Mystery and Imagination

Mystery and Imagination

Company type	Television series
Industry	Television
Predecessor	ABC Weekend TV (production)
Founded	1966
Defunct	1970
Successor	Thames Television (production)
Area served	United Kingdom
Products	Television anthology series

Mystery and Imagination is a British television anthology series featuring adaptations of classic horror and supernatural tales. The show ran for five seasons between 1966 and 1970 on the ITV channel. Production was initially handled by ABC, with Thames Television taking over after the franchise restructuring in 1968.

Outline

This anthology presented dramatizations of stories by renowned writers including Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, M. R. James, and Edgar Allan Poe. In the first two series produced by ABC, most episodes featured David Buck portraying Richard Beckett, a character created by Sheridan Le Fanu in "The Flying Dragon." Beckett functioned as the narrator and frequently played different parts within the narratives. Buck appeared in eleven episodes across these initial series and returned for the third. The episode titled "The Open Door" was a notable exception, starring Jack Hawkins. Unlike contemporary productions by the BBC, outdoor scenes were filmed on videotape instead of 16mm film, resulting in a uniform visual style throughout. Only the fifth series was produced in colour.

Series 1

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Series 2

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Series 3

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Series 4

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Series 5

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Archive status and availability

Only two episodes from the ABC period—The Fall of the House of Usher and The Open Door (both from series 1)—have survived. The majority of episodes from the initial three series are lost, whereas the Thames-produced episodes from series 4 and 5 remain fully preserved. A short segment from Casting the Runes (series 3) is also extant. Furthermore, domestic audio recordings for several missing installments, such as The Lost Stradivarius, The Body Snatcher, and The Canterville Ghost, have been made available on YouTube.

On 5 July 2010, Network issued a four-disc DVD set containing all eight surviving episodes, which includes the existing clip of Casting the Runes. Additionally, Kaleidoscope/TV Brain has released some off-air audio captures from lost episodes on DVD, often coupled with audio from missing episodes of the television show Public Eye.

References

• Wheatley, Helen. Gothic Television (Manchester University Press, 2006), pp. 36 and following.

External links

• Haunted TV