Journey to the Unknown (ITV 1968 Jane Asher, Kenneth Haigh)

An anthology series of fantasy, horror, mystery and science fiction dramas. The series has a high percentage of American guest stars and stalwart British actors in support.

United Kingdom / Hammer/TCF / 17×60 minutes / 1968

Executive Consultant: Jack Fleischmann / Executive Producers: Joan Harrison, Norman Lloyd / Producer: Anthony Hinds / Main Title Theme: Harry Robinson / Story Editor: John Gould / Music Supervision: Philip Martell

THE EPISODES

1. THE NEW PEOPLE
Hank and Anne Prentiss, newly arrived in England, get dragged into a bizarre costume event where they meet rich and deadly Luther Ames who rules over the lives of his friends.

guest cast
Robert Reed as Hank Prentiss / Jennifer Hilary as Anne Prentiss / Patrick Allen as Luther Ames / Melissa Stribling as Helen Ames / Milo O’Shea as Matt Dystal

Writers: Oscar Millard and John Gould / story by Charles Beaumont
Director: Peter Sasdy

2. SOMEWHERE IN A CROWD
At a shipyard, TV commentator William Searle is disturbed when he sees five strangely familiar faces in the crowd of a launching which goes disastrously wrong. Other tragedies happen to him, always with the strangers present, and soon he discovers that the five were killed in a train crash two years earlier which he survived.

guest cast
David Hedison as William Searle / Ann Bell as Ruth Searle / Jeremy Longhurst as Max Newby / Jane Asher as Marielle / Ewen Solon as Douglas Bishop / Tenniel Evans as Hugh Baillie

Writer: Michael J. Bird
Director: Alan Gibson

3. MATAKITAS IS COMINIG
Magazine researcher into murders, June Wiley is working in the public library when she reads how young librarian Sylvia Hablen was killed there in 1927 by Andros Matakitas, who claimed she had been pledged to the devil. June finds herself locked in the library that night with a frightened girl librarian, Ann. It seems the date is now September 19th 1927 and Matakitas is coming.

guest cast
Vera Miles (as June Wiley), Dermot Walsh (as Ken Talbot), Gay Hamilton (as Sylvia Ann), Leon Lissek (as Matakitas)

Writer: Robert Heverley
Director: Michael Lindsay-Hogg

4. JANE BROWN’S BODY
Jane Brown gasses herself, but is brought back to life two hours after dying by Dr Ian Denholt who uses and experimental serum. She has no memory of her past and the mind of a child, but with the help of a tutor she learns, remembers, and follows the path that lead to her death.

guest cast
Stefanie Powers (as Jane Brown), David Buck (as Paul Amory), Alan McNaughton (as Dr Ian Denholt), Sarah Lawson (as Pamela Denholt), Arthur Pentelow (as Receptionist), Clive Graham (as Robert), Yvonne Gilan (as Mrs Brown), Lewis Fiander (as Butler).

Writer: Anthony Skene / story by Cornell Woolrich
Director: Alan Gibson

5. DO ME A FAVOUR – KILL ME!
Jeff Wheeler, a fading actor in the twilight of his career, asks a friend to kill him in return for 10% of the insurance money and spare him obscurity. He doesn’t know where, when or how it’s to be done – and if he tries to call it off his friend will ignore him. Then circumstances cause Jeff to decide he doesn’t want to die.

guest cast
Joseph Cotton (as Jeff Wheeler), Judy Parfitt (as Faith Wheeler), Douglas Wilmer (as Harry Vantese), Kenneth Haigh (as Dirk Brogan), Joyce Blair (as Betty), David Warbeck (as Chris), David Baxter (as Assistant Director), Hugh Futcher (as Wardrobe dresser), Carol Cleveland (as Lisa), Tom Gill (as Golfer)

Writer: Stanley Miller / story by Frederick Rawlings
Director Gerry O’Hara

6. POOR BUTTERFLY
Steven Miller, a commercial artist, gets a surprise invitation to a costume party from Sir Robert Sawyer, who he has never heard of. At the party at Measham House, his 1929 Bugatti does not look out of place, and he meets a girl called Rose who is frantic to leave before a storm. Mi1ler then learns the house burnt down forty years ago.

