Out of the Unknown (1965)
Out of the Unknown is a British television science fiction anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Each episode was a dramatisation of a science fiction short story. Some were written directly for the series, but most were adaptations of already published stories. The first three years were exclusively science fiction, but that genre was abandoned in the final year in favour of horror/fantasy stories. A number of episodes were wiped during the early 1970s, as was standard procedure at the time. A large number of episodes are still missing but some do turn up from time to time; for instance, Level Seven from series two, originally broadcast on 27 October 1966 was returned to the BBC from the archives of a European broadcaster in January 2006.
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Episode 1 - Taste of Evil
Release Date: 1971-04-21Stephen Chambers, a new master of Warby Stones school for the 'ultra-intelligent boys', finds strange things happening to him. Reason tells him that they must be linked with the boys' Psychic Phenomena Club.
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Episode 2 - To Lay a Ghost
Release Date: 1971-04-28Eric and Diana Carver move into a new home in the country, but a series of strange events soon cause Diana to suspect the house is haunted by the ghost of a man. A ghost who seems to be interested in her particularly. She was sexually assaulted when she was a schoolgirl and ever since has had a complex about sex and intimacy. When they call in Dr Philmore, a paranormal expert, he suspects that Diana subconsciously wants to the dominated by this supernatural intruder.
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Episode 3 - This Body Is Mine
Release Date: 1971-05-05Allen Meredith is a brilliant scientist but too mild-mannered to make an impact or fight for the money he needs. He has invented a process to exchange minds between bodies. His ambitious wife Ann persuades him to invite his boss, the domineering Jack Gregory, to their house for dinner. Once there, they drug him and Allen swaps bodies with Jack, then goes back to work to transfer millions into his account. But meanwhile Ann is finding the combination of Jack's masculine personality in Allen's body rather attractive and they begin making their own plans.
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Episode 4 - Deathday
Release Date: 1971-05-12Adam Crosse is a reporter for a local paper. A neurotic under-achiever, the last straw comes when he discovers his wife Lydia is having an affair and she coolly tells him she has no intention of either giving up her lover or divorcing Adam. The top crime story of the moment is a serial murderer nicknamed "The Kitchen Killer". Adam sets out to murder his wife and blame it on this shadowy psycho.
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Episode 5 - The Sons and Daughters of Tomorrow
Release Date: 1971-05-19The small East Anglian village of Plampton has one distinction - a famous unsolved murder. A cynical journalist decides to go there to see what he can stir up. But Plampton is a community linked by telepathy and led by a witch.
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Episode 6 - Welcome Home
Release Date: 1971-05-26Dr Frank Bowers has been looking forward to returning home after a long stay in a psychiatric ward. But when he gets there, he finds that not only does no one recognize him, but another man called Frank Bowers is living in his place.
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Episode 7 - The Last Witness
Release Date: 1971-06-02A man, Harris, wakes up in a hotel on a small island after a shipwreck. He keeps recognising flashes of what he sees, until he realises his visions are of actions yet to come - culminating in murder.
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Episode 8 - The Man in My Head
Release Date: 1971-06-09A team of soldiers break into an enemy missile base. Such is the secrecy of their mission, they have been hypnotically programmed with their orders and will only remember each stage of the operation when they hear a pre-arranged signal. It seems foolproof, but gradually doubt and paranoia begin to overtake them.
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Episode 9 - The Chopper
Release Date: 1971-06-16The vengeful spirit of a dead motorcyclist is reluctant to leave his wrecked machine and manifests itself to a woman journalist as motorbike noise.
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Episode 10 - The Uninvited
Release Date: 1971-06-23A Middle-aged couple are disturbed during the night by a series of unwelcome visitations.
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Episode 11 - The Shattered Eye
Release Date: 1971-06-30A chance meeting with an old tramp brings a violent force into a young painter's like.