Mystery and Imagination

Last updated

Mystery and Imagination
Mystery and Imagination.jpg
Genre Horror anthology
Starring David Buck
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series5
No. of episodes24 (16 missing)
Production
Production companies
Original release
Network ITV
Release29 January 1966 (1966-01-29) 
23 February 1970 (1970-02-23)

Mystery and Imagination is a British television anthology series of classic horror and supernatural dramas. Five series were broadcast from 1966 to 1970 by the ITV network and produced by ABC and (later) Thames Television. [1]

Contents

Outline

The series featured television plays based on the works of well-known authors such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, M. R. James, and Edgar Allan Poe. All Bar one of the first two ABC series starred David Buck as Richard Beckett, originally a character from Sheridan Le Fanu's story "The Flying Dragon", as narrator. Beckett was made the central character of the series, taking the roles of various characters from some of the original stories. [2] The first two series, although transmitted as two separate runs, were recorded in a single production block. The episode without Buck as the lead ("The Open Door") features Jack Hawkins. Unlike BBC dramas from the period, location exterior shots were also recorded onto video tape rather than 16mm film, giving a more consistent look to the production. Only series 5 was filmed in colour.

Episodes

Series 1

#TitleStoryOriginal airdate
1"The Lost Stradivarius" J. Meade Falkner 29 January 1966 (1966-01-29)
2"The Body Snatcher" Robert Louis Stevenson 5 February 1966 (1966-02-05)
3"The Fall of the House of Usher" Edgar Allan Poe 12 February 1966 (1966-02-12)
4"The Open Door" Margaret Oliphant 19 February 1966 (1966-02-19)
5"The Tractate Middoth" M. R. James 26 February 1966 (1966-02-26)
6"Lost Hearts"M. R. James5 March 1966 (1966-03-05)
7"The Canterville Ghost" Oscar Wilde 12 March 1966 (1966-03-12)

Series 2

#TitleStoryOriginal airdate
8"Room 13" M. R. James 22 October 1966 (1966-10-22)
9"The Beckoning Shadow" Charlotte Riddell 29 October 1966 (1966-10-29)
10"The Flying Dragon" Sheridan Le Fanu 5 November 1966 (1966-11-05)
11"Carmilla"Sheridan Le Fanu12 November 1966 (1966-11-12)
12"The Phantom Lover" Vernon Lee 19 November 1966 (1966-11-19)

Series 3

#TitleStoryOriginal airdate
13"Casting the Runes" M. R. James 22 March 1968 (1968-03-22)
14"The Listener" Algernon Blackwood 30 March 1968 (1968-03-30)
15"A Place of One's Own" Osbert Sitwell 6 April 1968 (1968-04-06)
16"The Devil's Piper" Walter Scott 13 April 1968 (1968-04-13)
17"The Tell-Tale Heart" Edgar Allan Poe 22 June 1968 (1968-06-22)
18"Feet Foremost" L. P. Hartley 29 June 1968 (1968-06-29)

Series 4

#TitleStoryOriginal airdate
19"Uncle Silas" Sheridan Le Fanu 4 November 1968 (1968-11-04)
20"Frankenstein" Mary Shelley 11 November 1968 (1968-11-11)
21"Dracula" Bram Stoker 18 November 1968 (1968-11-18)

Series 5

#TitleStoryOriginal airdate
22"The Suicide Club" Robert Louis Stevenson 9 February 1970 (1970-02-09)
23"Sweeney Todd" George Dibdin Pitt adaptation by Vincent Tilsey16 February 1970 (1970-02-16)
24"The Curse of the Mummy" Bram Stoker 23 February 1970 (1970-02-23)

Archive status and availability

Of the episodes from the ABC era, only the versions of "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Open Door" (series 1) have survived. All the other episodes from the first three series are not known to exist, although the Thames episodes (series 4 and 5) survive. [3] A brief clip from "Casting the Runes" (from series 3) also exists. Domestic audio recordings of the otherwise missing episodes "The Lost Stradivarius", "The Body Snatcher", "The Tractate Middoth", "Lost Hearts", "The Canterville Ghost" and "Room 13" also exist. These recordings have been uploaded to YouTube. [4]

Network has released all eight remaining episodes on a four disc DVD set along with the surviving clip of "Casting the Runes".

Related Research Articles

<i>Do Not Adjust Your Set</i> British television series

Do Not Adjust Your Set (DNAYS) is a British television series produced originally by Rediffusion, London, then, by the fledgling Thames Television for British commercial television channel ITV from 26 December 1967 to 14 May 1969. The show took its name from the message that was displayed when there was a problem with transmission or technical difficulties.

<i>Threes Company</i> American television sitcom (1977–1984)

Three's Company is an American television sitcom that aired for eight seasons on ABC from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984. It is based on the British sitcom Man About the House created by Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">June Lockhart</span> American actress (born 1925)

June Lockhart is an American retired actress, beginning a film career in the 1930s and 1940s in such films as A Christmas Carol and Meet Me in St. Louis. She primarily acted in 1950s and 1960s television, and with performances on stage and in film. On two television series, Lassie and Lost in Space, she played mother roles. She also portrayed Dr. Janet Craig on the CBS television sitcom Petticoat Junction (1968–70). She is a two-time Emmy Award nominee and a Tony Award winner. With a career spanning nearly 90 years, she is one of the last surviving actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

<i>Comedy Playhouse</i> 1961–1975 British television series

Comedy Playhouse is a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 128 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including Steptoe and Son, Meet the Wife, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters, Up Pompeii!, Not in Front of the Children, Me Mammy, That's Your Funeral, The Liver Birds, Are You Being Served? and particularly Last of the Summer Wine, which is the world's longest running sitcom, having run from January 1973 to August 2010. In all, 27 sitcoms started from a pilot in the Comedy Playhouse strand.

