Roald (1986). Going Solo. Jonathan Cape.
- ^Andrew Thomas Hurricane Aces 1941–45, Osprey Publishing, 2003
- ^Roald Dahl Going Solo, p. 151. Scholastic, 1996
- ^Dahl, Roald (6 December 2015). Going Solo (excerpt).
- ^'No. 35292'. The London Gazette. 30 September 1941. p. 5664.
- ^Sturrock (2010: 163)
- ^Sturrock (2010: 165)
- ^Sturrock (2010: 163–165)
- ^Sturrock (2010: 166–167)
- ^Sturrock (2010: 167)
- ^ abDietsch, Deborah K. (1 December 2013). 'Roald Dahl Slept Here: From attaché to author'. The Washington Post Magazine. p. 10. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
- ^ abThe book Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington (by Jennet Conant, Simon and Schuster 2008) describes this era of Dahl's life and those with whom he worked.
- ^Cambridge Guide to Literature (Cambridge University Press, 1989) ISBN0-521-26751-X.
- ^ abcdThe Marvellous World of Roald Dahl. BBC Studios. 2016
- ^Issue 35791. London Gazette. 17 November 1942. p. 5037
- ^Ellen Schoeck I was There: A Century of Alumni Stories about the University of Alberta, 1906–2006, University of Alberta, 2006
- ^Bill Macdonald. The True Intrepid. p. 249 (Raincoast 2001)ISBN1-55192-418-8; Dahl also speaks about his espionage work in the documentary The True Intrepid.
- ^Macdonald. The True Intrepid. p. 243. ISBN1-55192-418-8.
- ^Issue 37681. London Gazette. 9 August 1946. page 4054.
- ^Christopher Shores and Clive Williams. Aces High: A Tribute to the Most Notable Fighter Pilots of the British and Commonwealth Air Forces in WWII. (Grub Street Publishing, 1994) ISBN1-898697-00-0.
- ^Martin Chilton (18 November 2010) The 25 best children's booksThe Daily Telegraph
- ^''Dad also needed happy dreams': Roald Dahl, his daughters and the BFG'. The Daily Telegraph. 6 August 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'Water on the Brain'. MedGadget: Internet Journal of Emerging Medical Technologies. 15 July 2005. Archived from the original on 22 May 2006. Retrieved 11 May 2006.
- ^Dr Andrew Larner. 'Tales of the Unexpected: Roald Dahl's Neurological Contributions'(PDF). Advances in Clinical Neuroscience and Rehabilitation.
- ^ ab'Roald Dahl on the death of his daughter'. The Telegraph (3 February 2015).
- ^Singh, Anita (7 August 2010) 'Roald Dahl's secret notebook reveals heartbreak over daughter's death', The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
- ^Gonzalez, Robbie. 'Read Roald Dahl's Powerful Pro-Vaccination Letter'. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
- ^ abc'Roald Dahl on God: The day I lost faith in 'the Boss''. The Telegraph (6 August 2010).
- ^Barry Farrell (1969). Pat and Roald. Kingsport Press.
- ^David Thomson (9 August 2010). 'Patricia Neal: a beauty that cut like a knife'. The Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'Roald Dahl Official website'. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
- ^Lynn F. Pearson Discovering Famous Graves, Osprey Publishing, 2008
- ^Clifton, Tony (1983). 'God Cried'. Quartet Books, 1983
- ^ abcRoald Dahl: A Biography, Jeremy Treglown (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1994), pp. 255–256.
- ^ abMurphy, Simon (6 November 2018). 'Royal Mint rejected Roald Dahl coin over antisemitic views'. the Guardian. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
- ^'Das Roald-Dahl-Museum in Great Missenden', dradio. (in German). 16 November 2008
- ^'Queen's honours refused'. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^Roald Dahl among hundreds who turned down Queen's honours, Walesonline (also published in the Western Mail), 27 January 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
- ^'The New Elizabethans - Roald Dahl'. BBC. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
- ^'Roald Dahl to be posthumously honoured with a Gold Blue Peter badge'. BBC. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
- ^Frances E. Ruffin Meet Roald Dahl. p. 17. The Rosen Publishing Group, 2006
- ^ abDonald, Graeme Sticklers, Sideburns & Bikinis: The Military Origins of Everyday Words and Phrases. Osprey Publishing, 2008
- ^Sasser, Sanford, Jr., ed. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aviation and Space, Volume 6. p. 1094. A.F.E. Press, 1971
- ^Nick Tanner (20 December 2006). 'Dahl's Gremlins fly again, thanks to historian's campaign'. The Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^ abAndrew Maunder The Facts on File Companion to the British Short Story. Infobase Publishing, 2007.
- ^'Roald Dahl Day: From Tales of the Unexpected to Switch Bitch, Dahl's undervalued stories for adults'. The Independent. 6 October 2017.
- ^ abJames Mottram The Sundance kids: how the mavericks took back Hollywood. Macmillan, 2006.
- ^'English Gypsy caravan, Gypsy Wagon, Gypsy Waggon and Vardo: Photograph Gallery 1'. Gypsywaggons.co.uk. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
- ^Dahl, Roald (1975). Danny, the Champion Of The World. p. 13. Random House, 2010.
- ^'Matilda statue stands up to President Donald Trump'. BBC. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
- ^ abcMaunder, Andrew (2007). The Facts on File companion to the British short story. p. 417. ISBN9780816074969. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'Tales of the Unexpected (1979–88)'. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^ abDarrell Schweitzer (1985) Discovering modern horror fiction, Volume 2. Wildside Press LLC, 1985
- ^ abSally Williams (12 September 2006) A plateful of DahlThe Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
- ^Books magazine, Volumes 5–7. Publishing News Ltd. 1991. p. 35. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^''Fantastic Mr. Fox' movie review: Wes Anderson joyfully re-creates Roald Dahl's foxy family'. The Star-Ledger. 21 January 2016.
- ^Jean Marlow (2013). Audition Speeches for 6-16 Year Olds. p. 46. Routledge
- ^Jenny Volvovski, Julia Rothman, Matt Lamothe (2014). The Who, the What, and the When: 65 Artists Illustrate the Secret Sidekicks of History. p. 28. Chronicle Books
- ^ abcd'Dahl's squishous words get their own dictionary'. BBC. 28 May 2016.
- ^AV guide, Volumes 77–82. Scranton Gillette Communications. 1998. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^Roald Dahl Day: my glimpse into the great writer's imagination. The Guardian. Retrieved 22 November 2014
- ^Liz Buckingham, trustee for the Roald Dahl Museum, quoted in Tom Bishop: Willy Wonka's Everlasting Film Plot, BBC News, July 2005
- ^Tom Bishop (July 2005) 'Willy Wonka's Everlasting Film Plot'. BBC News.
- ^Rennay Craats (2003). Roald Dahl. p. 1957. Weigl, 2003
- ^'How Dylan Thomas's writing shed inspired Roald Dahl'. BBC. 18 September 2016.
- ^'Roald Dahl: young tales of the unexpected'. The Daily Telegraph. 30 August 2008. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'Roald Dahl'. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'Mother: Sofie Dahl {influence upon} Roald Dahl'. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'Way Out (TV Series 1961)'. Internet Movie Database. 8 January 2005. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'The Paley Center for Media: Way Out'. The Paley Center for Media. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^McCann 2006, p.156
- ^'BFI: Film and TV Database – Tales of the Unexpected'. BFI. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^Vincent Terrace (1985) Encyclopedia of Television Series, Pilots and Specials: 1974–1984
- ^'Deaths England and Wales 1984–2006'. Findmypast.com. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
- ^'A giant peach of a property in Dahl country'. The Times. 14 July 2015.
- ^Sharron L. McElmeel (1999) '100 most popular children's authors: biographical sketches and bibliographies'. Libraries Unlimited, 1999
- ^Schmadel, Lutz D. (2007). '(6223) Dahl'. Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – (6223) Dahl. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 519. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_5731. ISBN978-3-540-00238-3.
- ^'MPC/MPO/MPS Archive'. Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
- ^'Roald Dahl and the Chinese chip shop'. walesonline. 27 March 2009. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity'. Marvellouschildrenscharity.org. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
- ^Clarie Heald (11 June 2005) 'Chocolate doors thrown open to Dahl'. BBC News.
- ^'Roald Dahl won children's hearts by co-conspiring against adults'. Deutsche Welle. 16 July 2015.
- ^'David Walliams up for Roald Dahl award'. BBC News. 17 September 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'The Roald Dahl Funny Prize'. booktrust.org.uk. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
- ^ ab'South East Wales | Blue plaque marks Dahl sweet shop'. BBC News. 14 September 2009. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
- ^'Roald Dahl plaque for 'Weston-super-Mud''. BBC News. 21 March 2018. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
- ^Flood, Alison (13 September 2010). 'Roald Dahl Day expands into full month of special treats'. The Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'Roald Dahl Day celebrations'. Roald Dahl Museum (roalddahlmuseum.org). Archived from the original on 8 September 2009. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^Roald Dahl's 90th Birthday!, Random House UK. Retrieved 20 September 2007. Archived 5 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^'UK world's best selling children author on Gibraltar stamps'. World Stamp News (worldstampnews.com). 15 May 2010. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
- ^Flood, Alison (9 January 2012). 'Roald Dahl stamps honour classic children's author'. The Guardian. Retrieved 9 January 2012.
Quentin Blake's famous illustrations of The Twits, Matilda and Fantastic Mr Fox all feature on a new series of stamps from the Royal Mail, issued to celebrate the work of Roald Dahl. Out from tomorrow, the stamps also show James and the Giant Peach and The Witches, while a triumphant Charlie Bucket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is brandishing a golden ticket on the new first class stamp.
- ^Burton, Tim, and Mark Salisbury (2006). 'Burton on Burton'. Macmillan. 2nd Revised Edition. ISBN9780571229260. Preview at Google Books, chapter 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', p. 223.
- ^'10 celebrities have picked their favourite Roald Dahl book ready for a public vote'. Wales Online. 6 September 2016.
- ^Holt, Karen, as told to. 'Books That Made a Difference to Scarlett Johansson'. Oprah.com. Retrieved 16 September 2014.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
- ^'Britain's top ten children's literature superstars'. The Independent. Retrieved 1 September 2017
- ^'The Big Read – Top 100 Books'. BBC. Retrieved 16 September 2014. First of two pages. Archived 2 September 2014 by the publisher.
Charles Dickens and Terry Pratchett led with five of the Top 100. The four extant Harry Potter novels all made the Top 25. The Dahl novels were Charlie, The BFG, Matilda, and The Twits. - ^'Roald Dahl voted best author in primary teachers survey'. BBC. 30 March 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2015. In this survey of primary school teachers Dahl also placed five books in the top ten: Charlie, The Twits, Danny the Champion of the World, The BFG, and George's Marvellous Medicine.
- ^Brown, Kat (2 March 2015). 'Survey reveals 50 books that every child should read by 16'. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 16 July 2015. 'Roald Dahl is still king of children's literature according to a survey for World Book Day.'
- ^Higgins, Charlotte (31 January 2006). 'From Beatrix Potter to Ulysses .. what the top writers say every child should read'. The Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^Bird, Elizabeth (7 July 2012). 'Top 100 Chapter Book Poll Results'. A Fuse #8 Production. Blog. School Library Journal (blog.schoollibraryjournal.com). Retrieved 29 October 2015.
- ^'New faces on Sgt Pepper album cover for artist Peter Blake's 80th birthday'. The Guardian. 5 October 2016.
- ^'Sir Peter Blake's new Beatles' Sgt Pepper's album cover'. BBC News. 9 November 2016.
- ^'Banksy and Yate-born JK Rowling make list of 50 greatest storytellers of all time'. Bristol Post. Retrieved 1 September 2017
- ^'Norwegian Dreamliner takes off with new Jane Austen adorned tail fin for first time'. Daily Mirror. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
- ^Caswell, Mark. 'Freddie Mercury unveiled as Norwegian's latest tail fin hero'. Business Traveller.com. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
Further reading
- Philip Howard, 'Dahl, Roald (1916–1990)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006. Retrieved 24 May 2006
- Donald Sturrock, Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl, Simon & Schuster, 2010. ISBN978-1416550822 (See the link to excerpts in 'External Links', below.)
- Andrea Shavick, Roald Dahl: The Champion Storyteller. Oxford University Press, 1997
- Jeremy Treglown, Roald Dahl: A Biography, Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1994. ISBN978-0374251307
- Jason Hook, Roald Dahl: The Storyteller, Raintree, 2004
- Jacob M. Held, Roald Dahl and Philosophy: A Little Nonsense Now and Then. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014
- Jennifer Boothroyd, Roald Dahl: A Life of Imagination. Lerner Publications, 2008
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Roald Dahl. |
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Roald Dahl |
- Official website
- Roald Dahl at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Roald Dahl on IMDb
- Roald Dahl at Library of Congress Authorities, with 155 catalogue records
- Works by Roald Dahl at Open Library
- Radio interview by NRK (1975)‹See Tfd›(in Norwegian)
- 'The Devious Bachelor', Sunday Book Review of The Irregulars, Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington by Jennet Conant, The New York Times, 17 October 2008
- Profile of Patricia Neal (2011) on Voice of America (VOAnews.com), with transcript
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Roald_Dahl&oldid=903192698'
'Man from the South' | |
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Author | Roald Dahl |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre(s) | Fiction |
Published in | Collier's |
Publication type | Magazine |
Publication date | 1948 |
Published in English | 1948 |
Felicity D'abreu Crosland
'Man from the South' is a short story by Roald Dahl originally published in Collier's in 1948. It has been adapted several times for television and film, including a 1960 version starring Steve McQueen and Peter Lorre.
Plot synopsis[edit]
While vacationing at a resort in Jamaica, the narrator encounters an elderly South American man named Carlos. They are soon joined by a young American naval cadet, who boasts about the reliability of his cigarette lighter. Carlos offers to bet his Cadillac against the American's left little finger that the American cannot ignite the lighter ten times in a row. The American accepts, with the narrator agreeing to act as referee and hold the car key, and they adjourn to Carlos' room.
After Carlos has a maid bring in the necessary supplies, he ties the American's left wrist to the table and the challenge begins. After the eighth successful strike, a woman bursts into the room and forces Carlos to drop the knife he has held ready to sever the American's finger. She explains that Carlos is mentally disturbed, having played this game so often in their home country that they had to flee in order to keep the authorities from committing him to a psychiatric hospital. He has taken 47 fingers and lost 11 cars, but no longer has anything of his own to bet with; she won it all from him long ago, including the car he claimed to own. As the narrator offers the key to her, she reaches out to take it with a hand that has only its thumb and one finger still attached.
Television adaptations[edit]
'Man from the South' | |
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Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode | |
Episode no. | Season 5 Episode 15 |
Directed by | Norman Lloyd |
Story by | Roald Dahl |
Teleplay by | William Fay |
Original air date | January 3, 1960 |
Guest appearance(s) | |
Steve McQueen Peter Lorre Neile Adams Tyler McVey Marc Cavell Katherine Squire Phil Gordon Alfred Hitchcock |
This short story was filmed as a 1960 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents starring Steve McQueen as the reluctant young gambler, Peter Lorre as Carlos, the man who bets his car, and Neile Adams (McQueen's real life wife) as a woman McQueen's character meets. It takes place in Las Vegas, Nevada. The car itself is merely described as a convertible. Although she is wearing gloves, her index, middle, and ring fingers are missing. In this adaptation, as part of the dramatic denouement after the woman appears and effectively aborts the bet, the gambler (McQueen) tries to relieve the stress of the young woman (Adams) by lighting her cigarette. The lighter fails to start when flicked for this however, a sly indicator of how narrowly the gambler avoided losing the bet.
- 1960 cast
- Alfred Hitchcock as the Host
- Steve McQueen as the Gambler
- Peter Lorre as Carlos
- Neile Adams as a Woman
- Tyler McVey as the Referee
- Marc Cavell as the Bellhop
- Katherine Squire as Carlos' Wife
- Phil Gordon as the Bartender
'Man from the South' | |
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'Tales of the Unexpected' episode | |
Story by | Roald Dahl |
Original air date | 1979 |
Guest appearance(s) | |
Jose Ferrer Pamela Stephenson Michael Ontkean Cyril Luckham Katy Jurado Roald Dahl |
The episode was remade in 1979 as the first episode of Dahl's television anthology seriesTales of the Unexpected. In this version, the car was a Jaguar.
- 1979 cast
- Roald Dahl as the Host
- Jose Ferrer as Carlos
- Pamela Stephenson as Cathy
- Michael Ontkean as an American Sailor
- Cyril Luckham as Rawlsden
- Katy Jurado as the Mysterious Woman
'Pilot' | |
---|---|
'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' episode | |
Directed by | Steve De Jarnatt |
Story by | Roald Dahl |
Original air date | 1985 |
Guest appearance(s) | |
John Huston Melanie Griffith Steven Bauer Tippi Hedren Kim Novak Jack Thibeau Danny De La Paz |
The episode was remade again for the 1985 series Alfred Hitchcock Presents with Steven Bauer in McQueen's role, John Huston as Carlos, and Melanie Griffith (Bauer's wife at the time), Kim Novak, and Tippi Hedren (Griffith's mother). In this adaptation, the lighter successfully lights ten times. When the wife comes in, the tenth flame is blown out. Carlos is startled and drops the cleaver, nearly cutting off the young man's finger. After it is all over, he attempts to light himself a cigarette—and the lighter fails. The wife has only her index finger left.
- 1985 cast
- Alfred Hitchcock as the Host (colorized 1960 introduction)
- John Huston as Carlos
- Melanie Griffith as the Girl
- Steven Bauer as the Gambler
- Tippi Hedren as the Waitress
- Kim Novak as Rosa
- Jack Thibeau as Bronson
- Danny De La Paz as the Bellhop
Radio adaptations[edit]
In 2009, it was dramatized on BBC Radio Four with Andrew Sachs playing the sinister old man.
In 1949, the Dahl story was adapted by June Thomson for an episode of Radio City Playhouse. The adaptation, titled 'Collector's Item', split the 30 minute run time with an adaptation of a Ray Bradbury story, titled 'The Lake'. Shortly after meeting in the bar, Carlos offers the gambler his green 1948 Cadillac parked outside. Due to the tastes of the time, some of the more grisly details were omitted from the presentation. The independent observer (the 'referee') character realizes the female is a victim of the gambler, but we do not learn the exact details of the gambler's previous bets.[1]
The scene is also parodied in an episode of American Dad!, 'Stan's Night Out'. Stan Smith wagers his life and the lives of three men against starting a lawn mower ten times, believing he would be able to do it as he had seen a television show which instructed him how to start a lawn mower 'the first time, every time'. Despite this, he fails on his first go.
