Mike Watts

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 created 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 and fantasy. A number of episodes were wiped during the early 1970s, as was standard procedure at the time.

Having pulled off the smallest ever train robbery, Little Walter and his crew decide to get out of London. The six of them set up business in a disused monastery off the Cornish coast, despite the fact that none of them really qualifies as a monk - least of all Walter's moll Bikini. Bit by bit, the quiet way of life starts becoming a habit.

Ernest Wright's peerless prowess as a locksmith comes to the attention of a tough big-time crook, who feels that the little man would be a valuable asset to his crime kingdom. In order to inveigle him into a series of jobs, he sets up a beautiful hostess as a trap, into which the hapless Ernest inevitably falls..!

Everyone knows Christmas is a time of giving — well, everyone but one wealthy, spoiled college student who's about to get the ultimate wake-up call. When she helps organize a holiday concert at a youth center, little does she know the grumpy cabbie she works with is actually an angel in training.

Henry Wilkes cultivates rare tropical plants as a hobby, with an attention to detail closer to obsession. The length to which he goes to propagate and nurture new hybrids alarms his wife. Is there more going on in the greenhouse than could safely be exhibited at the next Battersea Flower Show?

New inmate Rainbow has just been imprisoned for a year for his part in a fight over his girlfriend Wendy. After being assigned to kitchen duty, he becomes involved in a food-trading racket. When the scheme is betrayed to the prison's governor, its prime mover is threatened with an extended sentence - unless Rainbow can come up with a way to save him.

While posters urge austerity and vigilance in wartime Britain, 'Joey Boy' Thompson has never had it better. In a cellar beneath his East London fish shop, a gambling club thrives – and austerity provides a nice black-market sideline. But the dolce vita crumbles when police arrive in a lightning raid, and offer Joey and his fellow reprobates a stark choice: sign up for active service, or face another stint inside. Thus the lads find themselves heading off to Italy, determined to make the best of it...