Tales of the Unexpected
A dancing silhouette, a spinning roulette wheel and Ron Grainer's theme — an anthology opening far more unsettling than most of the stories that follow it.
Tales of the Unexpected opens with a main title sequence of 102 seconds.
At 102 seconds, it opens well above the 50-second median for horror sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on ITV in 1979, when The Sooty Show, The Big Match and Rainbow were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
102sThe opening titles.
More horror opening titles from the 1970s
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A reporter whistling in a car park, and a premise established in twenty-six seconds — the direct ancestor of The X-Files, as Chris Carter has said repeatedly.
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1 sequenceThriller (1973)
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Downton Abbey
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Midsomer Murders
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