Film adaptations[edit]
Dahl's story was adapted for a scene from the 1980 Tamil movie Ninaithale Inikkum, which involved a wager by a millionaire that a young man could not flick a cigarette into his lips ten times in a row without dropping it. The millionaire had put up his Toyota car against the young man's little finger. The young man managed it nine times in a row, but chickened out and refused a tenth attempt, thereby defaulting on the wager. The cigarette flick, in fact, was a signature move by iconic Tamil actor Rajinikanth.[citation needed]
The story was also the basis for 'The Man From Hollywood', the Quentin Tarantino-directed segment of the 1995 film Four Rooms. The characters in this segment explicitly discuss the 1960 Hitchcock episode adaptation, although they incorrectly refer to the title as 'The Man from Rio'. In this version, the lighter fails on the first try and the referee - a bellhop who has been paid $1,000 for his trouble - chops off the finger and swiftly departs.
- 1995 cast (as part of Four Rooms)
- Quentin Tarantino as Chester Rush, who offers the bet
- Jennifer Beals as Angela
- Tim Roth as Ted the Bellhop, who acts as referee and axe-man
- Paul Calderón as Norman, who accepts the bet
- Bruce Willis as Leo (uncredited)
'Cut', a segment of the 2004 film Three..Extremes (directed by Chanwook Park), was also inspired by the story.
A modified version of the story entitled RCP 5 was filmed by the Rice Christian Collaborative in 2015. In this version, the terms of the bet are ramped up to create a greater sense of jeopardy. [2]
References[edit]
- ^'Radio City Playhouse'. Radio Days. Retrieved 2014-07-27.
- ^Christian, Rice. 'RCP 5'. Youtube. Rice Christian Collaborative.
External links[edit]
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents 'Man from the South' (1960) on IMDb
- Tales of the Unexpected 'Man from the South' (1979) on IMDb
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents 'Pilot' (1985) on IMDb
- Four Rooms 'The Man from Hollywood' (1995) on IMDb
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Man_from_the_South&oldid=889353570'
Dahl in 1954 | |
Born | 13 September 1916 Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales |
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Died | 23 November 1990 (aged 74) Oxford, England |
Occupation | Novelist, poet, screenwriter |
Education | The Cathedral School, Llandaff St Peter's School, Weston-super-Mare Repton School |
Period | 1942–1990 |
Genre | Fantasy, suspense |
Spouse |
|
Children | 5, including Tessa, Ophelia and Lucy |
Relatives | Sophie and Phoebe Dahl (granddaughters) Nicholas Logsdail (nephew) |
Military career | |
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Branch | Royal Air Force |
Service years | 1939–1946 |
Rank | Squadron leader |
Service number | 774022 (aircrew) 84990 (commissioned) |
Wars |
Roald Dahl (/ˈroʊ.əldˈdɑːl/;[1] 13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and fighter pilot.[2] His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide.[3]
Born in Wales to Norwegian immigrant parents, Dahl served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He became a flying ace and intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing commander. He rose to prominence as a writer in the 1940s with works for both children and adults, and he became one of the world's best-selling authors.[4][5] He has been referred to as 'one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century'.[6] His awards for contribution to literature include the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, and the British Book Awards' Children's Author of the Year in 1990. In 2008, The Times placed Dahl 16th on its list of 'The 50 greatest British writers since 1945'.[7]
Dahl's short stories are known for their unexpected endings, and his children's books for their unsentimental, macabre, often darkly comic mood, featuring villainous adult enemies of the child characters.[8][9] His books champion the kindhearted, and feature an underlying warm sentiment.[10][11] Dahl's works for children include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG, The Twits and George's Marvellous Medicine. His adult works include Tales of the Unexpected.
- 1Early life
- 5Writing
- 7Filmography
Early life
Childhood
Roald Dahl was born in 1916 at Villa Marie, Fairwater Road, in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, to Norwegian parents, Harald Dahl and Sofie Magdalene Dahl (née Hesselberg).[12] Dahl's father had emigrated to the UK from Sarpsborg in Norway, and settled in Cardiff in the 1880s with his first wife, a Frenchwoman named Marie Beaurin-Gresser. They had two children together, Ellen Marguerite and Louis, before her death in 1907.[13] His mother came over and married his father in 1911. Dahl was named after the Norwegian polar explorerRoald Amundsen. His first language was Norwegian, which he spoke at home with his parents and his sisters Astri, Alfhild, and Else. Dahl and his sisters were raised in the Lutheran faith, and were baptised at the Norwegian Church, Cardiff, where their parents worshipped.[14]
Mrs Pratchett's former sweet shop in Llandaff, Cardiff, has a blue plaque commemorating the mischief played by young Roald Dahl and his friends, who were regular customers.[15]
In 1920, when Dahl was three years old, his seven-year-old sister, Astri, died from appendicitis. Weeks later, his father died of pneumonia at the age of 57.[16] Later that year, his younger sister Asta was born.[13] With the option of returning to Norway to live with relatives, Dahl's mother decided to remain in Wales. Her husband Harald had wanted their children to be educated in English schools, which he considered the world's best.[17]
Dahl first attended the Cathedral School, Llandaff. At the age of eight, he and four of his friends (one named Thwaites) were caned by the headmaster after putting a dead mouse in a jar of gobstoppers at the local sweet shop,[6] which was owned by a 'mean and loathsome' old woman called Mrs Pratchett.[6] The five boys named their prank the 'Great Mouse Plot of 1924'.[18] Gobstoppers were a favourite sweet among British schoolboys between the two World Wars, and Dahl would refer to them in his creation, Everlasting Gobstopper, which was featured in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.[19]
Dahl transferred to a boarding school in England: St Peter's in Weston-super-Mare. His parents had wanted him to be educated at an English public school and, because of the regular ferry link across the Bristol Channel, this proved to be the nearest. Dahl's time at St Peter's was unpleasant; he was very homesick and wrote to his mother every week but never revealed his unhappiness to her. After her death in 1967, he learned that she had saved every one of his letters, in small bundles held together with green tape.[20] In 2016, to mark the centenary of Dahl's birth, his letters to his mother were abridged and broadcast as BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week.[21] Dahl wrote about his time at St Peter's in his autobiography Boy: Tales of Childhood.[22]
Repton School
Dahl attended Repton School in Derbyshire from 1929 to 1934
From 1929, when he was 13, Dahl attended Repton School in Derbyshire. Dahl disliked the hazing and described an environment of ritual cruelty and status domination, with younger boys having to act as personal servants for older boys, frequently subject to terrible beatings. His biographer Donald Sturrock described these violent experiences in Dahl's early life.[23] Dahl expresses some of these darker experiences in his writings, which is also marked by his hatred of cruelty and corporal punishment.[24] According to Boy: Tales of Childhood, a friend named Michael was viciously caned by headmaster Geoffrey Fisher. Writing in that same book, Dahl reflected: “All through my school life I was appalled by the fact that masters and senior boys were allowed literally to wound other boys, and sometimes quite severely.. I couldn’t get over it. I never have got over it.”[25] The master was later selected as the Archbishop of Canterbury and crownedQueen Elizabeth II in 1953. (According to Dahl's biographer Jeremy Treglown,[26] the caning took place in May 1933, a year after Fisher had left Repton; the headmaster was in fact J. T. Christie, Fisher's successor.) Dahl said the incident caused him to 'have doubts about religion and even about God'.[27]
He was never seen as a particularly talented writer in his school years, with one of his English teachers writing in his school report 'I have never met anybody who so persistently writes words meaning the exact opposite of what is intended.'[28] Dahl was exceptionally tall, reaching 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) in adult life.[29] He played sports including cricket, football and golf, and was made captain of the squash team.[30] As well as having a passion for literature, he developed an interest in photography and often carried a camera with him.[16]
During his years at Repton, the Cadbury chocolate company would occasionally send boxes of new chocolates to the school to be tested by the pupils.[31] Dahl would dream of inventing a new chocolate bar that would win the praise of Mr Cadbury himself; this inspired him in writing his third children's book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), and to refer to chocolate in other children's books.[32]
Throughout his childhood and adolescent years, Dahl spent the majority of his summer holidays with his mother's family in Norway. He wrote about many happy memories from those visits in Boy: Tales of Childhood, such as when he replaced the tobacco in his half–sister's fiancé's pipe with goat droppings.[33] He noted only one unhappy memory of his holidays in Norway: at around the age of eight, he had to have his adenoids removed by a doctor.[34] His childhood and first job selling kerosene in Midsomer Norton and surrounding villages in Somerset are subjects in Boy: Tales of Childhood.[35]
After school
After finishing his schooling, in August 1934 Dahl crossed the Atlantic on the RMS Nova Scotia and hiked through Newfoundland with the Public Schools Exploring Society.[36][37]
In July 1934, Dahl joined the Shell Petroleum Company. Following two years of training in the United Kingdom, he was assigned first to Mombasa, Kenya, then to Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika (now Tanzania). Along with the only two other Shell employees in the entire territory, he lived in luxury in the Shell House outside Dar es Salaam, with a cook and personal servants. While out on assignments supplying oil to customers across Tanganyika, he encountered black mambas and lions, among other wildlife.[27]
Fighter ace
Dahl's leather flying helmet on display in the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Great Missenden
In August 1939, as the Second World War loomed, the British made plans to round up the hundreds of Germans living in Dar-es-Salaam. Dahl was commissioned as a lieutenant into the King's African Rifles, commanding a platoon of Askari men, indigenous troops who were serving in the colonial army.[38]
In November 1939, Dahl joined the Royal Air Force as an aircraftman with service number 774022.[39] After a 600-mile (970 km) car journey from Dar es Salaam to Nairobi, he was accepted for flight training with sixteen other men, among whom only three survived the war. With seven hours and 40 minutes experience in a De Havilland Tiger Moth, he flew solo;[40] Dahl enjoyed watching the wildlife of Kenya during his flights. He continued to advanced flying training in Iraq, at RAF Habbaniya, 50 miles (80 km) west of Baghdad. Following six months' training on Hawker Harts, Dahl was commissioned as a pilot officer on 24 August 1940, and was judged ready to join a squadron and face the enemy.[39][41]
Dahl was flying a Gloster Gladiator when he crash landed in Libya
He was assigned to No. 80 Squadron RAF, flying obsolete Gloster Gladiators, the last biplanefighter aircraft used by the RAF. Dahl was surprised to find that he would not receive any specialised training in aerial combat, or in flying Gladiators. On 19 September 1940, Dahl was ordered to fly his Gladiator by stages from Abu Sueir (near Ismailia, in Egypt) to 80 Squadron's forward airstrip 30 miles (48 km) south of Mersa Matruh. On the final leg he could not find the airstrip and, running low on fuel and with night approaching, he was forced to attempt a landing in the desert.[42] The undercarriage hit a boulder and the aircraft crashed. Dahl's skull was fractured and his nose was smashed; he was temporarily blinded.[43] He managed to drag himself away from the blazing wreckage and passed out. He wrote about the crash in his first published work.[43]
Dahl was rescued and taken to a first-aid post in Mersa Matruh, where he regained consciousness, but not his sight. He was transported by train to the Royal Navy hospital in Alexandria. There he fell in and out of love with a nurse, Mary Welland. A RAF inquiry into the crash revealed that the location to which he had been told to fly was completely wrong, and he had mistakenly been sent instead to the no man's land between the Allied and Italian forces.[44]
A Hawker Hurricane Mk 1, the aircraft type in which Dahl engaged in aerial combat over Greece.
In February 1941, Dahl was discharged from hospital and passed fully fit for flying duties. By this time, 80 Squadron had been transferred to the Greek campaign and based at Eleusina, near Athens. The squadron was now equipped with Hawker Hurricanes. Dahl flew a replacement Hurricane across the Mediterranean Sea in April 1941, after seven hours' experience flying Hurricanes. By this stage in the Greek campaign, the RAF had only 18 combat aircraft in Greece: 14 Hurricanes and four Bristol Blenheim light bombers. Dahl flew in his first aerial combat on 15 April 1941, while flying alone over the city of Chalcis. He attacked six Junkers Ju 88s that were bombing ships and shot one down. On 16 April in another air battle, he shot down another Ju 88.[45]
On 20 April 1941, Dahl took part in the Battle of Athens, alongside the highest-scoring British Commonwealth ace of World War II, Pat Pattle, and Dahl's friend David Coke. Of 12 Hurricanes involved, five were shot down and four of their pilots killed, including Pattle. Greek observers on the ground counted 22 German aircraft downed, but because of the confusion of the aerial engagement, none of the pilots knew which aircraft they had shot down. Dahl described it as 'an endless blur of enemy fighters whizzing towards me from every side'.[46][47]
In May, as the Germans were pressing on Athens, Dahl was evacuated to Egypt. His squadron was reassembled in Haifa. From there, Dahl flew sorties every day for a period of four weeks, shooting down a Vichy French Air ForcePotez 63 on 8 June and another Ju 88 on 15 June, but he began to get severe headaches that caused him to black out. He was invalided home to Britain. Though at this time Dahl was only a pilot officer on probation, in September 1941 he was simultaneously confirmed as a pilot officer and promoted to war substantive flying officer.[48]
Diplomat, writer and intelligence officer
After being invalided home, Dahl was posted to an RAF training camp in Uxbridge. He attempted to recover his health enough to become an instructor.[49] In late March 1942, while in London, he met the Under-Secretary of State for Air, Major Harold Balfour, at his club. Impressed by Dahl's war record and conversational abilities, Balfour appointed the young man as assistant air attaché at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. Initially resistant, Dahl was finally persuaded by Balfour to accept, and took passage on the SS Batori from Glasgow a few days later. He arrived in Halifax, Canada, on 14 April, after which he took a sleeper train to Montreal.[50]
Coming from war-starved Britain, Dahl was amazed by the wealth of food and amenities to be had in North America.[51] Arriving in Washington a week later, Dahl found he liked the atmosphere of the US capital. He shared a house with another attaché at 1610 34th Street, NW, in Georgetown. But after ten days in his new posting, Dahl strongly disliked it, feeling he had taken on 'a most ungodly unimportant job'.[52] He later explained, 'I'd just come from the war. People were getting killed. I had been flying around, seeing horrible things. Now, almost instantly, I found myself in the middle of a pre-war cocktail party in America.'[53]
Dahl was unimpressed by his office in the British Air Mission, attached to the embassy. He was also unimpressed by the ambassador, Lord Halifax, with whom he sometimes played tennis and whom he described as 'a courtly English gentleman'. Dahl socialized with Charles E. Marsh, a Texas publisher and oilman, at his house at 2136 R Street, NW, and the Marsh country estate in Virginia.[44][54] As part of his duties as assistant air attaché, Dahl was to help neutralise the isolationist views still held by many Americans by giving pro-British speeches and discussing his war service; the United States had entered the war only the previous December, following the attack on Pearl Harbor.[55]
At this time Dahl met the noted British novelist C. S. Forester, who was also working to aid the British war effort. Forester worked for the British Ministry of Information and was writing propaganda for the Allied cause, mainly for American consumption.[56]The Saturday Evening Post had asked Forester to write a story based on Dahl's flying experiences; Forester asked Dahl to write down some RAF anecdotes so that he could shape them into a story. After Forester read what Dahl had given him, he decided to publish the story exactly as Dahl had written it.[57] He originally titled the article as 'A Piece of Cake' but the magazine changed it to 'Shot Down Over Libya' to make it sound more dramatic, although Dahl had not been shot down; it was published in the 1 August 1942 issue of the Post. Dahl was promoted to flight lieutenant (war-substantive) in August 1942.[58] Later he worked with such other well-known British officers as Ian Fleming (who later published the popular James Bond series) and David Ogilvy, promoting Britain's interests and message in the US and combating the 'America First' movement.[55]
This work introduced Dahl to espionage and the activities of the Canadian spymaster William Stephenson, known by the codename 'Intrepid'.[59] During the war, Dahl supplied intelligence from Washington to Prime Minister Winston Churchill. As Dahl later said: 'My job was to try to help Winston to get on with FDR, and tell Winston what was in the old boy's mind.'[57] Dahl also supplied intelligence to Stephenson and his organisation, known as British Security Coordination, which was part of MI6.[54] Dahl was once sent back to Britain by British Embassy officials, supposedly for misconduct—'I got booted out by the big boys,' he said. Stephenson promptly sent him back to Washington—with a promotion to wing commander rank.[60] Toward the end of the war, Dahl wrote some of the history of the secret organisation; he and Stephenson remained friends for decades after the war.[61]
Upon the war's conclusion, Dahl held the rank of a temporary wing commander (substantive flight lieutenant). Owing to the severity of his injuries from the 1940 accident, he was pronounced unfit for further service and was invalided out of the RAF in August 1946. He left the service with the substantive rank of squadron leader.[62] His record of five aerial victories, qualifying him as a flying ace, has been confirmed by post-war research and cross-referenced in Axis records. It is most likely that he scored more than those victories during 20 April 1941, when 22 German aircraft were shot down.[63]
Post-war life
Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl
Dahl married American actress Patricia Neal on 2 July 1953 at Trinity Church in New York City. Their marriage lasted for 30 years and they had five children:
- Olivia Twenty (20 April 1955 – 17 November 1962);
- Chantal Sophia 'Tessa' (born 1957), who became an author, and mother of author, cookbook writer and former model Sophie Dahl (after whom Sophie in The BFG is named).;[64]
- Theo Matthew (born 1960);
- Ophelia Magdalena (born 1964);
- and Lucy Neal (born 1965).[65]
On 5 December 1960, four-month-old Theo Dahl was severely injured when his baby carriage was struck by a taxicab in New York City. For a time, he suffered from hydrocephalus. As a result, his father became involved in the development of what became known as the 'Wade-Dahl-Till' (or WDT) valve, a device to improve the shunt used alleviate the condition.[66][67] The valve was a collaboration between Dahl, hydraulic engineer Stanley Wade, and London's Great Ormond Street Hospital neurosurgeon Kenneth Till, and was used successfully on almost 3,000 children around the world.[68]
In November 1962, Dahl's daughter Olivia died of measles encephalitis, age seven. Her death left Dahl 'limp with despair', and feeling guilty about not having been able to do anything for her.[68] Dahl subsequently became a proponent of immunisation and dedicated his 1982 book The BFG to his daughter.[69][70] After Olivia's death and a meeting with a Church official, Dahl came to view Christianity as a sham.[71] While mourning her loss, he had sought spiritual guidance from Geoffrey Fisher, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. He was dismayed by Fisher telling him that, although Olivia was in Paradise, her beloved dog Rowley would never join her there.[71] Dahl recalled years later: “I wanted to ask him how he could be so absolutely sure that other creatures did not get the same special treatment as us. I sat there wondering if this great and famous churchman really knew what he was talking about and whether he knew anything at all about God or heaven, and if he didn't, then who in the world did?[71]
In 1965, his wife Patricia Neal suffered three burst cerebral aneurysms while pregnant with their fifth child, Lucy. Dahl took control of her rehabilitation over the next months; Neal had to re-learn to talk and walk, but she managed to return to her acting career.[72] This period of their lives was dramatised in the film The Patricia Neal Story (1981), in which the couple were played by Glenda Jackson and Dirk Bogarde.[73]
Dahl signing books in Amsterdam, Netherlands, October 1988
Neal and Dahl divorced in 1983. He married Felicity d'Abreu Crosland, niece of Francis D'Abreu who was married to Margaret Ann Bowes Lyon - 1st cousin of the late Queen Mother, at Brixton Town Hall, South London. Dahl and Crosland had previously been in a relationship.[74] Felicity (known as Liccy) gave up her job and moved into 'Gipsy House', Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire, which had been Dahl's home since 1954.[75]
In 1983 Dahl reviewed Tony Clifton's God Cried, a picture book about the siege of West Beirut by the Israeli army during the 1982 Lebanon War.[76] He wrote that the book would make readers 'violently anti-Israeli', stating: 'I am not anti-Semitic. I am anti-Israel.'[77] Dahl told a reporter in 1983: 'There's a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity .. I mean there is always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn't just pick on them for no reason.'[77] In 1990, during an interview with The Independent, Dahl explained that his issue with Israel began when they invaded Lebanon in 1982: “they killed 22,000 civilians when they bombed Beirut. It was very much hushed up in the newspapers because they are primarily Jewish-owned. I’m certainly anti-Israeli and I’ve become antisemitic in as much as that you get a Jewish person in another country like England strongly supporting Zionism.”[78] As a result of these views, in 2014 the Royal Mint decided not to produce a coin to commemorate the centenary of Dahl's birth because he was considered to be 'associated with antisemitism and not regarded as an author of the highest reputation'.[78] Dahl had Jewish friends, including philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin, who commented: 'I thought he might say anything. Could have been pro-Arab or pro-Jew. There was no consistent line. He was a man who followed whims, which meant he would blow up in one direction, so to speak.'[77] Amelia Foster, director of the Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden, says: 'This is again an example of how Dahl refused to take anything seriously, even himself. He was very angry at the Israelis. He had a childish reaction to what was going on in Israel. Dahl wanted to provoke, as he always provoked at dinner. His publisher was a Jew, his agent was a Jew.. and he thought nothing but good things of them. He asked me to be his managing director, and I'm Jewish.'[79]
In the 1986 New Years Honours List, Dahl was offered an appointment to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), but turned it down. He reportedly wanted a knighthood so that his wife would be Lady Dahl.[80][81] In 2012, Dahl was featured in the list of The New Elizabethans to mark the diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. A panel of seven academics, journalists and historians named Dahl among the group of people in the UK 'whose actions during the reign of Elizabeth II have had a significant impact on lives in these islands and given the age its character'.[82] In September 2016, his daughter Lucy received the BBC’s Blue PeterGold badge in his honour, the first time it has ever been awarded posthumously.[83]
Writing
Roald Dahl's story 'The Devious Bachelor' was illustrated by Frederick Siebel when it was published in Collier's (September 1953).
