The dancer in the opening titles was Karen Standley, a secretary and housewife from Berkshire. Her boyfriend worked on Top of the Pops (1964) and was contracted to produce the Tales of the Unexpected titles, so he used her as the dancer, dressed in a white body stocking and tights, and with arms, legs and face painted with white greasepaint. She was briefed to look "as sexy as I could".
The title music for the show was recorded in Studio 2 at Olympic Studios, London, England.
The famous saxophone solo playing during the theme music was by the acclaimed Scottish musician and composer, Duncan Lamont. It was deliberately distorted by the recording engineer to give it a weird, disturbing feel (in line with the stories that follow).
Every story which Roald Dahl had contributed to Alfred Hitchcock präsentiert (1955) in the 1950s and '60s was remade for "Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected", all but one in the first season. They were season 3's Lamb to the Slaughter (1958) (Ep 04) and Dip in the Pool (1958) (Ep 08), season 4's Poison (1958) (S2 Ep 05), season 5's Man from the South (1960) (Ep 01), and season 6's Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat (1960) (Ep 02) and The Landlady (1961) (Ep 05).
When filming Shaun of the Dead (2004), the zombie horde outside the Winchester were told not to make their arm movements too "Tales of the Unexpected" for the shadows that would be projected onto the curtains.