guest cast
Chad Everett (as Steven Miller), Bernard Lee (as Ben Loker), Fay Compton (as Queen Victoria), Edward Fox (as Robert Sawyer), Susan Brodrick (as Rose), Susan Richards (as Mrs Loker), Marty Cruikshank (as Diana), Norman Chappell (as Friar Tuck), Antony Webb (as Nelson), Donald Gee (as Aviator), Michael Nightingale (as Butler), Linda Cole (as Lady Hamilton), Ann Lancaster (as Red Queen), Terence Duff (as March Hare), Roy Hanlon
(as Jimmy McNeil), Maggie Don (as Barbara)

Writer: Jeremy Paul / story by William Abney
Director: Alan Gibson

7. THE MADISON EQUATION
Brilliant computer scientist Inga Madison is responsible for the Computex GB computer at the National Computer Centre and is having an affair with client Stuart Crosbie. Her jealous husband, Ralph, programmes the computer to electrocute her, but instead it kills him. Insurance investigator Alan Frost looks into the strange incident.

guest cast
Barbara Bel Geddes (as Inga Madison), Allan Cuthbertson (as Ralph Madison), Paul Daneman (as Stuart Crosbie), Sue Lloyd (as Barbara Rossiter), Jack Hedley (as Adam Frost), Richard Vernon (as Sir Gerald Walters), Lionel Murton (as Gen. Wanamaker), Aubrey Morris (as Frederick Shea), Lloyd Lamble (as Inspector Bridges)

Writer: Michael J. Bird
Director: Rex Firkin

8. GIRL OF MY DREAMS
Opportunist Greg Richards is in a restaurant trying to persuade fashion model Sue Tarleton to pose nude for a calendar, but she refuses. Carrie Clark, the shy cashier, pleads with her not to leave until ten or she will be killed in an accident. When the prediction comes true, Greg marries Carrie and starts to exploit her dreams of death for other people.

guest cast
Michael Callan (as Greg Richards), Zena Walker (as Carrie Clark), Justine Lord (as Sue Tarleton), Jan Holden (as Mrs Wheeler), David Lampton (as Mr Thwaite)

Writers: Robert Bloch and Michael J. Bird / story by Richard Matheson
Director: Peter Sasdy

9. THE LAST VISITOR
Taking a rest after a bad love affair, young Barbara King takes an off-season week at the Beach Hotel in Southcliff-on-Sea, run by Mrs Walker. At night, she finds a prowler in her room, and later her clothes are shredded. Is the figure the strange Mr Plimmer who wanders at night? Or the estranged husband of Mrs Walker?

guest cast
Patty Duke (as Barbara King), Kay Walsh (as Mrs Walker), Geoffrey Bayldon (as Mr Plimmer), Joan Newell (as Mrs Plimmer), Blake Butler (as Butler), John Bailey (as Mitchell), Michael Craze (as Fred), Sally James (as Peggy)

Writer: Alfred Shaughnessy
Director: Don Chaffey

10. EVE
Cruelly rejected by a girl he has taken out, lonely misfit Albert Baxtor finds refuge in the face of the beautiful blonde wax window display mannequin. He falls in love with her, dreaming they are together, and gets to work in window dressing. Then he learns that his new boss, Royal, is to destroy all the old wax dummies, including Eve.

guest cast
Dennis Waterman (as Albert Baker), Carol Lynley (as Eve), Michael Gough (as Royal), Angela Lovell (as Jennifer), Hermione Baddeley (as Mrs Kass), Peter Howell (as Miller), Errol John (as George Esmond), Barry Fantoni (as Kim), Barry Linehan (as 1st Detective)

Writers: Michael Ashe and Paul Wheeler / Story ‘Special Delivery’ by John Collier
Director: Robert Stevens

11. THE INDIAN SPIRIT GUIDE
Wealthy Leona Gillings wants to contact her late husband via the spirit world and hires Jerry Crown, an unscrupulous private detective down to his last dollar, to expose the fake mediums she will meet on her quest. Crown hires a number of fakes to expose and gain Leona’s trust, and marries her, but fails to reckon with spirits powers.

guest cast
Julie Harris (as Leona Gillings), Tom Adams (as Jerry Crown), Marne Maitland (as Chardur), Tracy Reed (as Joyce), Catherine Lacey (as Miss Sarah Prinn), Dennis Ramsden (as Mrs Hubbard), Julian Sherrier (as Bright Arrow), Geoff Winslip (as KnifeThrower)

Writer: Robert Bloch
Director: Roy Ward Baker

12. THE KILLING BOTTLE
Jimmy Rintoul is a hopeful young composer, but his manager Rollo Verdew says that to get the money to launch him, they must get his brother, Randolph, committed to an asylum so he can get the family inheritance. Randolph kills people who harm animals, so Rollo gets Jimmy to provoke him by showing him his butterfly killing bottle.

guest cast
Roddy McDowall (as Rello Verdew), Ingrid Brett (as Vean Verdew), Barry Evans (as Jimmy Kintoul), William Marlowe (as Randolph Verdew), John Rudling (as Hodgeon), Eddie Byrne (as Policeman).

