User Reviews

Lilian, an air stewardess has returned on a flight from Oostende, and smuggled in a load of drugs for Ken Johnson, who's in charge of the air line. He's having an affair with Lilian, and dealing with a dodgy drugs dealer. Ken's world comes crashing down as his wife Annie has discovered his affair, but worse Lilian tells him that she's met someone, and that she's leaving him. They get into a fight and he lashes out, killing her. He has no other choice, but to get rid of the body. Soon strange occurrences begin, his car is stolen, then turns up, with Lilian's stuff inside. Lilian then rings and speaks to Annie, Ken believes he's going mad.

I love the snowy streets and fields, it gives the episode a very unique look and feel. That E-type Jaguar is an absolute cracker if a car too.

This is a really high quality episode, Series 9 has been a real high point of the show, talk about ending on a high. The dead don't steal has been a definite high point, a cracking, original story, well acted, with some excellent twists. Nicholas Ball, Lois Baxter and the beautiful Glynis Barber are excellent, the latter doing particularly well throughout.

An excellent twist, wasn't expecting that.

8/10

Tales of the Unexpected: The Dead Don't Steal concerns Ken Johnson (Nicholas Ball) who runs a aviation service, he also uses his secretary, sometime air hostess & lover Lilian Brett (Glynis Barber) to smuggle drugs into the country which he does pretty well out of. However Lilian tells Ken that she has found another man, is going to marry him & will not smuggle drugs for him anymore. In a fit of rage Ken kills her, he gets rid of the body but Lilian won't seem to stay dead as a series of unnerving incidents happen...

This Tales of the Unexpected story was episode 7 from season 9 & originally aired here in the UK during April 1988, directed by John Glenister this is actually a pretty good episode. The story by Ella Griffiths was dramatised by Robin Chapman & is a neat little murder mystery with a twist, it's not going to change your life or anything but it has a good central premise & has a good hook which draws you into it. My only problem is that the methods used by the police would be considered entrapment & therefore illegal in the UK & there is no way on Earth a police inspector would drive all the way to a simple case of car theft & get involved in it but since it's only a 25 minute piece of drama that is a bit better than usual for this show I'll cut it some slack.

This was one of the later stories & hasn't dated too badly & I liked the wintry snow-covered English setting. There's no scares but this episode has a fair amount of suspense going on towards the end. Again there's another familiar British TV cast including Glynis Barber of Dempsey and Makepeace (1985 - 1986) fame.

The Dead Don't Steal is a pretty good Tales of the Unexpected episode & if your a fan of the show then this is a must but even if your not then this is maybe worth a watch at least.

One of the features of The Dead Don't Steal, is it being featured in the English winter, probably around January. There were no Christmas trees in sight so I guess it was January. You saw snowfall, people rugged up, and so on. Quite atmospheric if you ask me, and quite a pleasant sight.

Glynis Barber, who plays two roles, primarily Lilian the flight attendant/admin assistant (and then her identical looking sister Sylvia who plays a police officer - twist alert!!!) is beautiful. No wonder Ken Johnson (Nicholas Ball) ran amok when Lilian decided to break off her affair with him, much to disastrous consequences typical of Tales of the Unexpected.

I wish Tales of the Unexpected could be rebooted. It deserves a reboot, especially in this post-Brexit world.

Another poor episode about a man having an affair whose afraid to ask his wife for s divorce of all things. Most definitely filmed in the winter of 1987, because of the snow, and probably in March.