Mystery and Imagination

The series featured television plays based on the works of well-known authors such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, M. R. James, and Edgar Allan Poe. All Bar one of the first two ABC series starred David Buck as Richard Beckett, originally a character from Sheridan Le Fanu's story "The Flying Dragon", as narrator. Beckett was made the central character of the series, taking the roles of various characters from some of the original stories.IMDb claims Buck appears in eleven episodes from the first two series. According to Helen Wheatley "Mystery and Imagination" in Janet Thurmin Small Screens, Big Ideas: Television in the 1950s [sic], London: IB Tauris, 2002, p.169-70, Buck also appears in the third. The first two series, although transmitted as two separate runs, were recorded in a single production block. The episode without Buck as the lead ("The Open Door") features Jack Hawkins. Unlike BBC dramas from the period, location exterior shots were also recorded onto video tape rather than 16mm film, giving a more consistent look to the production. Only series 5 was videotaped in colour.

Of the episodes from the ABC era, only the versions of "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Open Door" (series 1) have survived. All the other episodes from the first three series are not known to exist, although the Thames episodes (series 4 and 5) survive.[http://www.lostshows.com/default.aspx?programme=95e8f849-a1ce-418e-9ed8-7437b350a48c Mystery and Imagination], lostshows.com A brief clip from "Casting the Runes" (from series 3) also exists. Domestic audio recordings of the otherwise missing episodes "The Lost Stradivarius", "The Body Snatcher", "The Tractate Middoth", "Lost Hearts", "The Canterville Ghost" and "Room 13" also exist. These recordings have been uploaded to YouTube.{{Cite web |title=Mystery & Imagination - YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOp7cbuSVvNrPUjX26ipcoR0Jgj71HSG2 |access-date=2023-06-09 |website=www.youtube.com}}

Network has released all eight remaining episodes on a four disc DVD set along with the surviving clip of "Casting the Runes".

{{reflist}}

• Wheatley, Helen. [https://books.google.com/books?id=H8rM20gDhVYC Gothic Television] (Manchester University Press 2006) p36 ff.
• {{cite book|last=Thumim|first=Janet|author2=Helen Wheatley|title=Small Screens, Big Ideas: Television in the 1950s|publisher=I.B.Tauris|pages=165–179|chapter=Mystery and Imagination: Anatomy of a Gothic Anthology Series|year=2002|isbn=1-86064-683-2|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RxBJC2U5oRoC&pg=PA165}}

• {{IMDb title|id=0165050|title=Mystery and Imagination}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060213073845/http://uk.geocities.com/supernaturaltv/60to69.htm Haunted TV].

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Category:1966 British television series debuts

Category:1970 British television series endings

Category:1960s British drama television series

Category:1970s British drama television series

Category:1960s British anthology television series

Category:1970s British anthology television series

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Category:Television shows produced by ABC Weekend TV

Category:Television shows produced by Thames Television

Category:Television shows shot at Teddington Studios

Category:British English-language television shows

Category:British fantasy drama television series