Dahl's first published work, inspired by a meeting with C. S. Forester, was 'A Piece of Cake', on 1 August 1942. The story, about his wartime adventures, was bought by The Saturday Evening Post for US$1,000 (a substantial sum in 1942) and published under the title 'Shot Down Over Libya'.[84]
His first children's book was The Gremlins, published in 1943, about mischievous little creatures that were part of Royal Air Force folklore.[85] The RAF pilots blamed the gremlins for all the problems with the aircraft.[86] While at the British Embassy in Washington, Dahl sent a copy to the First LadyEleanor Roosevelt who read it to her grandchildren,[85] and the book was commissioned by Walt Disney for a film that was never made.[87] Dahl went on to create some of the best-loved children's stories of the 20th century, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG, The Twits and George's Marvellous Medicine.[6]
Dahl also had a successful parallel career as the writer of macabre adult short stories, which often blended humour and innocence with surprising plot twists.[88] The Mystery Writers of America presented Dahl with three Edgar Awards for his work, and many were originally written for American magazines such as Collier's ('The Collector's Item' was Collier's Star Story of the week for 4 September 1948), Ladies Home Journal, Harper's, Playboy and The New Yorker.[89] Works such as Kiss Kiss subsequently collected Dahl's stories into anthologies, and gained significant popularity. Dahl wrote more than 60 short stories; they have appeared in numerous collections, some only being published in book form after his death (see List of Roald Dahl short stories). His three Edgar Awards were given for: in 1954, the collection Someone Like You; in 1959, the story 'The Landlady'; and in 1980, the episode of Tales of the Unexpected based on 'Skin'.[88]
Roald Dahl's vardo in the garden of his house, 'Gipsy Cottage', in Great Missenden, where he wrote Danny, the Champion of the World in 1975.
One of his more famous adult stories, 'The Smoker', also known as 'Man from the South', was filmed twice as both 1960 and 1985 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and also adapted into Quentin Tarantino's segment of the 1995 film Four Rooms.[90] This oft-anthologised classic concerns a man in Jamaica who wagers with visitors in an attempt to claim the fingers from their hands. The 1960 Hitchcock version stars Steve McQueen and Peter Lorre.[90]
Dahl acquired a traditional Romanichalvardo in the 1960s, and the family used it as a playhouse for his children at home in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. He later used the vardo as a writing room, where he wrote Danny, the Champion of the World in 1975.[91] Dahl incorporated a Gypsy wagon into the main plot of the book, where the young English boy, Danny, and his father, William (played by Jeremy Irons in the film adaptation) live in a vardo.[92] Many other scenes and characters from Great Missenden are reflected in his work. For example, the village library was the inspiration for Mrs Phelps' library in Matilda, where the title character devours classic literature by the age of four.[93]
His short story collection Tales of the Unexpected was adapted to a successful TV series of the same name, beginning with Man From the South.[94] When the stock of Dahl's own original stories was exhausted, the series continued by adapting stories by authors that were written in Dahl's style, including the writers John Collier and Stanley Ellin.[95]
Some of his short stories are supposed to be extracts from the diary of his (fictional) Uncle Oswald, a rich gentleman whose sexual exploits form the subject of these stories.[96] In his novel My Uncle Oswald, the uncle engages a temptress to seduce 20th century geniuses and royalty with a love potion secretly added to chocolate truffles made by Dahl's favourite chocolate shop, Prestat of Piccadilly, London.[96]Memories with Food at Gipsy House, written with his wife Felicity and published posthumously in 1991, was a mixture of recipes, family reminiscences and Dahl's musings on favourite subjects such as chocolate, onions and claret.[97][98]
Children's fiction
'He [Dahl] was mischievous. A grown-up being mischievous. He addresses you, a child, as somebody who knows about the world. He was a grown-up – and he was bigger than most – who is on your side. That must have something to do with it.'
—Illustrator Quentin Blake on the lasting appeal of Dahl's children's books.[6]
Dahl's children's works are usually told from the point of view of a child. They typically involve adult villains who hate and mistreat children, and feature at least one 'good' adult to counteract the villain(s).[6] These stock characters are possibly a reference to the abuse that Dahl stated that he experienced in the boarding schools he attended.[6] Dahl's books see the triumph of the child; children's book critic Amanda Craig said, 'He was unequivocal that it is the good, young and kind who triumph over the old, greedy and the wicked.'[11] While his whimsical fantasy stories feature an underlying warm sentiment, they are often juxtaposed with grotesque, darkly comic and sometimes harshly violent scenarios.[8][10]The Witches, George's Marvellous Medicine and Matilda are examples of this formula. The BFG follows it in a more analogous way with the good giant (the BFG or 'Big Friendly Giant') representing the 'good adult' archetype and the other giants being the 'bad adults'. This formula is also somewhat evident in Dahl's film script for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Class-conscious themes also surface in works such as Fantastic Mr Fox and Danny, the Champion of the World where the unpleasant wealthy neighbours are outwitted.[57][99]
Dahl also features characters who are very fat, usually children. Augustus Gloop, Bruce Bogtrotter and Bruno Jenkins are a few of these characters, although an enormous woman named Aunt Sponge features in James and the Giant Peach and the nasty farmer Boggis in Fantastic Mr Fox is an enormously fat character. All of these characters (with the possible exception of Bruce Bogtrotter) are either villains or simply unpleasant gluttons. They are usually punished for this: Augustus Gloop drinks from Willy Wonka's chocolate river, disregarding the adults who tell him not to, and falls in, getting sucked up a pipe and nearly being turned into fudge. In Matilda, Bruce Bogtrotter steals cake from the evil headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, and is forced to eat a gigantic chocolate cake in front of the school. In The Witches, Bruno Jenkins is lured by the witches (whose leader is the Grand High Witch) into their convention with the promise of chocolate, before they turn him into a mouse.[100] Aunt Sponge is flattened by a giant peach. When Dahl was a boy his mother used to tell him and his sisters tales about trolls and other mythical Norwegian creatures and some of his children's books contain references or elements inspired by these stories, such as the giants in The BFG, the fox family in Fantastic Mr Fox and the trolls in The Minpins.[101]
Receiving the 1983 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, Dahl encouraged his children and his readers to let their imagination run free. His daughter Lucy stated 'his spirit was so large and so big he taught us to believe in magic.'[57]
Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.
Dahl was also famous for his inventive, playful use of language, which was a key element to his writing. He would invent new words by scribbling down his words before swapping letters around and adopting spoonerisms and malapropisms.[102] The lexicographer Dr Susan Rennie stated that Dahl built his new words on familiar sounds, adding:
He didn't always explain what his words meant, but children can work them out because they often sound like a word they know, and he loved using onomatopoeia. For example, you know that something lickswishy and delumptious is good to eat, whereas something uckyslush or rotsome is not definitely not! He also used sounds that children love to say, like squishous and squizzle, or fizzlecrump and fizzwiggler.[102]
In 2016, marking the centenary of Dahl's birth, Rennie compiled The Oxford Roald Dahl Dictionary which includes many of his invented words and their meaning.[102] Rennie commented that some of Dahl's words have already escaped his world, for example, Scrumdiddlyumptious: 'Food that is utterly delicious'.[102] In his poetry, Dahl gives a humorous re-interpretation of well-known nursery rhymes and fairy tales, providing surprise endings in place of the traditional happily-ever-after. Dahl's collection of poems Revolting Rhymes is recorded in audiobook form, and narrated by actor Alan Cumming.[103]
Screenplays
For a brief period in the 1960s, Dahl wrote screenplays. Two, the James Bond film You Only Live Twice and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, were adaptations of novels by Ian Fleming.[104] Dahl also began adapting his own novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was completed and rewritten by David Seltzer after Dahl failed to meet deadlines, and produced as the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). Dahl later disowned the film, saying he was 'disappointed' because 'he thought it placed too much emphasis on Willy Wonka and not enough on Charlie'.[105] He was also 'infuriated' by the deviations in the plot devised by David Seltzer in his draft of the screenplay. This resulted in his refusal for any more versions of the book to be made in his lifetime, as well as an adaptation for the sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.[106]
Influences
Interior of Dylan Thomas's writing shed. Dahl made a replica of it in his own garden in Great Missenden where he wrote many of his stories
A major part of Dahl's literary influences stemmed from his childhood. In his younger days, he was an avid reader, especially awed by fantastic tales of heroism and triumph. Amongst his favourite authors were Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray and Frederick Marryat, and their works went on to make a lasting mark on his life and writing.[107] Finding too many distractions in his house, Dahl remembered the poet Dylan Thomas had found a peaceful shed to write in close to home. Dahl travelled to visit Thomas's hut in Carmarthenshire, Wales in the 1950s and, after taking a look inside, decided to make a replica of it to write in.[108]
Dahl liked ghost stories, and claimed that Trolls by Jonas Lie was one of the finest ghost stories ever written. While he was still a youngster, his mother, Sofie Dahl, would relate traditional Norwegian myths and legends from her native homeland to Dahl and his sisters. Dahl always maintained that his mother and her stories had a strong influence on his writing. In one interview, he mentioned: 'She was a great teller of tales. Her memory was prodigious and nothing that ever happened to her in her life was forgotten.'[109] When Dahl started writing and publishing his famous books for children, he created a grandmother character in The Witches and later stated that she was based directly on his own mother as a tribute.[110][111]
Television
In 1961, Dahl hosted and wrote for a science fiction and horror television anthology series called Way Out, which preceded the Twilight Zone series on the CBS network for 14 episodes from March to July.[112] One of the last dramatic network shows shot in New York City, the entire series is available for viewing at The Paley Center for Media in New York City and Los Angeles.[113] He also wrote for the satirical BBC comedy programme That Was the Week That Was, which was hosted by David Frost.[114]
The British television series, Tales of the Unexpected, originally aired on ITV between 1979 and 1988.[115] The series was released to tie in with Dahl's short story anthology of the same name, which had introduced readers to many motifs that were common in his writing.[94] The series was an anthology of different tales, initially based on Dahl's short stories.[94] The stories were sometimes sinister, sometimes wryly comedic and usually had a twist ending. Dahl introduced on camera all the episodes of the first two series, which bore the full title Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected.[116]
Death and legacy
Dahl's gravestone, St Peter and St Paul's Church, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire
Roald Dahl died on 23 November 1990, at the age of 74 of a rare cancer of the blood, myelodysplastic syndrome, in Oxford,[117] and was buried in the cemetery at St Peter and St Paul's Church in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England. According to his granddaughter, the family gave him a 'sort of Viking funeral'. He was buried with his snooker cues, some very good burgundy, chocolates, HB pencils and a power saw. Today, children continue to leave toys and flowers by his grave.[118] In November 1996, the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery was opened at the Buckinghamshire County Museum in nearby Aylesbury.[119] The main-belt asteroid 6223 Dahl, discovered by Czech astronomer Antonín Mrkos, was named in his memory in 1996.[120][121]
In 2002, one of Cardiff Bay's modern landmarks, the Oval Basin plaza, was renamed Roald Dahl Plass. Plass is Norwegian for 'place' or 'square', alluding to the writer's Norwegian roots. There have also been calls from the public for a permanent statue of him to be erected in Cardiff.[122] In 2016, the city celebrated the centenary of Dahl's birth in Llandaff. Welsh Arts organisations, including National Theatre Wales, Wales Millennium Centre and Literature Wales, came together for a series of events, titled Roald Dahl 100, including a Cardiff-wide City of the Unexpected, which marked his legacy.[4]
Dahl's charitable commitments in the fields of neurology, haematology and literacy during his life have been continued by his widow since his death, through Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity, formerly known as the Roald Dahl Foundation.[97] The charity provides care and support to seriously ill children and young people throughout the UK.[123] In June 2005, the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in the author's home village Great Missenden was officially opened by Cherie Blair, wife of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, to celebrate the work of Roald Dahl and advance his work in literacy education.[124] Over 50,000 visitors from abroad, mainly from Australia, Japan, the United States and Germany, travel to the village museum every year.[125]
Matilda the Musical has been shown in the West End since November 2011, and on Broadway since April 2013
In 2008, the UK charity Booktrust and Children's LaureateMichael Rosen inaugurated The Roald Dahl Funny Prize, an annual award to authors of humorous children's fiction.[126][127] On 14 September 2009 (the day after what would have been Dahl's 93rd birthday) the first blue plaque in his honour was unveiled in Llandaff.[128] Rather than commemorating his place of birth, however, the plaque was erected on the wall of the former sweet shop (and site of 'The Great Mouse Plot of 1924') that features in the first part of his autobiography Boy. It was unveiled by his widow Felicity and son Theo.[128] In 2018, Weston-super-Mare, the town described by Dahl as a 'seedy seaside resort', unveiled a blue plaque dedicated to him, on the site of the since-demolished boarding school Dahl attended, St Peter's.[129] The anniversary of Dahl's birthday on 13 September is celebrated as 'Roald Dahl Day' in Africa, the United Kingdom and Latin America.[130][131][132]
In honour of Dahl, the Royal Gibraltar Post Office issued a set of four stamps in 2010 featuring Quentin Blake's original illustrations for four of the children's books written by Dahl during his long career; The BFG, The Twits, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Matilda.[133] A set of six stamps was issued by Royal Mail in 2012, featuring Blake's illustrations for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Twits, The Witches, Matilda, Fantastic Mr Fox, and James and the Giant Peach.[134] Dahl's influence has extended beyond literary figures. For instance film director Tim Burton recalled from childhood 'the second layer [after Dr. Seuss] of connecting to a writer who gets the idea of the modern fable – and the mixture of light and darkness, and not speaking down to kids, and the kind of politically incorrect humour that kids get. I've always like that, and it's shaped everything I've felt that I've done.'[135]Steven Spielberg read The BFG to his children when they were young, stating the book celebrates the fact that it's OK to be different as well as to have an active imagination: 'It's very important that we preserve the tradition of allowing young children to run free with their imaginations and magic and imagination are the same thing.'[136] Actress Scarlett Johansson named Fantastic Mr Fox one of the five books that made a difference to her.[137]
'Arguably the Shakespeare of children's literature, from Fantastic Mr Fox to Matilda and The BFG, filmmakers and animators are still drawing from the enormous vat of material he created.'
—'Britain's top ten children's literature superstars'. The Independent, 2012.[138]
Regarded as 'one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century',[6] Dahl was named by The Times one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.[7] He ranks amongst the world's best-selling fiction authors with sales estimated at over 250 million,[3][5][8] and his books have been published in almost 60 languages.[4] In 2003 four books by Dahl, led by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at number 35, ranked among the Top 100 in The Big Read, a survey of the British public by the BBC to determine the 'nation's best-loved novel' of all time.[139] In surveys of UK teachers, parents and students, Dahl is frequently ranked the best children's writer.[140][141] In a 2006 list for the Royal Society of Literature, Harry Potter creator J. K. Rowling named Charlie and the Chocolate Factory one of her top ten books every child should read.[142] In 2012, Matilda was ranked number 30 among all-time best children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a monthly with primarily US audience. The Top 100 included four books by Dahl, more than any other writer: Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, and The BFG.[143] In 2012, Dahl was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life he most admires.[144][145] In a 2017 UK poll of the greatest authors, songwriters, artists and photographers, Dahl was named the greatest storyteller of all time, ranking ahead of Dickens, Shakespeare, Rowling and Spielberg.[146] In 2017, the airline Norwegian announced Dahl's image would appear on the tail fin one of their Boeing 737-800 aircraft. He is one of the company's six 'British tail fin heroes', joining Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, England World Cup winner Bobby Moore, novelist Jane Austen, pioneering pilot Amy Johnson and aviation entrepreneur Freddie Laker.[147][148]
Filmography
Writing roles
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1950 | Suspense | Story | 1 episode |
1952 | CBS Television Workshop | ||
Lux Video Theatre | |||
1954 | Philip Morris Playhouse | ||
Danger | |||
1955 | Star Tonight | ||
Cameo Theatre | |||
1958 | Suspicion | ||
1958-61 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | 7 episodes | |
1961 | 'Way Out | 1 episode | |
1962 | That Was the Week That Was | ||
1964 | 36 Hours | Feature film | |
1965-67 | Thirty-Minute Theatre | 3 episodes | |
1967 | You Only Live Twice | Screenplay | Feature film |
1968 | Late Night Horror | Writer | 1 episode |
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang | Screenplay | Feature film | |
Jackanory | 10 episodes | ||
1971 | The Road Builder | Feature film | |
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory | Story/screenplay | ||
1976 | James and the Giant Peach | Story | TV movie |
1979-88 | Tales of the Unexpected | Writer/story | 26 episodes |
1985 | The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Story | 1 episode |
1989 | The BFG | TV movie | |
The Book Tower | Writer | 1 episode | |
Danny the Champion of the World | Story | TV movie |
Presenting roles
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1961 | 'Way Out | Host | 5 episodes |
1965 | Thirty-Minute Theatre | Narrator | 1 episode |
Non-presenting appearances
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1969 | The 41st Annual Academy Awards | Himself | Audience member |
1978 | Read All About It | 1 episode | |
This Is Your Life | 1 episode | ||
1979-85 | Tales of the Unexpected | 32 episodes | |
1989 | Going Live! | 1 episode |
Publications
References
- ^'NLS: Say How, A-D'. Library of Congress. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
- ^Sturrock, Donald, Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl, p. 19. Simon & Schuster, 2010.
