SeriesSupernatural Gothic Witchcraft & Occult

Mystery and Imagination1966

Name: Mystery and Imagination
Genre: Supernatural, Gothic, Witchcraft & Occult, Psychological
Released: 1966-01-29
Rating: 6.7

Created by Raymond Collier, Jonathan Alwyn

6.7

Crypt Score

Blended from 2 sources

IMDb 7.6TMDB 5.8

✍ Review

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Year

1966

Seasons

Network

ITV1

Status

Ended

Box Office

🏆 Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award1 nomination total

The premise

Mystery and Imagination is a British television anthology of classic horror and supernatural dramas. Five series were broadcast from 1966 to 1970 on ITV and produced by ABC and Thames Television.

Horror Vault's take

A landmark British anthology series that brought the golden age of gothic and supernatural literature to the small screen, Mystery and Imagination adapted celebrated tales of dread and the uncanny for ITV audiences across five series. Each self-contained episode draws from the rich tradition of classic horror fiction, presenting shadowy worlds of ghosts, madness, and dark forces with the restrained menace that defined the era's best television drama. The series stands as a testament to the power of suggestion and atmosphere over spectacle, making it essential viewing for fans of literary horror. Notably, some episodes are now considered partially lost media, lending the collection an added layer of haunting mystique.

Content: Mild Supernatural Horror, Themes Of Madness

Episode Guide

· 7h 0m total· Jan 1966 → Mar 1966

☠
S1.E1 · The Lost StradivariusPremiere
Jan 29, 1966 · 60 min · Dir: Bill Bain
A certain tune, played on a particular violin, invokes an evil 18th-century occultist.
☠
S1.E2 · The Body Snatcher
Feb 5, 1966 · 60 min · Dir: Toby Robertson
In the early 19th-century, an eminent professor seeks (illegally) to obtain dead bodies for his anatomical research.
☠
S1.E3 · The Fall of the House of Usher
Feb 12, 1966 · 60 min · Dir: Kim Mills
Convinced that his family is tainted by generations of evil, Roderick Usher is hellbent on stopping his sister Madeline’s wedding to prevent the cursed Usher bloodline from expanding. When her fiancé Finn arrives at the crumbling estate to
☠
S1.E4 · The Open Door
Feb 19, 1966 · 60 min · Dir: Joan Kemp-Welch
Colonel Mortimer returns to his family after a long spell in India to find his young son in bed ill, and tormented by a wailing voice... but is it in fact the boy's imagination or is it real?
☠
S1.E5 · The Tractate Middoth
Feb 26, 1966 · 60 min · Dir: Kim Mills
A young librarian is hired by the impatient John Eldred to find an old tractate — so that Eldred can cheat the real heirs out of their estate... but the book is haunted by the ghost of its previous owner.