Tales of the Unexpected (TV Series) A Dip in the Pool (1979) User Reviews

Gambling always does you harm in the end.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 9 February 2016]

William Botibol is a hardened gambler, he's on an Atlantic cruiser enjoying a holiday. Clearly a little bored he has designs on winning the Ship's Pool, a prize fund based on the distance the ship would travel, he wages his bet, getting the low field using his last $1000, the weather is awful, storms and sickness, but when he wakes the next day, it's glorious and the sun is shining. William Botibol has to come up with a way of slowing the ship down, tragically he puts his trust in the wrong person.

We would see William Botibol again, Jack Weston made him quite a sad yet interesting character, a good outing for him, but I prefer his second outing in William Botibol's first love. Nevertherless, a good performance from him.

It's a sad tale, with out lead cutting a fairly tragic figure, you just know it's going to end badly. 6/10

Decent Tales of the Unexpected episode.

[poolandrews · 7/10 · 11 May 2007]

Tales of the Unexpected: A Dip in the Pool is set aboard a cruise ship called the Atlantic Voyger where they hold a daily auction in which the Captain works out how many miles he thinks the ship will travel in 24 hours & people bid on that number, a number within 10 either side of it or a 'higher' & 'lower field' bet which goes beyond any of the other other numbers either higher or lower. A passenger named William Botibol (Jack Weston) is convinced that the Captain didn't take into account the huge storm they have run into & thinks that it will significantly slow the ship down so he bids everything he has on the lower field in an attempt to win the £14,000 pot, unfortunately the storm ends rather prematurely & the ship is able to make a huge amount of ground up unless William can slow it's progress of course...

This Tales of the Unexpected story was episode 8 from season 1 & originally aired here in the UK during May 1979, the second of two tales of the Unexpected episodes to be directed by Michael Tuchner this is one of the better stories from this show. The story by Roald Dahl was dramatised by Ronald Harwood & this wasn't the first time this story had been adapted into a story for an anthology TV series coming after Danger: A Dip in the Pool (1954), during his introduction Dahl states that he is/was a gambler & once bet that his wife would give birth to twins & then moments later bet that he would loose his original wager! Anyway, this story has the unique Dahl quirkiness about it, in both the set up & the effective twist ending which actually works very well for a change. The character's are alright although at only 25 odd minutes in length it's difficult to develop them, overall I'd say this is one of the better episodes from this usually average & somewhat forgettable show.

Obviously shot entirely on 35mm film & on-board an actual cruise ship this one looks pretty good, it hasn't dated too badly & it's generally well made. The acting is OK & as always I'm impressed with the Brit casts in these things.

A Dip in the Pool is a decent little tale with a twist, it's nothing spectacular but it makes for a perfectly watchable 25 minutes, at least worth a watch if nothing else.

A Dip in the Pool

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 15 May 2020]

In his introduction Roald Dahl states he had the heart of a gambler. It inspired this story.

William Botibol is a gambler but one who has fallen on hard times. In a ship crossing the Atlantic, Botibol has his eyes on winning the ship's pool. A prize fund of $12,000 based on the captain's estimation of the distance the ship would travel in 24 hours.

As the ship has encountered an unexpected storm at night, Botibol is convinced that the captain has overestimated the distance. Botibol wins a his bid for the low field with his last $1000.

However early next morning Botibol wakes up to calm seas and the ship catching up for lost time. Facing the wrath of his wife in gambling the remaining of their savings, Botibol thinks of a way to slow the ship down.

The scenes of the ship swaying making the passengers feel queasy were very well done. I nearly felt seasick.

I was not convinced too much by the story. A gambler like Botibol would had asked how long the storm was expected to last.

I also think he would not had placed his trust on an elderly lady who was alone to raise the alarm. Who would she had gone to so quickly?

"It was my last thousand dollars!"

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 16 August 2021]

Best laid plans, right? Of all the lamebrain schemes to win a pot full of money, the one by Botibol (Jack Weston) here has to take the cake for the most insane idea ever. I'm referring of course to that last desperate effort to slow down the cruise ship and win a fourteen thousand dollar wager. Prior to that, Botibol put a lot of thought into setting down that low field bet, but I had to wonder why he wouldn't have surmised that someone else might come up with the same plan. It's not like it was rocket science. But for this viewer, the real question mark of the story had to be Botibol's stated love for his wife and how he would surprise her with a brand new car of her dreams when he won the huge jackpot. If he loved her that much, why wasn't she on the cruise with him?

As for the spelling of Botibol's last name, try L-U-N-A-T-I-C.