- ^ ab'Roald Dahl: As popular - and profitable - as ever'. BBC. 18 August 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2016.
- ^ abc'Roald Dahl centenary: 'Tremendous things' promised for 2016'. BBC News. BBC. 6 July 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
- ^ ab'Fans gather for Dahl celebration'. BBC. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^ abcdefgh'Once upon a time, there was a man who liked to make up stories ..'The Independent. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^ ab'The 50 greatest British writers since 1945'. The Times. 5 January 2008. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^ abc'Britain celebrates first Roald Dahl Day'. TODAY (today.com). NBC News. Associated Press. 13 September 2006. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'Aldi removes Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes from its Australian stores over the word 'slut''. The Independent. 30 November 2015.
- ^ ab'Roald Dahl's greatest philosophical quotes ever'. The Guardian. 30 November 2015.
- ^ ab'Roald Dahl and the darkness within'. BBC. 15 October 2015.
- ^Philip Howard, 'Dahl, Roald (1916–1990)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.
- ^ ab'Roald Dahl Timeline • Roald Dahl Facts'. Roald Dahl Facts. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
- ^Colin Palfrey (2006) Cardiff Soul: An Underground Guide to the City
- ^'Blue plaque marks Dahl sweet shop'. BBC. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
- ^ ab'Roald Dahl biography'. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^Jill C. Wheeler (2006) Roald Dahl p. 9. ABDO Publishing Company, 2006.
- ^Michael D. Sharp (2006) Popular Contemporary Writers p. 516. Marshall Cavendish, 2006.
- ^John Ayto (2012). The Diner's Dictionary: Word Origins of Food and Drink. p. 154. Oxford University Press.
- ^'Roald Dahl's School Days'. BBC Wales. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
- ^Readers: Donald Sturrock and Rory Kinnear, Abridged by: Katrin Williams, Producer: Duncan Minshull (5 June 2016). 'Book of the Week, Love from Boy - Roald Dahl's Letters to His Mother'. Book of the Week. BBC Radio.
- ^Dahl, Roald (1984). Boy: Tales of Childhood. Puffin Books. ISBN978-0-14-130305-5.
- ^Sturrock, Donald (8 August 2010). 'Roald Dahl's schooldays were filled with the ritual cruelty of fagging for older boys and with terrible beatings'. Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
- ^'WEB LINKS: corporal punishment in British schools'. www.corpun.com. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
- ^'Boarding School Magic - Los Angeles Review of Books'. Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
- ^Jeremy Treglown, Roald Dahl: A Biography (1994), Faber and Faber, page 21. Treglown's source note is as follows: 'Several people who were at the top of Priory House at the time have discussed it with me, particularly B.L.L. Reuss and John Bradburn.'
- ^ abDahl, Roald (1984). Boy: Tales of Childhood. Jonathan Cape.
- ^Liukkonen, Petri. 'Roald Dahl'. Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 10 February 2015.
- ^Roald Dahl – Penguin UK AuthorsArchived 1 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine – Penguin UK
- ^Shavick, Andrea (1997) Roald Dahl: the champion storyteller p.12. Oxford University Press, 1997
- ^'Repton School 'helped inspire Dahl' to write Charlie'. BBC. 14 July 2015.
- ^Roald Dahl (derivative work) and Quentin Blake (2005). Roald Dahl's Incredible Chocolate Box. ISBN978-0-14-131959-9.
- ^Boy and Going Solo, p.128 – p.132
- ^Boy and Going Solo, p.68 – 71
- ^Dahl, Roald (1984) Boy: Tales of Childhood p.172. Puffin Books, 1984
- ^Sturrock, Donald (2010). Storyteller: The Authorised Biography of Roald Dahl. London: HarperPress. pp. 93–94. ISBN978-0007254767.
- ^'Roald Dahl (British author)'. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^Donald Sturrock Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl, p.116. Simon and Schuster, 2010
- ^ abIssue 34964. London Gazette. 8 October 1940. page 5907
- ^Sturrock (2010: 120)
- ^Conant, Jennet (2008). The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington. p. 3. Simon and Schuster
- ^Sturrock, Donald (9 August 2010). 'Roald Dahl: the plane crash that gave birth to a writer'. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^ abAlan Warren (1988) Roald Dahl pp.12, 87. Starmont House, 1988
- ^ abDahl, Roald (1986). Going Solo. Jonathan Cape.
- ^Andrew Thomas Hurricane Aces 1941–45, Osprey Publishing, 2003
- ^Roald Dahl Going Solo, p. 151. Scholastic, 1996
- ^Dahl, Roald (6 December 2015). Going Solo (excerpt).
- ^'No. 35292'. The London Gazette. 30 September 1941. p. 5664.
- ^Sturrock (2010: 163)
- ^Sturrock (2010: 165)
- ^Sturrock (2010: 163–165)
- ^Sturrock (2010: 166–167)
- ^Sturrock (2010: 167)
- ^ abDietsch, Deborah K. (1 December 2013). 'Roald Dahl Slept Here: From attaché to author'. The Washington Post Magazine. p. 10. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
- ^ abThe book Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington (by Jennet Conant, Simon and Schuster 2008) describes this era of Dahl's life and those with whom he worked.
- ^Cambridge Guide to Literature (Cambridge University Press, 1989) ISBN0-521-26751-X.
- ^ abcdThe Marvellous World of Roald Dahl. BBC Studios. 2016
- ^Issue 35791. London Gazette. 17 November 1942. p. 5037
- ^Ellen Schoeck I was There: A Century of Alumni Stories about the University of Alberta, 1906–2006, University of Alberta, 2006
- ^Bill Macdonald. The True Intrepid. p. 249 (Raincoast 2001)ISBN1-55192-418-8; Dahl also speaks about his espionage work in the documentary The True Intrepid.
- ^Macdonald. The True Intrepid. p. 243. ISBN1-55192-418-8.
- ^Issue 37681. London Gazette. 9 August 1946. page 4054.
- ^Christopher Shores and Clive Williams. Aces High: A Tribute to the Most Notable Fighter Pilots of the British and Commonwealth Air Forces in WWII. (Grub Street Publishing, 1994) ISBN1-898697-00-0.
- ^Martin Chilton (18 November 2010) The 25 best children's booksThe Daily Telegraph
- ^''Dad also needed happy dreams': Roald Dahl, his daughters and the BFG'. The Daily Telegraph. 6 August 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'Water on the Brain'. MedGadget: Internet Journal of Emerging Medical Technologies. 15 July 2005. Archived from the original on 22 May 2006. Retrieved 11 May 2006.
- ^Dr Andrew Larner. 'Tales of the Unexpected: Roald Dahl's Neurological Contributions'(PDF). Advances in Clinical Neuroscience and Rehabilitation.
- ^ ab'Roald Dahl on the death of his daughter'. The Telegraph (3 February 2015).
- ^Singh, Anita (7 August 2010) 'Roald Dahl's secret notebook reveals heartbreak over daughter's death', The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
- ^Gonzalez, Robbie. 'Read Roald Dahl's Powerful Pro-Vaccination Letter'. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
- ^ abc'Roald Dahl on God: The day I lost faith in 'the Boss''. The Telegraph (6 August 2010).
- ^Barry Farrell (1969). Pat and Roald. Kingsport Press.
- ^David Thomson (9 August 2010). 'Patricia Neal: a beauty that cut like a knife'. The Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'Roald Dahl Official website'. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
- ^Lynn F. Pearson Discovering Famous Graves, Osprey Publishing, 2008
- ^Clifton, Tony (1983). 'God Cried'. Quartet Books, 1983
- ^ abcRoald Dahl: A Biography, Jeremy Treglown (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1994), pp. 255–256.
- ^ abMurphy, Simon (6 November 2018). 'Royal Mint rejected Roald Dahl coin over antisemitic views'. the Guardian. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
- ^'Das Roald-Dahl-Museum in Great Missenden', dradio. (in German). 16 November 2008
- ^'Queen's honours refused'. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^Roald Dahl among hundreds who turned down Queen's honours, Walesonline (also published in the Western Mail), 27 January 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
- ^'The New Elizabethans - Roald Dahl'. BBC. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
- ^'Roald Dahl to be posthumously honoured with a Gold Blue Peter badge'. BBC. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
- ^Frances E. Ruffin Meet Roald Dahl. p. 17. The Rosen Publishing Group, 2006
- ^ abDonald, Graeme Sticklers, Sideburns & Bikinis: The Military Origins of Everyday Words and Phrases. Osprey Publishing, 2008
- ^Sasser, Sanford, Jr., ed. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aviation and Space, Volume 6. p. 1094. A.F.E. Press, 1971
- ^Nick Tanner (20 December 2006). 'Dahl's Gremlins fly again, thanks to historian's campaign'. The Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^ abAndrew Maunder The Facts on File Companion to the British Short Story. Infobase Publishing, 2007.
- ^'Roald Dahl Day: From Tales of the Unexpected to Switch Bitch, Dahl's undervalued stories for adults'. The Independent. 6 October 2017.
- ^ abJames Mottram The Sundance kids: how the mavericks took back Hollywood. Macmillan, 2006.
- ^'English Gypsy caravan, Gypsy Wagon, Gypsy Waggon and Vardo: Photograph Gallery 1'. Gypsywaggons.co.uk. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
- ^Dahl, Roald (1975). Danny, the Champion Of The World. p. 13. Random House, 2010.
- ^'Matilda statue stands up to President Donald Trump'. BBC. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
- ^ abcMaunder, Andrew (2007). The Facts on File companion to the British short story. p. 417. ISBN9780816074969. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'Tales of the Unexpected (1979–88)'. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^ abDarrell Schweitzer (1985) Discovering modern horror fiction, Volume 2. Wildside Press LLC, 1985
- ^ abSally Williams (12 September 2006) A plateful of DahlThe Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
- ^Books magazine, Volumes 5–7. Publishing News Ltd. 1991. p. 35. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^''Fantastic Mr. Fox' movie review: Wes Anderson joyfully re-creates Roald Dahl's foxy family'. The Star-Ledger. 21 January 2016.
- ^Jean Marlow (2013). Audition Speeches for 6-16 Year Olds. p. 46. Routledge
- ^Jenny Volvovski, Julia Rothman, Matt Lamothe (2014). The Who, the What, and the When: 65 Artists Illustrate the Secret Sidekicks of History. p. 28. Chronicle Books
- ^ abcd'Dahl's squishous words get their own dictionary'. BBC. 28 May 2016.
- ^AV guide, Volumes 77–82. Scranton Gillette Communications. 1998. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^Roald Dahl Day: my glimpse into the great writer's imagination. The Guardian. Retrieved 22 November 2014
- ^Liz Buckingham, trustee for the Roald Dahl Museum, quoted in Tom Bishop: Willy Wonka's Everlasting Film Plot, BBC News, July 2005
- ^Tom Bishop (July 2005) 'Willy Wonka's Everlasting Film Plot'. BBC News.
- ^Rennay Craats (2003). Roald Dahl. p. 1957. Weigl, 2003
- ^'How Dylan Thomas's writing shed inspired Roald Dahl'. BBC. 18 September 2016.
- ^'Roald Dahl: young tales of the unexpected'. The Daily Telegraph. 30 August 2008. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'Roald Dahl'. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'Mother: Sofie Dahl {influence upon} Roald Dahl'. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'Way Out (TV Series 1961)'. Internet Movie Database. 8 January 2005. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'The Paley Center for Media: Way Out'. The Paley Center for Media. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^McCann 2006, p.156
- ^'BFI: Film and TV Database – Tales of the Unexpected'. BFI. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^Vincent Terrace (1985) Encyclopedia of Television Series, Pilots and Specials: 1974–1984
- ^'Deaths England and Wales 1984–2006'. Findmypast.com. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
- ^'A giant peach of a property in Dahl country'. The Times. 14 July 2015.
- ^Sharron L. McElmeel (1999) '100 most popular children's authors: biographical sketches and bibliographies'. Libraries Unlimited, 1999
- ^Schmadel, Lutz D. (2007). '(6223) Dahl'. Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – (6223) Dahl. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 519. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_5731. ISBN978-3-540-00238-3.
- ^'MPC/MPO/MPS Archive'. Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
- ^'Roald Dahl and the Chinese chip shop'. walesonline. 27 March 2009. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity'. Marvellouschildrenscharity.org. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
- ^Clarie Heald (11 June 2005) 'Chocolate doors thrown open to Dahl'. BBC News.
- ^'Roald Dahl won children's hearts by co-conspiring against adults'. Deutsche Welle. 16 July 2015.
- ^'David Walliams up for Roald Dahl award'. BBC News. 17 September 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'The Roald Dahl Funny Prize'. booktrust.org.uk. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
- ^ ab'South East Wales | Blue plaque marks Dahl sweet shop'. BBC News. 14 September 2009. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
- ^'Roald Dahl plaque for 'Weston-super-Mud''. BBC News. 21 March 2018. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
- ^Flood, Alison (13 September 2010). 'Roald Dahl Day expands into full month of special treats'. The Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^'Roald Dahl Day celebrations'. Roald Dahl Museum (roalddahlmuseum.org). Archived from the original on 8 September 2009. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^Roald Dahl's 90th Birthday!, Random House UK. Retrieved 20 September 2007. Archived 5 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^'UK world's best selling children author on Gibraltar stamps'. World Stamp News (worldstampnews.com). 15 May 2010. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2011.
- ^Flood, Alison (9 January 2012). 'Roald Dahl stamps honour classic children's author'. The Guardian. Retrieved 9 January 2012.
Quentin Blake's famous illustrations of The Twits, Matilda and Fantastic Mr Fox all feature on a new series of stamps from the Royal Mail, issued to celebrate the work of Roald Dahl. Out from tomorrow, the stamps also show James and the Giant Peach and The Witches, while a triumphant Charlie Bucket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is brandishing a golden ticket on the new first class stamp.
- ^Burton, Tim, and Mark Salisbury (2006). 'Burton on Burton'. Macmillan. 2nd Revised Edition. ISBN9780571229260. Preview at Google Books, chapter 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', p. 223.
- ^'10 celebrities have picked their favourite Roald Dahl book ready for a public vote'. Wales Online. 6 September 2016.
- ^Holt, Karen, as told to. 'Books That Made a Difference to Scarlett Johansson'. Oprah.com. Retrieved 16 September 2014.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
- ^'Britain's top ten children's literature superstars'. The Independent. Retrieved 1 September 2017
- ^'The Big Read – Top 100 Books'. BBC. Retrieved 16 September 2014. First of two pages. Archived 2 September 2014 by the publisher.
Charles Dickens and Terry Pratchett led with five of the Top 100. The four extant Harry Potter novels all made the Top 25. The Dahl novels were Charlie, The BFG, Matilda, and The Twits. - ^'Roald Dahl voted best author in primary teachers survey'. BBC. 30 March 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2015. In this survey of primary school teachers Dahl also placed five books in the top ten: Charlie, The Twits, Danny the Champion of the World, The BFG, and George's Marvellous Medicine.
- ^Brown, Kat (2 March 2015). 'Survey reveals 50 books that every child should read by 16'. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 16 July 2015. 'Roald Dahl is still king of children's literature according to a survey for World Book Day.'
- ^Higgins, Charlotte (31 January 2006). 'From Beatrix Potter to Ulysses .. what the top writers say every child should read'. The Guardian. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
- ^Bird, Elizabeth (7 July 2012). 'Top 100 Chapter Book Poll Results'. A Fuse #8 Production. Blog. School Library Journal (blog.schoollibraryjournal.com). Retrieved 29 October 2015.
- ^'New faces on Sgt Pepper album cover for artist Peter Blake's 80th birthday'. The Guardian. 5 October 2016.
- ^'Sir Peter Blake's new Beatles' Sgt Pepper's album cover'. BBC News. 9 November 2016.
- ^'Banksy and Yate-born JK Rowling make list of 50 greatest storytellers of all time'. Bristol Post. Retrieved 1 September 2017
- ^'Norwegian Dreamliner takes off with new Jane Austen adorned tail fin for first time'. Daily Mirror. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
- ^Caswell, Mark. 'Freddie Mercury unveiled as Norwegian's latest tail fin hero'. Business Traveller.com. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
Further reading
- Philip Howard, 'Dahl, Roald (1916–1990)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006. Retrieved 24 May 2006
- Donald Sturrock, Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl, Simon & Schuster, 2010. ISBN978-1416550822 (See the link to excerpts in 'External Links', below.)
- Andrea Shavick, Roald Dahl: The Champion Storyteller. Oxford University Press, 1997
- Jeremy Treglown, Roald Dahl: A Biography, Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1994. ISBN978-0374251307
- Jason Hook, Roald Dahl: The Storyteller, Raintree, 2004
- Jacob M. Held, Roald Dahl and Philosophy: A Little Nonsense Now and Then. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014
- Jennifer Boothroyd, Roald Dahl: A Life of Imagination. Lerner Publications, 2008
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Roald Dahl. |
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Roald Dahl |
- Official website
- Roald Dahl at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Roald Dahl on IMDb
- Roald Dahl at Library of Congress Authorities, with 155 catalogue records
- Works by Roald Dahl at Open Library
- Radio interview by NRK (1975)‹See Tfd›(in Norwegian)
- 'The Devious Bachelor', Sunday Book Review of The Irregulars, Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington by Jennet Conant, The New York Times, 17 October 2008
- Profile of Patricia Neal (2011) on Voice of America (VOAnews.com), with transcript
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Roald_Dahl&oldid=903192698'
This is a list of episodes of the British drama series, Tales of the Unexpected.
