Tales of the Unexpected (TV Series) The Facts of Life (1988) User Reviews

Really well made, just that the story is a little soft.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 22 February 2016]

Nicholas Lillie is a capable young fencer, scouted and selected to go to a big national event in London. When his father is asked he declines, believing young Nicholas too young and inexperienced to go, his father is somewhat fanatical. His mother convinces his father the competition could be a good idea, and that losing at something could be good for him. Nicholas is a fast competitor, an attacker opposed to a thinker, that's his undoing as he loses. Nicholas is taken out by some of the boys, he's taken to a casino, where he takes to the life of the table and meets young woman Zoe.

Jim Broadbent as always shines through, a wonderfully capable actor, he does a funny comic turn along with Ronnie Stevens. They are a great duo. The young Benedict Taylor is good too, not such an innocent guy after all.

it isn't my favourite episode it has to be said, but it's still very well made, wonderfully acted, and very well produced, series 9 has been excellent, but I think the damage was done in the earlier two series. It does ask an interesting question at the end, one I suppose you'll never have the answer to.

6/10

Not Such a Backwater

[midbrowcontrarian · 7/10 · 12 June 2021]

This is clearly not one of the best episodes, but nor is it one of the worst. As a reviewer points out, the beginning drags, a good ten minutes elapse before anything of consequence happens. The heart warming, if somewhat tame, moral of the story is that nice guys don't always come off worst.

That said, I quite like it because of a geographical interest, and I must cavil at the Storyline claim that Nicholas (Benedict Taylor) has led a "sheltered rural existence". In fact his family reside in Norfolk's capital city Norwich, which is alluded to more than once. It's a university city so it does get lively weekend nights. I strongly suspect it was filmed entirely in Norwich, I assume to save money. For example after spending the night with Zoe, Nicholas arrives by taxi at his supposed London hotel. I immediately recognised this as Stracey Road behind Norwich railway station, which has a number of hotels.

I've had innumerable holidays in Norwich, the attraction being the excellent real ale and cider pubs, and prefer the nightlife there to London and, it goes without saying, my city of Birmingham. Though sad to relate in none of them did I win hundreds of pounds at roulette and been bedded by an attractive young woman!

Truly bog-standard standard TOTE episode

[Goldeneyeroyale · 5/10 · 20 December 2019]

This episode sums up what the vast majority of TOTE was about: OK scripts, good acting, horrendously cheap sets.

The story is fine, but not an easy one to adapt for the screen. The original short story by Somerset Maugham was short even by his standards, and the director really has to struggle to stretch the story out for the full 25 minutes. It drags a fair amount, particularly at the beginning - there's a difference between setting the scene and just waffling around.

The main problem though is how cheap the whole thing looks. The original short story had a Cambridge student playing tennis in Monte Carlo, and that was changed here to a Norfolk boy going to London for a fencing competition. Not a problem with that, had the London scenes been shot well, which they weren't. The exclusive gambling club for wealthy high rollers looks just like a provincial bingo hall - it's extremely difficult to persuade an audience that the main character is astonished by all the wealth around him when he's trying to look impressed at a breezeblock auditorium. When all the extras are wearing horribly baggy tuxedos, they look like teenagers at prom in rented suits rather than the cream of London society that they are supposed to be.

The acting itself is fine, but there is horribly little of it actually to do, because as I said, the story is threadbare. It's a nice read, but if you can finish it in 3 minutes, it probably isn't a good idea to adapt it for TV.

This isn't a dire episode in the way of Last of the Midnight Gardeners, but not is it an all time great one like Shatterproof, the Landlady, Lamb to the Slaughter or Man from the South. If you're a TOTE fan then it's worth a look, otherwise don't bother.

"This is important, have nothing whatever to do with women." Another average tale of the unexpected.

[poolandrews · 5/10 · 17 June 2007]

Tales of the Unexpected: The Facts of Life starts as teenager Nicholas Lillie (Benedict Taylor) is invited to compete in a national fencing championship in London, his religious father (Stephen Hancock) at first refuses because of London's corrupting influence but after realising if Nicholas loses it'll teach his son a lesson he agrees. Together with his coach Mr. Lovejoy (Jim Broadbent) & the headmaster of his school Mr. Rudge (Ronnie Stevens) Nicholas travels to London & takes part in the competition but loses to fencing ace James Barron-Ervine (Gerald Logan) who says he gave him his hardest fight in the entire competition & decides to take Nicholas out for the night to show him some of the vices which London has to offer & may have a corrupting influence on him but will he succumb...

This Tales of the Unexpected story was episode 5 from season 9 that originally aired here in the UK during January 1988 & is yet another dreary tale in a pretty poor season overall, the eleventh of eleven Tales of the Unexpected episodes to be directed by John Gorrie this really isn't anything to get excited about & is worlds apart from the smart interesting & engaging stories which Roald Dahl were involved with at the show's opening couple of seasons. The story by W. Somerset Maugham had already been adapted into a TV anthology show episode in the Somerset Maugham Hour in 1960 before it was dramatised by Noella Smith & isn't what I would hope for from a Tales of the Unexpected story, it's a morality tale where the dark side of the story wins out which I guess is meant to be the unexpected part of the tale but it's pretty predictable as a whole & it's just a very average story of someone coming out of their shell & being corrupted by modern day vices. I don't know, I suppose it might appeal to some out there as it tells a story competently enough it's just that it's all rather pedestrian & dull.

As with a lot of these Tales of the Unexpected stories The Facts of Life hasn't dated that well at all, I would imagine they were shot pretty cheaply as they generally look rushed & are forgettable without a single trace of style or substance. There are no horror elements in this one at all, there is no violence or scares & it's all rather flat. The acting is alright & yet again there's a future star in the cast with an amusing performance by Jim Broadbent who's funny coach is probably the best thing about The Facts of Life.

The Facts of Life is an OK Tales of the Unexpected but I just can't help thinking OK isn't good enough when you think about some of the great stories in the earlier seasons, another disappointment from a disappointing season 9.

Nothing to shout about!

[coltras35 · 4/10 · 18 March 2023]

Nicholas is a keen amateur fencer but is held back by his inexperience. He makes it through to a national fencing competition in London, but he has never been outside of his village or away from his parents.

Adapted from a Somerset Maugham story, this entry has an ok story, focused around an amateur fencer who has a sheltered life and a day in a casino sort of knocks that innocence on the head. It plays like a drama than a thriller or twist type of story, and alas there's no major twist except that the fencer view on life changes. It's not a great entry, is quite muddled and flat, but there's some nice fencing sequences.