<i>The Baron</i> (TV series) British television series (1965-66)

The Baron is a British television series made in 1965 and 1966, based on the book series by John Creasey and produced by ITC Entertainment. Thirty episodes were produced, and the show was exported to the American ABC network.

Certain Women was an Australian television soap opera created by prominent Australian TV dramatist Tony Morphett and produced by the Australian Broadcasting Commission between 1973 and 1976. There were a total of 166 fifty-minute episodes. Episodes 1–59 were produced in black and white and, starting in with the introduction of colour broadcasting in Australia in 1975, episodes 60–166 were produced and broadcast in colour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Adventures of Ellery Queen</span> American television detective series

The Adventures of Ellery Queen is the title of two separate television series made in the 1950s. They are based on the fictional detective Ellery Queen and the cases he solves with his father Inspector Richard Queen.

<i>Kraft Television Theatre</i> 1947-1958 anthology drama television series

Kraft Television Theatre is an American anthology drama television series running from 1947 to 1958. It began May 7, 1947 on NBC, airing at 7:30pm on Wednesday evenings until December of that year. It first promoted MacLaren's Imperial Cheese, which was advertised nowhere else. In January 1948, it moved to 9pm on Wednesdays, continuing in that timeslot until 1958. Initially produced by the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, the live hour-long series offered television plays with new stories and new characters each week, in addition to adaptations of such classics as A Christmas Carol and Alice in Wonderland. The program was broadcast live from Studio 8-H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, currently the home of Saturday Night Live.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Boatman</span> American actor and writer (born 1964)

Michael Patrick Boatman is an American actor and writer. He is known for his roles as New York City mayoral aide Carter Heywood in the ABC sitcom Spin City, as U.S. Army Specialist Samuel Beckett in the ABC drama series China Beach, as 101st Airborne soldier Motown in the Vietnam War movie Hamburger Hill, and as sports agent Stanley Babson in the HBO sitcom Arli$$. He also starred in The Good Fight, the Paramount+ spinoff of The Good Wife.

Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense is a British mystery anthology television series produced in Britain in 1984 by Hammer Film Productions. Though similar in format to the 1980 series Hammer House of Horror, the Mystery and Suspense series had feature-length episodes, usually running around 70 minutes without commercials.

<i>The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries</i> American television series

The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries is an American television mystery series based on the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew juvenile novels. The series, which ran from January 30, 1977, to January 14, 1979, was produced by Glen A. Larson from Universal Television for ABC. Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy starred as amateur detective brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, respectively, while Pamela Sue Martin starred as amateur sleuth Nancy Drew.

David Keith Rodney Buck was an English actor.

<i>A Ghost Story for Christmas</i> British television series

A Ghost Story for Christmas is a strand of annual British short television films originally broadcast on BBC One between 1971 and 1978, and revived sporadically by the BBC since 2005. With one exception, the original instalments were directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark and the films were all shot on 16 mm colour film. The remit behind the series was to provide a television adaptation of a classic ghost story, in line with the oral tradition of telling supernatural tales at Christmas.

Tales of Mystery was a British supernatural television drama anthology series based on the short stories of Algernon Blackwood. It was broadcast by ITV (Associated-Rediffusion) and ran over three seasons from 1961–1963. Produced by Peter Graham Scott, each episode was 25 minutes long and introduced by John Laurie. None of the 29 episodes broadcast survive in any television archive, however.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lost television broadcast</span> History of missing television material

Lost television broadcasts are mostly those early television programs which cannot be accounted for in studio archives usually because of deliberate destruction or neglect.

Armchair Mystery Theatre is a 60-minute UK television anthology mystery series. Thirty-four episodes aired from 1960–1965. It was hosted by Donald Pleasence and produced by Leonard White. It was a spin-off from the successful Armchair Theatre series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Casting the Runes</span> Short story by M.R. James

"Casting the Runes" is a short story written by the English writer M.R. James. It was first published in 1911 as the fourth story in More Ghost Stories, which was James' second collection of ghost stories.

'"Casting the Runes" is the first episode of the third series of the supernatural television anthology series Mystery and Imagination produced by ABC Television in 1968. Running at 50 minutes, it was first broadcast on 22 March 1968 and was based on the ghost story "Casting the Runes" by British writer and academic M. R. James, first published in 1911 as the fourth story in More Ghost Stories, which was James' second collection of ghost stories. It is the first television adaptation of the story with John Fraser as Dunning and Robert Eddison as Karswell.

References

  1. The change from ABC to Thames occurred because of the July 1968 franchise changes.
  2. IMDb claims Buck appears in eleven episodes from the first two series. According to Helen Wheatley "Mystery and Imagination" in Janet Thurmin Small Screens, Big Ideas: Television in the 1950s [sic], London: IB Tauris, 2002, p.169-70, Buck also appears in the third.
  3. Mystery and Imagination, lostshows.com
  4. "Mystery & Imagination - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 9 June 2023.