Season 1 (1979)[edit]
Nine episodes. First broadcast: Saturdays on ITV – 24 March to 19 May 1979
No. in series | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Introduced by | Cast | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | 'The Man from the South' | Michael Tuchner | Story by: Roald Dahl Adaptation by: Kevin Goldstein-Jackson | Roald Dahl | Angela Malcolm (Maid), Pamela Stephenson (Cathy), José Ferrer (Carlos), Michael Ontkean (Tommy), Cyril Luckham (Rawlsden), Katy Jurado (Mysterious Woman) | 24 March 1979 | |
An American sailor and his girlfriend, Cathy, are on holiday in Jamaica. They become involved in a bizarre bet with Carlos, who loves to gamble. When the young man boasts about his cigarette lighter, Carlos offers him his Jaguar if the boy can strike his lighter successfully ten times in a row. But if he fails even once, if the boy does not strike it precisely, Carlos will cut off his finger. | ||||||||
2 | 2 | 'Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat' | Simon Langton | Story by: Roald Dahl Adaptation by: Ronald Harwood | Roald Dahl | Will Leighton (Seamus), Richard Hampton (The Patient), Richard Greene (The Colonel), Michael Hordern (Cyril Bixby), Julie Harris (Mrs Bixby), Alan Chuntz (Taxi Driver), Sandra Payne (Miss Pulteney), Frederick Farley (Pawnbroker), Vass Anderson (Master of Hounds) | 31 March 1979 | |
Mrs Bixby is having an affair behind her husband's back. Her lover gives her a mink coat. She devises a devious plan to explain its presence to her husband. | ||||||||
3 | 3 | 'William and Mary' | Donald McWhinnie | Written by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Ronald Harwood | Roald Dahl | Marius Goring (Dr Landy), Elaine Stritch (Mary Pearl), Frederick Farley (Baxter), Richard Hampton (Vicar), Jimmy Mac (Dr William Pearl), Jane Paton (Nurse) | 7 April 1979 | |
A widow is informed by her doctor that her husband's brain has been kept alive. The husband had always imposed a strict regime on his wife and she now seeks revenge. | ||||||||
4 | 4 | 'Lamb to the Slaughter' | John Davies | Written by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | Roald Dahl | Michael Byrne (Patrick Marney), Brian Blessed (Detective Sergeant Jack Nolan), Susan George (Mary Marney), Mark Jones (Detective Sergeant Jameson), Andrew Fell (Uniformed Policeman), David English (Plain Clothes Policeman), George Little (Samuel), Hugh Cross (Police Doctor) | 14 April 1979 | |
Mary Marney, a devoted and pregnant housewife, is preparing dinner when her husband Patrick returns home from his job as a police detective. He tells her that he is leaving her. Moving almost on autopilot, Mary fetches a leg of lamb from the deep-freezer in the cellar to cook for their dinner. Patrick says he doesn't want dinner, as he is going out. In a trance-like panic, she hits him on the head and kills him. The police conclude that Patrick was killed with a large blunt object, but are baffled when the murder weapon cannot be found. As they were all friends of Patrick, Mary begs them to stay and eat the lamb, which she has been roasting, while they discuss the case. | ||||||||
5 | 5 | 'The Landlady' | Herbert Wise | Written by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | Roald Dahl | Siobhán McKenna (The Landlady), Leonard Preston (Billy Weaver), Anthony Dawes (The Clergyman), John Bryant (Mulholland), Jess Davies (Temple) | 21 April 1979 | |
Billy Weaver, a young man from London, arrives at a guesthouse. He is greeted by the landlady, but his curiosity is aroused when he reads the guest book. He sees the names of young men whom, he remembers, had gone missing. The landlady tells him that she is a taxidermist. | ||||||||
6 | 6 | 'Neck' | Christopher Miles | Written by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | Roald Dahl | Michael Aldridge (Sir Basil Turton), Joan Collins (Lady Turton), John Gielgud (Jelks), Peter Bowles (Major Jack Haddock), Paul Herzberg (John Bannister), Carmen Silvera (Carmen La Rosa) | 28 April 1979 | |
Lady Turton, an art collector's wife, is conducting a series of affairs, much to the disapproval of her resentful husband and their butler, Jelks. They have an estate filled with art; even the outdoor gardens have fantastical pieces of topiary and abstract sculpture. One night, while cavorting with Major Jack Haddock and making fun of her husband's beloved artworks, she finds her head trapped in a priceless piece of art. Sir Basil Turton asks Jelks to fetch him a tool with which he can free her head. Jelks brings him both an axe and a saw. After considering the problem, Sir Basil decides upon the axe. | ||||||||
7 | 7 | 'Edward the Conqueror' | Rodney Bennett | Written by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Ronald Harwood | Roald Dahl | Joseph Cotten (Edward), Wendy Hiller (Louisa), Phil Brown (F. Milton Willis) | 5 May 1979 | |
A husband and wife adopt a stray cat. The cat responds to the woman's piano playing to such a degree that she becomes convinced that it is the reincarnation of composerFranz Liszt. The woman bonds with the cat, much to her husband's jealousy. | ||||||||
8 | 8 | 'A Dip in the Pool' | Michael Tuchner | Written by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Ronald Harwood | Roald Dahl | Jack Weston (William Botibol), Gladys Spencer (Sylvia), Bill Reimbold (Bill Wilson), Elaine Ives-Cameron (Sarah Grant), Davyd Harries (Purser), Michael Troughton (Steward), Jana Sheldon (Mrs Renshaw), Don Fellows (Renshaw), Paula Tilbrook (Maggie), David Healy (Auctioneer), Ken Buckle (Sailor) | 12 May 1979 | |
William Botibol, a man on a cruise ship, takes part in a bet to predict how far the ship will travel in twenty-four hours. He calculates that he will win if the ship is delayed a little—if, for instance, it has to turn back to collect a man overboard. In order to win by cheating, he waits until he and a woman are alone on the deck and then he pretends to fall overboard. Unfortunately for him, the woman is not what he thinks she is. | ||||||||
9 | 9 | 'The Way Up to Heaven' | Simon Langton | Written by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Ronald Harwood | Roald Dahl | Julie Harris (Alice Foster), Angus MacKay (Walker), Julia Watson (Maid), Dulcie Huston (Hostess), Jeremy Longhurst (Driver), Brian Capron (Airport Official), Anthony Bailey (Arthur), Roland Culver (Eugene Foster) | 19 May 1979 | |
Mrs. Alice Foster has a pathological fear of being late. On the day of her holiday to New York to see their daughter, her husband, an inveterate and somewhat sadistic dawdler, torments her by making her late. To her relief, the flight has been delayed by fog, so she is on time, anyway; but it is then cancelled and she is forced to catch the next flight in the morning. Mr. Foster attempts to delay her again. Sat in the car and just about to leave, he says he has forgotten a gift for their daughter and says he will go back into the house to get it. Mrs. Foster then notices the gift stuck in the car. Frantic to get to the airport on time, she runs after him to tell him she's found the gift, and sees that he has taken their in-house elevator to go upstairs. She hears him shouting her name and realises her husband is stuck in the lift. A slight smile twitches across her face. She returns to the car and tells the driver to take her to the airport. She gets her revenge on his cruelty when she returns from holiday, six weeks later, and finds that the lift has been stuck between two floors all that time, during which her husband has died of starvation and thirst. She calmly calls the Elevator Emergency Service in order to have it repaired. |
Season 2 (1980)[edit]
Sixteen episodes. First broadcast: ITV – Saturdays 1 March to 14 June 1980
No. in series | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Introduced by | Cast | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
10 | 1 | 'Royal Jelly' | Herbert Wise | Story by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | Roald Dahl | Andrew Ray (Percy Hayward), Susan George (Mabel Taylor), Timothy West (Albert Taylor) | 1 March 1980 | |
A bee-keeper becomes concerned when his wife tells him that their baby daughter is ill and losing weight. To help the baby gain strength, he begins feeding her royal jelly. | ||||||||
11 | 2 | 'Skin' | Herbert Wise | Story by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | Roald Dahl | Lucy Gutteridge (Josie), Boris Isarov (Chaim Soutine), Donald Pickering (Gallery Owner), Peggy Ashby (Rich Woman), Sabina Franklyn (Young Girl), David Webb (Chef), Derek Jacobi (Drioli) | 8 March 1980 | |
An old street-beggar, a former tattooist, was a friend of the famous artist, Soutine. On his back, he has a tattoo by the artist, which is now priceless. | ||||||||
12 | 3 | 'Galloping Foxley' | Claude Whatham | Story by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | Roald Dahl | Adrian Breeze (Boy), Guy Humphries (Stamford), Wayne Brooks (Boy), Timothy Breeze (Boy), Clifford Abrahams (Boy), Paul Spurrier (Young William Perkins), John Mills (William Perkins), Anthony Steel (Man on the Train), Anthony Woodruff (Housemaster), Jonathan Scott-Taylor (Young Bruce Foxley), Colin Thomas (City Gent) | 15 March 1980 | |
William Perkins is haunted by the bullying he received while at Boarding school 60 years ago. While on a train, he is convinced that the man sitting opposite him is the bully. | ||||||||
13 | 4 | 'The Hitch-hiker' | Alastair Reid | Story by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | Roald Dahl | Cyril Cusack (Michael Fish), Rod Taylor (Paul Duveen), John Forgeham (Policeman) | 22 March 1980 | |
Flashy American Paul Duveen stops to give elderly Irish vagrant Michael Fish a lift in his new BMW. Michael is a pickpocket, which comes in very handy after his encouragement to Paul to break the speed limit has attracted the attention of a traffic cop on a motor-bike, who waves them over. After the cop has gone, Michael shows a happy Paul that he stole the cop's notebook and evidence, but before long, Paul will be anything but happy. | ||||||||
14 | 5 | 'Poison' | Graham Evans | Story by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | Roald Dahl | Andrew Ray (Harry Pope), Judy Geeson (Sandra), Saeed Jaffrey (Dr Kunzru Ganderbai), Anthony Steel (Timber Woods) | 29 March 1980 | |
This story is set in India during the time of British colonialism. Narrator Timber Woods goes to visit his friend Harry Pope. Harry is in bed, motionless, sweating, and in a panic. He whispers that a krait, one of the deadliest snakes, is on his stomach, underneath the covers. He asks Timber to go get a doctor; Timber calls Dr. Ganderbai, a local Indian doctor. Timber and Ganderbai frantically try to get the snake off of Harry to save his life. But they find no snake on Harry; perhaps it has gone, perhaps Harry imagined the snake. When he realises this, Harry is so relieved that he attacks Ganderbai with racial slurs. The real poison in the room is not the snake's; it is the racist's. Ganderbai walks out of the room and tells Timber that Harry needs a vacation. | ||||||||
15 | 6 | 'Fat Chance' | John Gorrie | Story by: Robert Bloch Dramatisation by: Denis Cannan | Roald Dahl | Katie Flower (Amateur actress), Peter Van Dissel (Amateur actor), Nigel Caliburn (Stage Manager), Carol Thornton (Woman in Audience), Geoffrey Bayldon (Dr Applegate), John Castle (John Burge), Sheila Gish (Frances), Miriam Margolyes (Mary Burge), Anthony Royle (Director of Amateur Production), Mike Quinto (Man in Audience), Jean Kitson (Chemist's Assistant) | 5 April 1980 | |
John Burge, a pharmacist, is carrying on an affair behind his overweight wife's back. His lover, Frances, tells him that he must get rid of his wife. Mary, however, will not divorce him and Frances is issuing an ultimatum. He decides to put his pharmaceutical skills into play and poison his wife's chocolates. However, not everything will go to plan. | ||||||||
16 | 7 | 'Taste' | Alastair Reid | Story by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Ronald Harwood | Roald Dahl | Ron Moody (Richard Pratt), William Hootkins (Peter Bligh), Mercia Glossop (Sybil Schofield), Antony Carrick (Mike Schofield), Debbie Farrington (Louise Schofield), Beth Porter (Joanna Bligh), Gabrielle Blunt (Mrs Adams) | 12 April 1980 | |
Mike Schofield has a wager against his wineconnoisseur friend, Richard Pratt that Pratt will not be able to deduce the vineyard from which the wine he is serving at dinner originates. The stakes become increasingly high: Pratt wants to bet for the hand of Schofield's daughter in marriage; if he loses, he will give Schofield both of his houses. | ||||||||
17 | 8 | 'My Lady Love, My Dove' | Herbert Wise | Story by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Ronald Harwood | Roald Dahl | Elaine Stritch (Pamela Beauchamp), Lisa Eichhorn (Sally Snape), Douglas Lambert (Henry Snape), Shane Rimmer (Arthur Beauchamp) | 19 April 1980 | |
Pamela Beauchamp visits friends to stay for the weekend for fun. She installs a hidden microphone in their room. After a high-stakes game of bridge, she listens in to discover that they had been cheating. | ||||||||
18 | 9 | 'Georgy Porgy' | Graham Evans | Story by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | Roald Dahl | Ann Beach (Miss Unwin), Lally Bowers (Miss Elphinstone), Grant Bardsley (George Duckworth as a child), Jacob Witkin (Boris Duckworth), Joan Collins (Clare Duckworth & Mrs Roach), John Alderton (Reverend George Duckworth), Peter Godfrey (Doctor), John Biggerstaff (Pollard), Margaretta Scott (Lady Birdwell) | 26 April 1980 | |
A Vicar with an overactive imagination sees naked women as he delivers his sermons. One day, he finds that women are suddenly attracted to him and a beautiful woman offers herself to his desires. | ||||||||
19 | 10 | 'Depart in Peace' | Alan Gibson | Story by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Ronald Harwood | Roald Dahl | Joseph Cotten (Lionel), Gloria Grahame (Gladys Ponsonby), Maureen O'Brien (Janet de Pelagia), John Bennett (Royden), Peter Cellier (Wilkins) | 3 May 1980 | |
An art collector becomes involved in a struggle between two beautiful women. (Based on the short story 'Nunc Dimittis.') | ||||||||
20 | 11 | 'The Umbrella Man' | Claude Whatham | Story by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Ronald Harwood | Roald Dahl | Michael Gambon (Andrew), John Mills (The Umbrella Man), Michael Sheard (Inspector), John Rees (Clerk), Jennifer Hilary (Wendy), John Carson (Arthur) | 10 May 1980 | |
On a wet afternoon, an elderly con-man strikes up a conversation with a passer-by. The old man sells him a silk umbrella, which he has stolen, claiming he needs money for a taxi. A mix-up with stolen umbrellas means that he exposes a couple who are cheating on the woman's husband. | ||||||||
21 | 12 | 'Genesis and Catastrophe' | Herbert Wise | Story by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Ronald Harwood | Roald Dahl | Helmut Griem (Alois), Hana Maria Pravda (Frau Lemner), Zhivila Roche (Klara), Alastair Llewellyn (Doctor), Graham Seed (Josef), Toby Waldock (Young Alois) | 17 May 1980 | |
In 1889, after having lost three children, an Austrian woman is concerned that her newborn baby boy is ill. The doctor helps and urges the woman's husband to be positive. They decide to name the boy Adolphus. | ||||||||
22 | 13 | 'Mr Botibol's First Love' | John Gorrie | Story by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Kevin Goldstein-Jackson | Roald Dahl | Paul Greenhalgh (Simpson), Anna Massey (Irene Wrzaszcyzk), Jack Weston (William Botibol), Alan Rowe (Clements), Allan Corduner (Store Assistant), Paul Bacon (Mason), John Flint (Workman) | 24 May 1980 | |
Mr Botibol is obsessed with Classical music and builds a concert hall in his house. To his records, he pretends to conduct an orchestra and play a silent piano. A woman he meets shares his love of music and together they 'perform' in the imaginary hall. | ||||||||
23 | 14 | 'Back for Christmas' | Giles Foster | Story by: John Collier Dramatisation by: Denis Cannan | Roald Dahl | Laurence Payne (Party Guest), Richard Johnson (Dr James Carpenter), Siân Phillips (Hermione Carpenter), Artro Morris (Pathologist), Avril Elgar (Pathologist's Wife), Cyril Luckham (Consultant), Lynne Ross (Samantha), Andrew Lebas (Waiter) | 31 May 1980 | |
A man plots a foolproof way to murder his wife, but the murder is exposed because of an unexpected gift she left for him to find. | ||||||||
24 | 15 | 'The Orderly World of Mr Appleby' | John Gorrie | Story by: Stanley Ellin Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | Roald Dahl | Robert Lang (Arthur Appleby), Cyril Luckham (Gainsborough), Elizabeth Spriggs (Martha Appleby), Christopher Bramwell (Dominic), Nigel Caliburn (Signwriter) | 7 June 1980 | |
Mr Appleby loves his antiques shop, even though everyone tells him the 'antiques' are just junk. To maintain the shop, he repeatedly marries wealthy women. Now he has married for the fourth time. His new wife discovers that he murdered the previous three, but she is more than a match for him. | ||||||||
25 | 16 | 'The Man at the Top' | Claude Whatham | Story by: Edward D. Hoch Dramatisation by: Denis Cannan | Roald Dahl | Terry Gurry (Bodyguard with dog), Michael Ripper (Taxi Driver), Rex Taylor (Doorman), John Rees (Barman), Johnny Shannon (Barman), Meredith Saxon (Bodyguard), Peter Firth (Hardy), Rachel Davies (Diane), Norman Clive-Fisher (Darts Player), Betty Hardy (Motherly Woman), Dallas Cavell (Sam Madrid), Cassie McFarlane (Estelle), Paul McDowell (Shaefer), Brian Dooley (Lawyer), Mimi de Braie (Maria) | 14 June 1980 | |
A young seaman becomes embroiled in a fight with another man and kills him. Eager to escape, he turns to his friend, Diane. She sets him up with someone who can help. |
