User Reviews

Holdwell's is a manufacturer of safes, their recent model, the 801 is believed to be their best yet, totally impregnable, so confident are they in their product, they set a challenge. Sam 'The Touch' Morrissey is the Country's finest safe cracker, a reformed character, who's served his time for his extensive safe breaking. A television show is put on to showcase 'The Holdwell Challenge,' where the public can witness Sam's many skills. If he breaks in there's £25,000 in cash waiting for him.

Tales of the Unexpected seemed to attract the very best of acting talent, John Mills is without a doubt one of my all time favourite actors, a true great, he's just wonderful in the lead as Sam.

The soft hearted will love the ending!

It's a really clever story, the back story with the money needed to save the house is a nice touch too. Very memorable, I wouldn't say it's a classic, but it's still a cracker. 8/10

Tales of the Unexpected: Operation Safecrack starts a representative of Intercom Advertising named Jack Harrison (David Healy) contacts the most famous safe-cracker in Britian Sam 'The Touch' Morrissey (Sir John Mills), Jack proposes an elaborate advertising stunt where he attempts to break into his clients safe the Holdwell 801 & if he does so he'll walk away with an envelope containing £25,000 that will be locked inside. It's too good a deal for Sam to turn down but this is indeed one tough nut to crack & he only has 3 hours to do it as the press & TV crews look on...

This Tales of the Unexpected story was episode 3 from season 5 that originally aired here in the UK during May 1982, the eighth of ten Tales of the Unexpected episodes to be directed by Alan Gibson this is one of the better entries from this series that I have seen so far. The story by Henry Slesar was dramatised by Robin Chapman & has a fascinating premise that makes for a pretty entertaining 30 odd minutes, it certainly has a hook & engages. This also has a neat twist ending which wraps things up nicely. The character's are decent here & overall I liked it but there's one major plot hole I'm not happy about, what would happen if Sam did manage to crack the safe on national TV? Surely the makers of the safe would have had their reputations ruined & the advertising agency probably wouldn't have been too happy either.

This one looks pretty good & hasn't dated too badly & the cheesy game show setting is fun although I doubt you would be able to use explosives in a small TV studio even if the audience do crouch behind the seating stands! The acting is good & with British talent like Sir John Mills I expect nothing less.

Operation Safecrack is one of the better & more memorable Tales of the Unexpected episodes that I've seen so far, as a stand alone piece of TV I reckon it's well worth a watch.

A twenty five thousand pound challenge is made to retired safe cracker Sam 'The Touch' Morrissey. The money is his if he can get into the brand new, impregnable Model 801 made by the Holdwell Safe Company. The event will be broadcast nationwide on television, and numerous news reporters, as well as the manufacturers of the safe, gather to witness whether Sam can do the impossible. Given three hours to complete the task, Sam uses a drill, blowtorch and eventually resorts to explosives, all in a failed attempt to open the safe on national TV. When the safe is opened at the prescribed time the next day, the envelope bearing what would have been Sam's grand prize is found to be replaced with tissue paper! Apparently, no one considered that the infamous safe cracker had a lesser known reputation as a more than competent pickpocket!