Writer: Julian Bond / story by L. P. Hartley
Director John Gibson

13. STRANGER IN THE FAMILY
Charles Wilson and his family are hounded from place to place since his son, Boy, is a mutant with no fingernails and the power to direct people against their wills. Dr Evans wants to examine him for science, and young actress Paula Wilde persuades Boy to perform a hypnotism act with her for her ruthless agent Sonny.

guest cast
Janice Rule (as Paula), Maurice Kaufmann (as Sonny), Anthony Corlan (as Boy), Phil Brown (as Charles Wilson), Jane Hylton (as Margaret Wilson), Gerald Sim (as Dr Evans), Glynn Edwards (as Brown), Ronald Radd (as Wally Gold), Ann Wrigg (as Miss Payne), James Donelly (as Drunk)

Writer: David Campton
Director: Peter Duffell

14. THE BECKONING FAIR ONE
Young artist Jon Holden is recovering from a mental breakdown and moves into a new London house, where a coquette called Alison was killed in a bombing twenty-five years earlier. A portrait of Alison seems to take a hold on Jon, and he begins to love her spirit instead of his fiancé Kit, who is un-nerved by the house.

guest cast
Robert Lansing (as Jon Holden), Gabrielle Drake (as Kit Beaumont), John Fraser (as Derek Wilson), Larry Noble (as Mr. Barrett), Gretchen Franklin (as Mrs Barrett), Clive Francis (as Crichton)

Writers: William Woods and John Gould / story by Oliver Onions
Director: Don Chaffey

15. ONE ON A DESERT ISLAND
Young Alec Worthing, dominated by his mother, buys a boat to sail around the world with her money when she dies. A poor seaman, his sloop ‘Victoria’ is soon wrecked and he finds himself on a desert island. A girl, Vickie, walks out of the sea and the two fall in love, but Alec is angered by the intrusion of crashed pilot Joe Hallum.

guest cast
Brandon de Wilde (as Alec Worthing), David Bauer (as Uncle George), Suzanna Leigh (as Vickie), Robert Sessions (as Joe Hallum), John Ronane (as Preston), Victor Maddern (as Baker)

Writer: Oscar Millard
Director: Noel Howard

16. PAPER DOLLS
Teacher Craig Miller is puzzled when one of his boys, Rodney Blake, does an excellent sketch, and then incites a bully to hurl himself out of the classroom window. Rodney goes missing, and it seems he is one of quadruplets, linked psychically so they can convey feeling and skill, and directed by the most powerful, Steven.

guest cast
Michael Tolan (as Craig Miller), Nanette Newman (as Jill Collins), Roderick Shaw (as Rodney Blake), John Welsh (as Bart Brereton), Dorothy Alison (as Mrs Latham), Kenneth J. Warren (as Joe Blake), Edward Hardwicke (as Dr Yarrow), Michael Ripper (as Albert Cole), George Benson (as The Vicar), June Jago (as Emily Blake), Jerold Wells (as Mayhew), Noel Davis (as Charles Phillips), Hazel Hughes (as Mrs Biddle), Catherine Finn (as Elsie Cole).

Writer: Oscar Millard / story by L.P. Davies
Director: James Hill

17. MISS BELLE
Miss Belle Weston’s sister married the man she loved, and the rejected spinster lives in the country with their 7-year-old son Robert, whom she has taken and dresses as a girl to take out her bitterness on all men. Robert realises he is a boy, so Miss Belle punishes him. A roguish American, Drake, arrives looking for work, and also realises Robert is a boy and decides to tell the authorities.

guest cast
George Maharis (as Drake), Barbara Jefford (as Miss Belle Weston), Kim Burfield (as Robert), Adrienne Posta (as Girl)

Writer: Sarett Rudley / story by Charles Beaumont
Director: Robert Stevens