Season 3 (1980)[edit]
Nine episodes. First broadcast: Saturdays, Sundays and a Friday on ITV – 9 to 30 August and 9 November to 19 December 1980
No. in series | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Introduced by | Cast | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
26 | 1 | 'The Flypaper' | Graham Evans | Story by: Elizabeth Taylor Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | Roald Dahl | Stephanie Cole (Miss Harrison), Alfred Burke (Herbert), Lorna Yabsley (Sylvia Wilkinson), Pat Keen (Vera), Bernadette Windsor (Louise), Giles Phibbs (Bus Conductor) | 9 August 1980 | |
Sylvia, a quiet, teenage girl, is being pestered by an old man. A woman steps in to help and brings her to her caravan home to call for the police. Unfortunately, the woman is not nice at all. | ||||||||
27 | 2 | 'A Picture of a Place' | Giles Foster | Story by: Doug Morgan Dramatisation by: Denis Cannan | Roald Dahl | Michael Troughton (Andrew), Bill Maynard (Merv), Jessie Matthews (Hazel), Judy Riley (Lucy), Peter Sallis (Solicitor) | 16 August 1980 | |
An elderly woman lives in a house full of antiques. On visiting, a con-man buys a valuable picture from her at a knockdown price. She turns out to be smarter. | ||||||||
28 | 3 | 'Proof of Guilt' | Chris Lovett | Story by: Bill Pronzini Dramatisation by: Johnny Byrne | TBA | Jeremy Clyde (George Stamford), Roy Marsden (Chief Inspector Walters), Dudley Sutton (Detective Sergeant Jack Sherrard), Peter Macklen (P. C. Harris), Richard Barnes (Charles Hearn), Brian Dooley (Forensic Scientist), Geoffrey Lumsden (Solicitor), Elizabeth Richardson (Clarissa Tower), John Gill (Alec McTaggart) | 23 August 1980 | |
A Police Inspector is investigating a murder. The main suspect is George Stamford, who was with the victim at the time of death, but he admits nothing and there is no evidence against him. | ||||||||
29 | 4 | 'Vengeance is Mine Inc.' | Alan Gibson | Roald Dahl | Roald Dahl | Julian Fellowes (George), Betsy Blair (Mrs Wilbur), Virginia Clay (Landlady), Robert Mill (Lionel Brewster), Morris Barry (Wilbur), James Greene (Garage Attendant), Mary Cornford (Theresa Burton), Terry Walsh (Bouncer), Bosco Hogan (Tom), Stephen Boswell (Doorman), Fiesta Mei Ling (Suky) | 30 August 1980 | |
Two out-of-work actors in London set up a scheme whereby they take revenge on a newspaper critic, Lionel Brewster, for money. Mrs Wilbur calls on them and hires their services. | ||||||||
30 | 5 | 'A Girl Can't Always Have Everything' | Graham Evans | Story by: Tonita S. Gardner Dramatisation by: Julian Bond | TBA | Peter Tuddenham (Vicar), Sylvester Williams (Messenger), Ryan Michael (Handsome Man), Richard Foxton (Stage Manager), Nancy Nevinson (Grand Lady), Joan Collins (Suzy Starr), Pauline Collins (Pat Lewis), Brewster Mason (Herbert Millette), James Faulkner (Patrick) | 9 November 1980 | |
Suzy and Pat, two struggling actresses, share an apartment together. They get lucky when a millionaire widower invests in their play. Suzy takes advantage and seduces him, but when he asks her to marry him, she is unfaithful. Pat sees a way to take revenge. | ||||||||
31 | 6 | 'Parson's Pleasure' | John Bruce | Story by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Ronald Harwood | Roald Dahl | John Gielgud (Cyril Boggis), Bernard Miles (Rummins), Lee Montague (Storker), Godfrey James (Claud), Irlin Hall (Lady), Harry Jones (Bert Rummins), Roger Milner (Hawkins), Virginia Clay (Housekeeper) | 30 November 1980 | |
A crooked antiques dealer is masquerading as a clergyman. Claiming to be collecting old furniture, he comes across a farmer who gives him an antique piece worth a fortune. | ||||||||
32 | 7 | 'The Stinker' | Alan Gibson | Story by: Julian Symons Dramatisation by: Julian Bond | TBA | Colin Hodges (Boy), Harvey Hillyer (Boy), David Carlton-Young (Boy), Robin Keston (Boy), Russell Gleed (Boy), Denholm Elliott (Colonel Harold Tinker), Joss Ackland (Jack Cutler), Diane Holland (Blanche Cutler), Tim Bentinck (Meech), Patricia Quinn (Phyl Tinker) | 7 December 1980 | |
Millionaire Jack Cutler runs into Harold Tinker: a boy he used to bully at school. Cutler gives the reluctant Tinker a job. Tinker, however, suspects that Cutler is having an affair with his wife. | ||||||||
33 | 8 | 'I'll Be Seeing You' | Philip Dudley | Story by: Robert Quigley Dramatisation by: Julian Bond | TBA | Robin Marchal (Clinker), Bryan Andrews (Police Inspector), Roger Brierley (Jack Parsons), Pauline Letts (Joan Wilcox), Patricia Mort (Olive Parsons), Alan Foss (Hector Wilcox), Murray Ewan (Professor George Coburn), Amanda Redman (Anna Warrack), Hilary Tindall (Vivien Trent), Anthony Valentine (Roland Trent) | 14 December 1980 | |
Roland Trent, husband of a millionairess, is having an affair with a young woman who is almost blind. Leaving his rich wife will leave him penniless just as he needs to afford an experimental operation that could restore the sight of his new beloved; he thinks of a way to have both the money and his mistress. | ||||||||
34 | 9 | 'The Party' | Giles Foster | Story by: Doug Morgan Dramatisation by: Chaim Bermant | TBA | Raymond Francis (Pelham), Mary Tovey (Mrs Peckham), Michael Nagel (Noel), Janthea Williams (Sue), Olivier Pierre (Leclerc), Robert Morley (Harry Knox), Joyce Redman (Linda Knox), Amanda Redman (Pat), Leonard Preston (Leighton) | 19 December 1980 | |
Harry Knox, manager of a toy factory for 40 years is uneasy when the company is taken over. As he's organising the Christmas party, another staff member arranges a staff disco ahead of his. Enraged, Knox sets fire to the party venue, only to find that he has made a terrible mistake. |
Season 4 (1981)[edit]
Seventeen episodes. First broadcast: Sundays and a Saturday on ITV – 5 April to 26 July and 26 December 1981
No. in series | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Introduced by | Cast | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
35 | 1 | 'Would You Believe It?' | Barry Davies | Story by: Robert Edmond Alter Dramatisation by: Julian Bond | TBA | Nigel Havers (Miller), Richard Johnson (Tanner), Christopher Blake (Israeli Officer), Tony Alleff (Hassin), Vic Tablian (Arab Officer), Albert Moses (Arab Patrolman), Ali Baba (Arab Digger), Paul Satvender (Arab Digger), Tapan Ghosh (Arab Digger), Raj Digger (Arab Digger) | 5 April 1981 | |
While on a dig in Jordan, two archaeologists discover a statue of a woman. They hide it in their van and smuggle it out of the country. When they reach their destination, they find it has been dissolved by rain. | ||||||||
36 | 2 | 'Vicious Circle' | Philip Dudley | Story by: Donald Honig Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | TBA | Patrick Field (Rex Tobin), Siobhán McKenna (Mrs Grady), Lesley Goldie (Mrs Jackson), Graham Weston (Police Superintendent), Kenneth Hadley (Plain-Clothes Policeman), Roger Evans (Policeman), Forbes Collins (Policeman) | 12 April 1981 | |
An elderly woman catches a thief in the act at her home. She befriends the young man and attempts to set him on the straight and narrow. | ||||||||
37 | 3 | 'The Boy who Talked with Animals' | Alan Gibson | Story by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | TBA | Paul Spurrier (David), Stuart Whitman (Sam Jenner), David Buck (David's Father), John Nettleton (Graham Edwards, Hotel Manager), Robert Arden (Berners), John Wyman (Denzil), Mel Taylor (Fisherman), Tony Osoba (Policeman), Amanda Kemp (Denzil's Girlfriend), Oscar James (Fisherman), William Hootkins (Harry Chester), Vivien Heilbron (David's Mother), Astley Harvey (John), Jeffrey Gardiner (Guest), Geoffrey Cousins (Geoffrey), Alison Coleridge (Mildred Berners), Mary Laine (Mary), David Rhule (Fisherman), Steve Margo (Fisherman), Leon Burton (Fisherman), Martin Island (Policeman), Christopher Gilbert (Barman), Emmanuel Josiah (Waiter), Nik Abraham (Waiter), Carl Campbell (Waiter) | 19 April 1981 | |
While on holiday in Jamaica, young David persuades his father to buy a giant turtle captured by fishermen so that it can be released. When both boy and turtle disappear, an American man, Jenner, gets caught up in the adventure. | ||||||||
38 | 4 | 'The Best of Everything' | John Bruce | Story by: Stanley Ellin Dramatisation by: Denis Cannan | TBA | Judi Bowker (Ann Horton), Michael Kitchen (Arthur), Jeremy Clyde (Charlie Prince), Rachel Kempson (Mrs Marsh), Brewster Mason (Horton), David Arlen (White Postman), Carl Andrews (Black Postman), Andrew MacLachlan (Metal Dealer), Peter Bartle (Metal Dealer), Judy Liebert (Metal Dealer), Richard Barnes (Metal Dealer) | 26 April 1981 | |
Arthur, a junior office clerk, is smitten with his rich boss's daughter, Ann, but is too shy to ask her out because he is poor. A new friend, Charlie Prince, will help him to act rich in return for sharing a room. Arthur doesn't play fair with Charlie, but fate plays fair with Arthur. | ||||||||
39 | 5 | 'A Woman's Help' | Bert Salzman | Story by: Henry Slesar Dramatisation by: Bert Salzman | TBA | Anthony Franciosa (Arnold Bourdon), Shirley Knight (Elizabeth Bourdon), Deborah Geffner (Miss Greco), Annie McGreevey (Nurse), Imogene Bliss (Mother), Ian Martin (Dr Ivey), Raymond Thorne (Gardener) | 3 May 1981 | |
Arnold is financially dependent on his rich, older wife, but is having an affair. He devises a plan to kill his wife in order to get her money and remarry. | ||||||||
40 | 6 | 'Shatterproof' | John Jacobs | Story by: Jack Ritchie Dramatisation by: Pat Hoddinott | TBA | Eli Wallach (Gerry Williams), Anthony Pullen Shaw (Smith), Caroline Langrishe (Ellen), Godfrey Talbot (Emerson), Bridget McConnel (Mrs Emerson) | 10 May 1981 | |
Property millionaire Gerry Williams has a beautiful wife, but she no longer loves him. An assassin is hired, but he soon becomes friendly with Gerry. | ||||||||
41 | 7 | 'The Sound Machine' | John Gorrie | Written by: Roald Dahl Dramatisation by: Ronald Harwood | TBA | James Warwick (Dr Scott), Harry Andrews (Klausner), Margery Mason (Mrs Saunders) | 17 May 1981 | |
A botanist has invented a machine that translates the sound of plants into speech. What he hears gives him a shock. | ||||||||
42 | 8 | 'Never Speak Ill of the Dead' | John Gorrie | Written by: John Collier Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | TBA | Warren Clarke (Bob Streeter), Colin Blakely (Dr David Rankin), Cheryl Hall (Irene Rankin), Keith Drinkel (Sim Hoskins), Brian Osborne (Police Sergeant) | 24 May 1981 | |
Irene, the wife of a country doctor, has a reputation for promiscuity. She again becomes the subject of gossip when she disappears. Soon, speculation begins to grow that her husband has murdered her and buried her in the cellar. Remake of 'De Mortuis,' Alfred Hitchcock Presents (S2E3, 14 October 1956), starring Robert Emhardt. | ||||||||
43 | 9 | 'The Best Policy' | Ray Danton | Story by: Ferenc Molnár Dramatisation by: David Scott Milton | TBA | Gary Burghoff (Harry Flock), Deborah Harmon (Daisy Flock), Logan Ramsey (Philbert), William Boyett (Simpson), Edward Grover (Bailout), Robert Casper (Wheatley), Penelope Gillette (Mrs Runion), Damian London (Grunge), Tad Horino (Coroner) | 31 May 1981 | |
Harry Flock is promoted to the position of bank manager due to his meticulous approach to work. The bank's head office, however, gets a tip-off that Flock is embezzling money, but there is no evidence. | ||||||||
44 | 10 | 'The Last Bottle in the World' | John Gorrie | Story by: Stanley Ellin Dramatisation by: Denis Cannan | TBA | Anthony Quayle (Kyros Kassoulas), Gary Bond (Max de Marechall), Nigel Hawthorne (Charles Drummond), Lynette Davies (Sophie Kassoulas), Neville Phillips (Waiter), Carlos Douglas (Assistant Chef), Pat Lewis (Miss Pym), Claude Le Saché (Waiter) | 7 June 1981 | |
Kyros Kassoulas is planning a meal for his wedding anniversary. He buys an expensive bottle of Claret for the occasion, but he is fully aware that his wife is being unfaithful. | ||||||||
45 | 11 | 'Kindly Dig Your Grave' | Alan Gibson | Story by: Stanley Ellin Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | TBA | Micheline Presle (Madame La Grue), Celia Gregory (Fatima), Robert H. Thomson (Graham MacKenzie), Gerard Lartigau (Henri), Alan Gifford (Edward), Helen Horton (Martha) | 14 June 1981 | |
A commercial art gallery in Paris is run by the unscrupulous Madame La Grue, who is exploiting the artists she employs. She soon realises that she has met her match, however, when one of her artists falls in love with the model he is painting. | ||||||||
46 | 12 | 'Completely Foolproof' | John Jacobs | Story by: Robert Arthur Jr. Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | TBA | Telly Savalas (Joe Brisson), Rita Gam (Lisa), Ramsay Williams (Howard Duncombe), Belinda Mayne (Anna Kleiber), Linda Liles (Miss Graham), Douglas Lambert (Harrington) | 21 June 1981 | |
Joe Brisson, a ruthless self-made millionaire, has a number of enemies—including his wife. Joe plans to murder his wife as she is blackmailing him for half of his assets. | ||||||||
47 | 13 | 'There's One Born Every Minute' | Philip Dudley | Story by: Bill Pronzini Dramatisation by: Chaim Bermant | TBA | Frank Finlay (Arthur Pearson), Heather Sears (Margaret Pearson), Peter Copley (Man at Railway Station), Andrew Burt (Edward), Jo Rowbottom (Joy), Deryck Guyler (Commissionaire), Kevin Brennan (Grimshaw), Allan Mitchell (Detective Sergeant) | 28 June 1981 | |
Arthur and Margaret Pearson live a quiet, middle-aged life. When Margaret inherits some money, Arthur decides to invest it in a property scheme. This, however, proves the turning point in their relationship. | ||||||||
48 | 14 | 'Bosom Friends' | Graham Evans | Story by: Dana Lyon Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | TBA | Rachel Kempson (Nell), Joan Greenwood (Emma), Nat Jackley (Deacon), Aaron Shirley (Brown), Patricia Browning (Ward Sister) | 5 July 1981 | |
Nell and Emma are old school friends who meet up again for the first time in years. Eventually, Emma moves in with Nell. It turns out however that Emma is penniless and is happy to drag Nell down with her. | ||||||||
49 | 15 | 'A Glowing Future' | John Peyser | Story by: Ruth Rendell Dramatisation by: Ross Thomas | TBA | John Beck (Jack), Joanna Pettet (Betsy), Bill Lavoie (Removal Man) | 19 July 1981 | |
Betsy and Jack are long-term lovers who live together. Jack, however, has fallen in love with another woman in Australia and plans to marry her. Betsy becomes enraged as he packs his things to move away, which includes a lot of her possessions. | ||||||||
50 | 16 | 'The Way to Do It' | Alan Gibson | Story by: Jack Ritchie Dramatisation by: Denis Cannan | TBA | Andrew Ray (Roger Carson), Elaine Paige (Suzie), Elizabeth Spriggs (Aunt May), Sarah Webb (Jackie), Martin Benson (Vasco), Annie Leon (Miss Stevens), Forbes Collins (Commissionaire), Andrew MacLachlan (Police Sergeant), Genevieve Allenbury (Croupier), Philip Hatton (Croupier Thug), Dennis Masuki (Croupier), Barbie Denham (Croupier), Ann Coombs (Croupier), Trisha Clarke (Croupier) | 26 July 1981 | |
Roger Carson is eager to get away from the clutches of his domineering Aunt May and takes up gambling. While at the casino, he falls for a hostess, Suzie. The casino manager has a score to settle with the Carsons, however. | ||||||||
51 | 17 | 'Hijack' | Herbert Wise | Story by: Robert L. Fish Dramatisation by: Denis Cannan | TBA | Simon Cadell (Co-pilot), Michael Craig (Hijacker), Suzanne Danielle (Millie), Denis Quilley (Captain Waterhouse), Sean Barrett (Steward), Peter Tuddenham (Airport Security Officer), Matthew Long (Second Security Officer), Richard Foxton (Security Guard), John Graham (Scottish Passenger), William Merrow (German Passenger), Neville Phillips (English Passenger), Douglas Lambert (American Passenger), Helen Horton (American Passenger) | 26 December 1981 | |
On board an aeroplane, a hijacker takes a stewardess hostage and demands a million dollars and a parachute. The captain tries to deal with the situation and grants him his wish. Inspired by the 1971 D. B. Cooper incident. |
Season 5 (1982)[edit]
Eighteen episodes. First broadcast: Sundays on ITV – 25 April to 22 August 1982
No. in series | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Introduced by | Cast | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
52 | 1 | 'Blue Marigold' | Giles Foster | Story by: Aileen Wheeler Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | TBA | Edward Jewesbury (Psychiatrist), Stephen Bent (Car Dealer), Ralph Bates (Paul Foster), Sharon Duce (Sophie Trent), Helen Fraser (Beryl), Toyah Willcox (Marigold), Billy Hamon (Bryan Sabotier), Paul Seed (Director of Commercial) | 25 April 1982 | |
Marigold is a top model much in demand until her temperamental nature takes over. She loses her contracts and winds up in a mental home. Released years later, she plans a comeback. | ||||||||
53 | 2 | 'The Eavesdropper' | John Gorrie | Story by: Ruth Wissmann Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | TBA | Michael Craig (Donald Henderson), Dorothy Tutin (Moira Henderson), Sheila Ruskin (Louise), Bernice Stegers (Kaye), Rosalyn Elvin (Waitress), Ronnie Stevens (Jeweller), Neil Daglish (Young Man), Lill Roughley (Blonde Girl) | 2 May 1982 | |
Happily married Donald and Moira are out shopping for a new watch as a gift for Moira. While there, Moira overhears a conversation between two women about a married man one of them is seeing. She soon realises it must be Donald about whom they are talking. | ||||||||
54 | 3 | 'Operation Safecrack' | Alan Gibson | Story by: Henry Slesar Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | TBA | John Mills (Sam Morrissey), June Ritchie (Jenny Morrissey), David Healy (Jack Harrison), Edward Burnham (Henry Bliss), Eliza Buckingham (Reporter & Voice of Stewardess), Rachel Laurence (Hilda), David Hanson (Winford Stark), Jason Norman (Billy Thompson), Richard Everett (Television Director), Nick Diprose (Floor Manager) | 9 May 1982 | |
On behalf of a company that designs safes, an advertising executive hires Sam Morrissey, an ex-safe cracker, to break into one of their safes with the promise of £25,000 if he is successful. | ||||||||
55 | 4 | 'Run Rabbit Run' | John Jacobs | Story by: John Bakkenhoven Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | TBA | Leslie Caron (Nathalie Vareille), James Aubrey (Robert Simpson), Constantine Gregory (Hector Vareille), Bernadette Windsor (Young Girl) | 16 May 1982 | |
After World War II, a U. S. Army interpreter was stationed in Paris, staying at the house of the bully Hector and downtrodden Nathalie. Ten years later, he returns to the house and meets Nathalie, but Hector is mysteriously absent. | ||||||||
56 | 5 | 'Stranger in Town' | Wendy Toye | Story by: Sidney Carroll | TBA | Jean Kitson (Secretary), Bruce Clark (The Boy), Jennifer Connelly (The Girl), Clive Swift (Latham), Robbie MacNab (Hotel Receptionist), Stuart Howard (News-stand boy), Giles Phibbs (Foreman), Derek Jacobi (Sir Columbus) | 23 May 1982 | |
A man going by the name of Sir Columbus dresses and acts like a clown, endearing himself to the local community. While there, he enters a business premises and reveals to the boss who he really is. | ||||||||
57 | 6 | 'The Moles' | Peter Hammond | Story by: J. J. Maling Dramatisation by: Chaim Bermant | TBA | Fulton Mackay (Edward Boyle), Bill Owen (Meakins), Harry H. Corbett (George Balsam), Joe Gladwin (Heeney), Avril Elgar (Thelma Boyle) | 30 May 1982 | |
Two businessmen on the verge of bankruptcy devise a plan to rob a bank. With the help of an experienced criminal, they dig a tunnel to reach the bank's vault. | ||||||||
58 | 7 | 'Decoy' | John Jacobs | Story by: Victor Edwards Dramatisation by: Chaim Bermant | TBA | Susan Penhaligon (W. P. C. Mary Bryan), Tim Woodward (Anthony Burton), Paul Antrim (Mike), Ian MacKenzie (Police Draughtsman), Harold Reese (Pathologist), Ian Redford (Detective Sergeant Harvey), Tom Cotcher (Detective Sergeant Talbot), Frank Wylie (Chief Inspector McLintock) | 6 June 1982 | |
Police Officer Mary Bryan goes undercover to investigate a serial killer. The killer has murdered a number of women in the city and Officer Bryan sets up an ambush. | ||||||||
59 | 8 | 'Pattern of Guilt' | Herbert Wise | Story by: Helen Nielsen Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | TBA | Peter Egan (Keith Briscoe), Suzanne Danielle (Elaine Briscoe), Jennie Linden (Faye Briscoe), Andrew Manson (Young Man), Harry Webster (Old Man), Bernard Kay (Detective Sergeant Jim Gordon), Andrew Hilton (Plain Clothes Police Officer), Brett Forrest (Gerald), Neil Hutchings (Mark Briscoe), Darren Michael (John Briscoe) | 13 June 1982 | |
Keith Briscoe, a police pathologist, has fallen out of love with his second wife and wants to get back with his first, Faye. While working on an investigation into a serial killer, he asks Faye to act as a decoy. | ||||||||
60 | 9 | 'A Harmless Vanity' | Giles Foster | Story by: Theda O'Henle Dramatisation by: Jeremy Paul | TBA | Keith Barron (George Hitchman), Phoebe Nicholls (Carol), Sheila Gish (Mary Hitchman), Suzanne Worsley (Girl lover), Colin Farrell (Dave Ferguson), Michael Nagel (Lifeguard), Carol MacReady (Liz Ferguson), Chas Bryer (Frogman), Michael Speake (Television Announcer) | 20 June 1982 | |
A woman is tipped off by a friend that her husband is having an affair. She is reluctant to believe it but sets up a meeting with this woman at a beach party. | ||||||||
61 | 10 | 'Death Can Add' | Graham Evans | Story by: Philip Ketchum Dramatisation by: Johnny Byrne | TBA | Geoffrey Chater (James Hamilton), Frank Gatliff (Thomas Keyes), Jan Francis (Leila Graham), Michael N. Harbour (Oliver Platt), Roland Culver (Sir Alex Bullen), Ian Holm (Alan Corwin) | 27 June 1982 | |
Alan Corwin, an auditor in a city investment firm, is approached by Oliver Platt, another member of the firm, to cover up his use of company money. For a price, he agrees, but Corwin's secretary and girlfriend is ignorant to the arrangement. | ||||||||
62 | 11 | 'Light Fingers' | John Peyser | Story by: Henry Slesar Dramatisation by: Ross Thomas | TBA | Frank Sinatra Jr. (Cotter), Janet Leigh (Joan Stackpole), Tom Bosley (Ralph Stackpole), Kenneth Tigar (Semple), Penelope Gillette (Gladys Miton) | 4 July 1982 | |
Joan and Ralph live a quiet life. Ralph is concerned, though, when thefts begin to occur at his glove factory. Eventually, he hires a private detective to catch the culprit. | ||||||||
63 | 12 | 'Death in the Morning' | John Gorrie | Story by: Zia Kruger Dramatisation by: John Gorrie | TBA | Cherie Lunghi (Karen Masterson), Moray Watson (Sir Ian Masterson), Carol Drinkwater (Linda Larch), Alan Rowe (Duncan Larch), Hilary Mason (Mrs Pardoe), Richard Austin (Paul Masterson), John Stamp (Williams) | 11 July 1982 | |
Sir Ian Masterson, a rich landowner, marries Karen. Upon moving into the house, Karen has an uneasy feeling and confides in their neighbour that the place is haunted. | ||||||||
64 | 13 | 'What Have You Been up to Lately?' | Herbert Wise | Story by: George Baxt Dramatisation by: Denis Cannan | TBA | Maggie Fitzgibbon (Melissa Mellor), Peter Barkworth (Richard Mellor), Benjamin Whitrow (Fergus Locke), June Watson (Audrey Locke), Fanny Rowe (Actress), Angela Harding (Cathleen) | 18 July 1982 | |
Two old actor friends meet up for the first time in 25 years. They ponder the fact that neither of them have been successful in their career or life and reminisce about a girl they both had a crush on. | ||||||||
65 | 14 | 'The Absence of Emily' | Alan Gibson John Rosenberg | Story by: Jack Ritchie Dramatisation by: Denis Cannan | TBA | Anthony Valentine (Bob), Frances Tomelty (Norma), Susan Tracy (Emily), Patsy Byrne (Jean), Patrick McAlinney (Landlord), William Moore (Crisp), Derek Anders (Goff), Diana King (Ruth) | 25 July 1982 | |
Norma has inherited a large estate and allows her sister Emily and brother-in-law Bob to live there. Emily disappears and Norma believes that Bob has killed her for an insurance pay out. She and a detective investigate. | ||||||||
66 | 15 | 'In the Bag' | Bert Salzman | Story by: Robert L. Fish Dramatization by: Bert Salzman | TBA | Edward Albert (Sam), Terry O'Quinn (Cop), Lou Jacobi (Waiter), Roxanne Hart (Cara), Michael A. Candela (Gardener) | 1 August 1982 | |
Cara is determined to get back her family jewels, which have been hidden away in a safe. Hiring a safe cracker, she goes along with him undercover. | ||||||||
67 | 16 | 'A Man with a Fortune' | Herbert Wise | Story by: Peter Lovesey Dramatisation by: Alan Seymour | TBA | Shane Rimmer (John Smith), Cyd Hayman (Janet Murdoch), Elizabeth Richardson (Eva), Peter Tuddenham (Tommy), Donald Eccles (Vicar), Nigel Greaves (Waiter), Jean Kitson (Clerk) | 8 August 1982 | |
American John Smith is visiting England to track down his family roots. While in London, he meets up with two girls who befriend him. | ||||||||
68 | 17 | 'Who's Got the Lady?' | Peter Hammond | Story by: Jack Ritchie Dramatisation by: Jeremy Paul | TBA | Timothy Carlton (Walter Jameson), Gladys Spencer (Old Lady), Richard Johnson (Parnell), Robert Beatty (Amos Pulver), Victoria Tennant (Bernice), Vincent Wong (Japanese Art Collector), Michael Forrest (Detective Chief Superintendent Nelson), Neil Daglish (Heath), Laurence Payne (Hollingwood), Peter Howell (Louis Kendall), Olivier Pierre (Andre Arnaud) | 15 August 1982 | |
An art gallery owner has received a priceless work of art on loan. He sets up a robbery with a supposed fake being put in its place. He then gets his girlfriend to make a copy of the painting in order to sell it as the real thing. | ||||||||
69 | 18 | 'The Skeleton Key' | Alan Gibson | Story by: Graham Sutton Dramatisation by: Roy Russell | TBA | Julie Dawn Cole (Emma), John Duttine (Max), Peter Jeffrey (Stewart), Peter Machin (Andy), Tony Osoba (Dr Hartley) | 22 August 1982 | |
Max, an arrogant young man plans a holiday with his girlfriend Emma, but he needs an emergency operation beforehand. Andy, a kind-hearted radiologist at the hospital builds up a friendship with Emma. Max is being very bad tempered and so she finds she has a decision to make. |
Season 6 (1983)[edit]
No. in series | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Introduced by | Cast | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
70 | 1 | 'A Passing Opportunity' | Graham Evans | Story by: Donald Honig Adaptation by: Alan Seymour | TBA | Guy Bertrand (Manservant), Paul Davies Prowles (Timmy Jesmond), Charles Keating (Peter Madison), Janette Legge (Eleanor Jesmond), Mark Lewis (Showroom Manager), Bryan Marshall (Frank Jesmond), George Sewell (Laughlin) | 9 April 1983 | |
Frank Jesmond and Peter Madison are former schoolmates with very different lives. Jesmond is tough but broke while Madison is rich and successful. Jesmond is desperate for money, but Madison wants to see how desperate. | ||||||||
71 | 2 | 'The Memory Man' | Peter Duffell | Story by: Henry Slesar Dramatisation by: Denis Cannan | TBA | Judy Geeson (Mary), Colin Blakely (Colin Mearns), Bernard Cribbins (Charlie Krebs & Mr King), Johnny Vyvyan (Small Man), John Biggerstaff (Tobacconist), John Judd (Police Inspector) | 16 April 1983 | |
Coln Mearns has a gift for memory, but is struggling financially. Advertising to teach his methods, he is met by a shady character who is desperate to remember the combination of a locker. Mearns soon becomes curious to what the locker contains. | ||||||||
72 | 3 | 'A Sad Loss' | John Gorrie | Story by :Patricia Moyes Dramatisation by :James Andrew Hall | TBA | Bazil Otoin (Desk Clerk), Heinz Bernard (Charlie), Lally Bowers (Alicia Hawksworth), Elizabeth Bradley (Mrs Bradley), Hayley Mills (Claire Hawksworth), Stuart Wilson (Dave Brigham), Phyllida Law (Maggie Patton), Ronny Cush (Harry), Major Wiley (Police Inspector), Iris Iverson (Hotel Guest), Chris Allen (Hotel Guest), Richard Markin (Hotel Guest), Jean Channon (Hotel Guest), Juliette James (Hotel Guest) | 23 April 1983 | |
Claire Hawksworth runs a Caribbean hotel with her boyfriend, but they have fallen on tough times. Hopeful of some money, Claire turns to her rich aunt. Her aunt however tells her of a new heir to her fortune. | ||||||||
73 | 4 | 'Clerical Error' | Graham Evans | Story by: Peter Ransley James Gould Cozzens Dramatisation by: Richard Huggett | TBA | David Webb (Ronnie Carey), Richard Pearson (Michael Carey), Evelyn Laye (Mrs Standing), Hugh Fraser (Paul Standing) | 30 April 1983 | |
Paul Standing, the son of a recently deceased doctor is sorting out his paperwork when he receives a bill from a bookshop for thousands of pounds worth of pornography. Paul is highly suspicious. | ||||||||
74 | 5 | 'Heir Presumptuous' | Philip Leacock | Story by: C.B. Gilford Dramatisation by: Ross Thomas | TBA | Royce D. Applegate (Deputy Eddie Ream), Tara Buckman (Sally Fenton), David Cassidy (Donald and David), Ann Doran (Mary Deacon), Darren McGavin (Sheriff Milt Singleton), Robert Snively (George Devon) | 7 May 1983 | |
George Devon, a wealthy rancher is found murdered. His identical twin nephews stand to inherit his fortune, but one of them was seen at the scene of the crime. Both have alibis and no one can tell the two boys apart. | ||||||||
75 | 6 | 'Where's Your Sense of Humour?' | Leonard Lewis | Story by: Peter Ransley Dramatisation by: Patricia McGerr | TBA | Sheila Gish (Laura Parker), Philip Jackson (George Forester), Penelope Nice (Julie Forester), Tom Chadbon (Frank Parker), Scott Saunders (Young Parker), Penelope Fischer (Carol), John King (Bob) | 14 May 1983 | |
George Forester is a compulsive prankster. His wife and friends have been victims for many years until one day he goes too far. | ||||||||
76 | 7 | 'Down Among the Sheltering Palms' | John Gorrie | Story by: John Gorrie | TBA | Geoffrey Bayldon (Sid), Anne Carroll (Lena), Margaret Courtenay (Marge), Christopher Fulford (Bill), Gabrielle Hamilton (Doris), Van Johnson (Gerry T. Armstrong), Barry McCarthy (Jeff), Vanessa Paine (Carol) | 21 May 1983 | |
Gerry Armstrong an American soldier in World War II returns after 40 years to Norfolk, where he was based. While there, he attends a dance and meets a beautiful woman, but, she is not all she seems. | ||||||||
77 | 8 | 'The Vorpal Blade' | John Jacobs | Story by: Edward D. Hoch Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | TBA | Peter Cushing (von Baden), Dean Allen (Duellist), John Bailey (Winterluck), Steve Brigden (Fifth student), Andrew Bicknell (Macker), Matthew Francis (Young von Baden), Michael Gardiner (Second student), Denys Graham (Doctor), Anthony Higgins (Cassan), Barrie Jaimeson (Josef), Kirstie Pooley (Eva), Nicholas Hall (First student), Brian Binns (Third student), John Rankin (Fourth student) | 28 May 1983 | |
Sitting on a garden bench, an old man called Von Baden discusses with a friend a duel which took place 50 years ago in Heidelberg, Germany. He has kept secret the events surrounding the death of one of the combatants, but now wants to relate what really happened. | ||||||||
78 | 9 | 'The Wrong'Un' | Leonard Lewis | Story by: Michael Brett Dramatisation by: Paul Ableman | TBA | Andrew Ray (Cranmer Oakes), Richard Foxton (Assistant Manager), Constantine Gregory (Helmut Kohler Weinrich), Lucy Gutteridge (Molly), Elspeth March (Mrs Carson), Daragh O'Malley (Jimmy), Graham Weston (Business man), Carrie Lee Baker (Sally, the maid), Alpana Sen Gupta (Cynthia) | 11 June 1983 | |
A German businessman is staying at a hotel and in mood for celebration. He meets up with Molly, an attractive but strange girl. Despite being warned about her, he takes her to his room. | ||||||||
79 | 10 | 'The Luncheon' | Graham Evans | Story by: Jeffrey Archer Dramatisation by: Gerald Savory | TBA | Stephen Greif (Rinaldo), Jacqueline Hill (Melanie Litmayer), Gayle Hunnicutt (Susan Mandeville), Bosco Hogan (Tony Medway), Hazel McBride (Louise Medway), Burnell Tucker (Peter Blundell), Gertrude Shilling (Miss Sopwith), Barbara Molyneux (Lady Handel), Martin Ryan Grace (Wayne), John Cassady (Shaun), Shireen Anwar (Bank Teller), Mark Lewis (Carlo), Nicholas Field (Mario), Stuart Turton (Franco), Patrick Bailey (Dieter) | 18 June 1983 | |
Susan Mandeville is a beautiful American woman who takes a shine to struggling writer Tony Medway. He takes her out to lunch in the hope of getting a lucrative offer for his book, but, things aren't so straightforward. | ||||||||
80 | 11 | 'The Tribute' | Graham Evans | Story by: Jane Gardam Dramatisation by: Alan Seymour | TBA | Eleanor Bron (Polly Knox), Sheila Burrell (Lady Eleanor Benson), Anna Neagle (Fanny Soane), Phyllis Calvert (Mabel Ince), Brian Tipping (Head Waiter), Stuart Turton (Wine Waiter), Chris Tummings (Youth), Kelvin Omard | 25 June 1983 | |
Three former colonial English ladies, notorious for their miserly ways, hear about the death of a former servant. They decide against putting a notice in the newspaper, inviting the woman's niece out to lunch instead. | ||||||||
81 | 12 | 'Hit and Run' | Peter Hammond | Story by: Patricia Moyes Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | TBA | Brenda Blethyn (Carol Hutchins), Antony Carrick (Inspector), Tony Crean (Ambulance Attendant), John Duttine (Dr Roger Ashburn), Ray Lonnen (Dr Steve Hutchins), Robert McBain (Ambulance Driver), Michael Melia (Detective Sergeant), Cherry Morris (Casualty Sister), Susan Penhaligon (Mary Ashburn), Michael Quinto (Policeman), Phyllida Nash (Joan Hunter) | 10 May 1983 | |
Roger Ashburn, a young doctor is deeply in love with his beautiful wife, but, she doesn't feel the same way. He arranges a dinner party with some of his friends, but, she disappears afterwards. Roger is desperately worried, but, there is a surprise in store. | ||||||||
82 | 13 | 'Youth from Vienna' | Norman Lloyd | Story by: John Collier Dramatisation by: Ross Thomas | TBA | Sharon Gless (Caroline Coates), Dick Smothers (Dr Humphrey Baxter), James Carroll Jordan (Alan Brodie), Ellen Geer (Stella Archer), Elliott Reid (Dick Archer) | 2 July 1983 | |
Caroline Coates is promoted in her role as television news reporter, but is worried that she won't last if her looks start to go. She is admired by a man who has come up with a formula for an anti-ageing process. | ||||||||
83 | 14 | 'The Turn of the Tide' | Ray Danton | Story by: C. S. Forester Dramatisation by: Ross Thomas | TBA | Richard Basehart (Slade), Gretchen Corbett (Martha), Nicholas Hormann (Spalding) | 3 September 1983 | |
A lawyer is planning the perfect murder of an enemy of his. He plans meticulously, but there is one thing he's overlooked. |
Season 7 (1984)[edit]
Fifteen episodes. First broadcast: Saturdays and Sundays on ITV – 12 May to 21 October 1984
No. in series | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Introduced by | Cast | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
84 | 1 | 'The Dirty Detail' | Leo Penn | Story by: Henry Slesar Adaptation by: David Scott Milton | TBA | Jenny O'Hara (Ruth Pearson), George Peppard (Sergeant Guedo), Vincent Howard (Detective), Ted Gehring (Bartender), Tom Finnegan (Barfly), Kevin Dobson (Fred Pearson) | 12 May 1984 | |
Fred Pearson, a Vietnam veteran, is a broken man after years of punishment from his sergeant. One day, he walks into a bar and sees the sergeant, still very much the arrogant bully he always was. | ||||||||
85 | 2 | 'The Best Chess Player in the World' | TBA | Story by: Julian Symons Dramatisation by: Peter Ransley | TBA | Andrew Ray (Jerry Wilde), Christopher Reich (Peter Simpson), Clifford Parrish (Frank Miller), Michael Jayston (George Bernard Shaw), Mark Jax (White), Lynette Davies (Paula Shaw), Pat Guthrie (Telephone Operator) | 19 May 1984 | |
Shaw, the owner of a newspaper is controlling and very rich. His wife is content with the money he provides but is having an affair. When Shaw finds out he decides to act. | ||||||||
86 | 3 | 'Proxy' | Bert Salzman | Story by: Talmage Powell Dramatisation by: Bert Salzman | TBA | Barbara Bolton (Mrs Sutton), Lois Smith (Sara), Tom Smothers (William), Patrick O'Neal (Sutton), Malachy McCourt (Judge), Joanne Lara (Maria), Larry Keith (Grenich) | 26 May 1984 | |
Three men are being blackmailed by a woman for money. One day she is found murdered and the three worry that they will be suspected. Her chauffeur however, has a plan. | ||||||||
87 | 4 | 'Have a Nice Death' | William Slater | Story by: Antonia Fraser Dramatisation by: Wolf Mankowitz | TBA | Simon Cadell (Sam Luke), Kate Harper (Clodagh Jansen), Susannah Fellows (Joannie), Ian Tyler (Bellhop), Bill Bailey (Bob, Interviewer), Sue Vanner (Zara Luke), Barbara Rosenblat (Television Interviewer) | 2 June 1984 | |
Successful writer Sam Luke is being hounded by the feminist movement for his books, which speak of women being the weaker sex. Unable to deal with them, he returns to his wife, but now is getting death threats. | ||||||||
88 | 5 | 'Number Eight' | TBA | Story by: Jack Ritchie Dramatisation by: Ross Thomas | TBA | Dennis Christopher (Driver), Brad Dourif (Hitch-hiker), Kathleen Doyle (Ann), Will Hare (Old Man) | 9 June 1984 | |
A driver picks up a hitchhiker. They hear on the radio that a serial killer is on the loose nicknamed Willow the Wisp. The driver quickly realises that the description exactly matches that of his passenger. | ||||||||
89 | 6 | 'The Last of the Midnight Gardeners' | TBA | Story by: Tony Wilmot Dramatisation by: Gerald Savory | TBA | Jane Asher (Jane Oats), Forbes Collins (Inspector), Celia Gregory (Edna Tewsland), Patrick Mower (Walter Oats), Jim Norton (Dr. Mellish), Panos Alexander (Steward) | 16 June 1984 | |
A magazine editor has a wife and a secret lover. For his magazine, he launches a competition for a story involving the perfect murder. His wife encourages him to enter it himself. | ||||||||
90 | 7 | 'The Gift of Beauty' | TBA | Story by: Joseph Dougherty Dramatisation by: Bert Salzman | TBA | Carol Lynley (Elizabeth), MacKenzie Allen (Ray), Randall Edwards (Rebecca) | 30 June 1984 | |
Elizabeth kills her husband because she wants to be with her young lover Ray – who helped in the murder – but she feels insecure because of the age gap. She then sees a flyer for an anti-ageing process known as the Gift of Beauty. | ||||||||
91 | 8 | 'Wet Saturday' | TBA | Story by: John Collier | TBA | Ed Begley Jr. (George Princey), Fritz Weaver (Princey), Mary Sinclair (Mrs Princey), Charles Hallahan (Jack Lowry) | 7 July 1984 | |
George Princey has a high standing in the community and when his daughter kills a man he endeavours to cover up to prevent him facing a scandal. | ||||||||
92 | 9 | 'Sauce for the Goose' | TBA | Story by: Patricia Highsmith Dramatisation by: Bert Salzman | TBA | Gloria Grahame (Olivia), Robert Morse (Stephen Shaw), Lisa Dunsheath (Gloria) | 21 July 1984 | |
Olivia starts a relationship with a younger man on the basis that she's killed her husband and gained his fortune. Her lover however still sees himself as a free agent and has an affair with another woman. | ||||||||
93 | 10 | 'Bird of Prey' | TBA | Story by: John Collier Dramatisation by: Ross Thomas | TBA | Sondra Locke (Edna), Frank Converse (Jack), Charles Hallahan (Charlie) | 4 August 1984 | |
Jack and Edna's parrot lays a large, oversized egg. The parrot dies and so they keep the egg warm. On hatching, it reveals an aggressive black-feathered bird. Jack is taken by it, but Edna is suspicious of the evil-looking creature. | ||||||||
94 | 11 | 'I Like it Here in Wilmington' | TBA | Story by: Henry Slesar Dramatisation by: David Scott Milton | TBA | Tom Smothers (Marvin Castlemore), Susan Strasberg (Roberta Elton), Robert Loggia (Harry Elton), Wendy Austin (Cissy) | 11 August 1984 | |
Harry is a clothing manufacturer in Wilmington, Delaware. He is on the verge of bankruptcy however. Being used to the good life, he ponders the idea of murdering his business partner in order to collect the insurance money. | ||||||||
95 | 12 | 'Accidental Death' | TBA | Story by: Denis Cannan Dramatisation by: Tony Wilmot | TBA | Andrew Ray (Steve Jeffries), Lynsey Baxter (Jane), Cyril Cusack (Percy Hampton), Tamara Ustinov (Beryl), Giles Phibbs (Farmer), Bryan Matheson (Husband in Bar), Yvonne Marsh (Policewoman), Ruth Kettlewell (Wife in Bar), John Hug (Arthur), Jacqueline Hill (Mrs Milvain), Ian Flintoff (Doctor), Jason Carter (Youth at Yacht Club) | 19 August 1984 | |
Steve and Jane are con artists who gain access to people's homes claiming to be doing research into polish. While there, they assess the valuables in the house for later theft. Coming across a scruffy old man, they hear that he is actually rich but they underestimate him. | ||||||||
96 | 13 | 'The Reconciliation' | TBA | Story by: Nicholas Monsarrat Dramatisation by: Roy Russell | TBA | John Castle (Derek Johnstone), Keith Edwards (Juan Luis Romero), Wilfred Grove (Porter), Jim Norton (Bates), Roger Rees (James Howgill), Meg Davies (Caroline Howgill & voice of Jenny), Anna Maria Macchi (Sandra Marino) | 16 September 1984 | |
James has walked out on his wife, who still loves him. His lawyer advises him that it may be difficult to get a divorce unless he can catch her being unfaithful. With not much hope, he hires a private detective. | ||||||||
97 | 14 | 'The Mugger' | TBA | Idea: Miriam Bienstock Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | TBA | Roy Marsden (Gerald Overton), Graham Bell (Television Interviewer), Amanda Boxer (Jenny Overton), Kate Harper (Mary Tregallas), Peter Russell (Policeman), Toby Scopes (James Overton), Zara Nutley (Ann Dibbell), Mark Lewis (Gerald's Pursuer), David Hanson (John Dibbell), Diana Goodman (Television Reporter), Evie Garratt (Mrs Cromer), Forbes Collins (Police Officer), Raymond Boyd (Manservant), Dadina Sagah (Maid), Chris Tummings (Boy on roller skates) | 14 October 1984 | |
Gerald Overton, a politician has fallen in love with a beautiful woman he met at a party. Things go wrong and his entire career and reputation are in jeopardy. Gerald decides to take the law into his own hands. | ||||||||
98 | 15 | 'The Open Window' | TBA | Story by: Hector Hugh Munro Dramatisation by: David Trainer | TBA | Michael Conforti (Stanley), Valerie Mahaffey (Jane), Richard Dow (Gregory), Richard Marr (Vernon), Michael Galloway (Stuart), Dina Merrill (Marjorie) | 21 October 1984 | |
At a hunting lodge in Connecticut, a young man climbs through the window. However, when he emerges the other side he finds himself in a strange new world, unlike anything he's ever seen before. |
Patricia Neal
Season 8 (1985)[edit]
Four episodes. First broadcast: 1 Saturday and 3 Sundays on ITV – 30 March and 14 to 28 July 1985
No. in series | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Introduced by | Cast | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
99 | 1 | 'People Don't Do Such Things' | Gordon Hessler | Story by: Ruth Rendell Dramatisation by: Ross Thomas | TBA | Jay Varela (Sergeant Demmer), Don Johnson (Reeve Baker), Arthur Hill (Terence Carter), Samantha Eggar (Gwen Carter), Denise Galik (Melanie Todd) | 30 March 1985 | |
Reeve Baker is a successful romantic novelist. Gwen, the wife of a friend, falls for Baker and, despite her husband's warnings, carries on with the relationship. | ||||||||
100 | 2 | 'In the Cards' | John Peyser | Story by: John Collier Dramatisation by: Ross Thomas & A. A. Roberts | TBA | Kenneth Tigar (Merrifield), Elaine Giftos (Grace), Susan Strasberg (Madame Myra), Max Gail (Charlie) | 14 July 1985 | |
Madame Myra is a fortuneteller with a lacklustre career and dim future. A man shows up eventually who is eager to guide her to a better life, but he has an ulterior motive. | ||||||||
101 | 3 | 'Nothin' Short of Highway Robbery' | John Peyser | Story by: Lawrence Block Dramatisation by: Luther Murdoch | TBA | Jennifer Holmes (Marcie), Bud Cort (Newt), Bettye Ackerman (Ruby), Warren Oates (Harry) | 21 July 1985 | |
A husband and wife are embarking on a long drive through the desert. They stop off at a rundown gas station to be told that their car is in need of extensive repair. They agree to stay for a meal while the mechanic works on it. | ||||||||
102 | 4 | 'Scrimshaw' | Dezsö Magyar | Story by: Brian Garfield Dramatisation by: Bernard N. Eismann | TBA | Claude Anagram (The Bartender), Saw Weyman (The Man on the Beach), Mary Gross (The Woman on the Beach), Adair Jameson (The Gallery Lady), Charles Kimbrough (Eric), Buddy Owen (The Sailor), Joan Hackett (Brenda), Harry Richard (The Desk Clerk) | 28 July 1985 | |
Brenda is a lonely alcoholic living in Florida. Her life is turned around when an old friend, Eric, turns up. |
Season 9 (1987–1988)[edit]
Ten episodes. First broadcast: Fridays on ITV – 18 December 1987 to 29 January 1988 and 15 April to 13 May 1988
No. in series | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Introduced by | Cast | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
103 | 1 | 'Skeleton in the Cupboard' | Paul Annett | Tony Wilmott | TBA | Francesca Brill (Jane Fisher), Charles Dance (Robert Smythe), Philip Dunbar (Henry Traile), Zoë Wanamaker (Margaret Smythe), Matthew Jones (Man on the Phone) | 18 December 1987 | |
Robert Smythe has a dark secret he has kept for twenty years, but old sins have long shadows. Then a young woman comes to the area, enquiring into the past .. | ||||||||
104 | 2 | 'The Colonels Lady' | Barry Davis | Story by: Somerset Maugham Dramatisation by: Denis Cannan | TBA | Joss Ackland (Colonel George Peregrine), Paul Williamson (Harry), Gareth Thomas (Telfer), Anna Nicholas (Irina Stefanopoulos), Dennis Matsuki (Manservant), Carol Leader (Daphne), John Horsley (Giles Rowley), Rupert Frazer (Basil Dashwood), Kate Emma Davies (Clio Stefanopoulos), Allan Corduner (Hatchards Bookshop Assistant), Pauline Collins (Eve K. Hamilton-Peregrine) | 9 January 1988 | |
Eve Hamilton-Peregrine has written a successful book of poetry. Her husband is suspicious about the subject of the poems and demands to know who the lover is that she writes about. | ||||||||
105 | 3 | 'The Surgeon' | Graham Evans | Story by: Roald Dahl | TBA | John Alderton (Robert Sandy), David Belcher (Julius Goff), Shirley Cain (Sister Wyman), Jonathan Coy (William Haddock), Alison Fiske (Betty Sandy), Geoffrey Greenhill (Detective Inspector Watkins), Raad Rawi (Crown Prince Zawi), Devon Scott (Jane Chenies), John Skitt (James Wishart), Thorley Walters (Harry Gold) | 15 January 1988 | |
Doctor Robert Sandy receives a huge diamond from a grateful patient – an Eastern Prince. | ||||||||
106 | 4 | 'The Verger' | Rodney Bennett | Story by: Denis Cannan Dramatisation by: Somerset Maugham | TBA | Gareth Walker (Cafe Owner), Tony Kassell (The Boy), Debbie Norris (First Waitress), Glenda Smith (Second Waitress), Andrew Seear (Clerk), Geoffrey Beevers (The Health Inspector), Bruce Boa (Groober), Richard Briers (Albert Dobson), Andrew Burt (Vicar), Mike Carnell (Passer-by), Geoffrey Chater (Magistrate), Rowland Davies (Bank Manager), Bradley Lavelle (Lawyer), Patricia Routledge (Milly Dobson) | 22 January 1988 | |
The Dobsons have been serving their Parish Church for years, but when a new Vicar arrives he changes things radically. They move away and start a new life, but, in the process, a secret that the Dobsons have been keeping comes to light. | ||||||||
107 | 5 | 'The Facts of Life' | John Gorrie | Story by: Somerset Maugham Dramatisation by: Noella Smith | TBA | Jim Broadbent (Lovejoy), Benedict Taylor (Nicholas Lillie), James Easton (Tony), Stephen Hancock (Mr Lillie), Daphne Neville (Mrs Lillie), Gerard Logan (James Barron-Ervine), John Drake (The President), Ronald Markham (Arthur), Rosalind Bennett (Zoe), Ronnie Stevens (Rudge), Genevieve Allenbury (Croupier), James Trapp (Cashier), Paul Vaughan-Teague (Scorer) | 29 January 1988 | |
Nicholas is a keen amateur fencer but is held back by his inexperience. He makes it through to a national fencing competition in London, but he has never been outside of his village or away from his parents. | ||||||||
108 | 6 | 'Wink Three Times' | Paul Annett | Story by: John Charters Dramatisation by: Paul Ableman | TBA | Peter Baldwin (Second Desk Clerk), Andrew Bicknell (Giles Wimbourne), Ellis Dale (First Desk Clerk), Peter Davison (Jeremy Tyler), Jeremy Gittins (Dominic), Liza Goddard (Babs Colport), Luke Kelly (Barman), Robin Lermitte (Piers), Caroline Goodall (Holly Peverill), Terry Wallis (Hall Porter), Les Henry (Head Waiter), Mel Hastings (Steward) | 15 April 1988 | |
Jeremy Tyler, a shy solicitor is staying at a London hotel on a business trip. While there, he is mistaken for another man by a woman on a blind date. | ||||||||
109 | 7 | 'The Dead Don't Steal' | John Glenister | Story by: Ella Griffiths Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | TBA | Nicholas Ball (Ken Johnson), Glynis Barber (Lilian and Sylvia Brett), David Caddick (First Police Officer), Norman Tyrrell (George), Albert Welling (Inspector Gunter), Michael Wisher (Dexter), Lois Baxter (Annie Johnson), Derek Carpenter (Van Driver), Dave Sommerton (Second Police Officer), Brian Goodfellow (Detective Sergeant Davies) | 22 April 1988 | |
Ken Johnson is having an affair with his secretary, Lillian. His wife finds out about it and is furious, but then, Lillian tells Ken that she has met someone else. In temper, he kills her and buries the body, but then, he gets a phone call from her. | ||||||||
110 | 8 | 'The Finger of Suspicion' | Rodney Bennett | Story by: Tony Wilmot Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | TBA | Michael Brandon (Stephen Baker), Lucy Gutteridge (Soroya), Stefan Kalipha (Chief Inspector Aziz), Michael O'Hagan (Superintendent Burke), Nadim Sawalha (Zayid Halim), Rob Spendlove (Inspector Hook), Tony Allief (Police Sergeant), Eddie Lemare (Police Constable) | 29 April 1988 | |
Steve Baker is married to a beautiful Arab woman and they live happily in a Middle Eastern country. Then, Steve's past comes back to haunt him as he is charged with a crime. | ||||||||
111 | 9 | 'A Time to Die' | Paul Annett | Story by: Aileen Wheeler Dramatisation by: Robin Chapman | TBA | Mike McKenzie (Pianist), David Suchet (Yves Drouard), Nina Van Pallandt (Marthe Drouard), Sarah-Jane Varley (Lucie), Adam Crouch (Antoine), Paul Herzberg (Henri), Pauline Letts (Madame Cabon), Jemma Redgrave (Violette Charbonneau), Ivor Robers (Gas Inspector) | 6 May 1988 | |
Yves Drouard is busy trying to keep his wife and young mistress happy. Things become further complicated when his mistress tells him she is pregnant. | ||||||||
112 | 10 | 'Mr Know-All' | Gareth Davies | Story by: Paul Ableman Dramatisation by: Somerset Maugham | TBA | Edward Wiley (Jasper Cranley), Eamonn Walker (Bates), Chaim Topol (Professor Max Kelada), Kim Thomson (Elly Somerton), Steve Plytas (Professor Daxatides), Steffanie Pitt (Angela Dalton), Leslie Lyon (Lizzie Cranley), Erika Hoffman (Suzie Anderson), Peter Frye (Professor Maddox) | 13 May 1988 | |
Elly, a pretty hotel maid is seduced by a guest. He gives her a valuable statuette, which he found during an archaeological dig. Elly is sacked by the manager when he finds out about the affair, but, the manager's wife has exactly the same statuette. |
![Carlos fortea roald dahl biography Carlos fortea roald dahl biography](/uploads/1/2/3/7/123732274/882386219.png)
Many of the earlier episodes were preceded by an introduction by Roald Dahl. The dancer in the title sequence was Karen Standley.
These episodes have frequently been repeated on British television, most recently on Sky Arts. All episodes have been released on DVD in a box-set for each series, except the 1984/85 season which were released together with the first episode of season 8.[1][2]
References[edit]
- ^Moviemail.co.uk – DVD Boxsets
- ^Sfcrowsnest.com Series 7 DVDArchived 4 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Tales_of_the_Unexpected_episodes&oldid=901986444'
The short story “Many From The South” written by Roald Dahl is about a bet between an old foreign man and a young American boy. The story takes places at a hotel in Jamaica and is told from a first persons perspective. Throughout the story you never find exactly who the person is that is telling the story but you can see that he is a good man. The genre of the story would be a personal narrative because it is a story being told by a man. The story begins as just a normal story but as it continues, it becomes odd and eerie. The story starts with a man enjoying his normal day at a hotel in Jamaica. As he is relaxing, a little man with a thick accent named Carlos, approaches him. As they are sitting and talking, a younger American man approaches them and sits to talk as well. When the young man is sitting and talking he lights a cigarette. The old man saw this and proceeded to make a bet that his lighter will not light ten times in a row. If the lighter lights ten times, the young boy can have Carlos’s Cadillac. If not, the old man will take his finger. After a small debate, the young man decides to agree to the bet and they make their way up to Carlos’s hotel room. In the hotel room Carlos gives them martinis then creates a little contraption that will make it easy for him to chop his finger off as soon as the lighter fails. The narrator found this odd and started to think that the old man had experience and don’t this before. On the eighth try, a woman burst into the room