"Tales of the Unexpected"

The Surgeon

Season 9 - Episode 3

by Roald Dahl

Dramatized by Robin Chapman

Directed by Graham Evans

A surgeon saved the life of an emir's son. To thank the surgeon, he decided to give him a very beautiful present. It was a big diamond. The prince went to the hospital to give it to him. The surgeon was very suprised but he accepted the gift. After that the surgeon went to the jeweller's to know the price of the diamond.He weighed the precious stone. And he said the price was one million dollars.Then he got home and he was very mysterious and his wife asked him what happened. But he didn't to tell her immediately. Next he showed her the diamond and he told her the price. Together they made plans. They decided to celebrate the good news and to go to the restaurant. To hide the diamond, they put it in an ice cube, and put it away in the fridge. When they were at the restaurant two thieves broke into their house. They looked for the diamond but they didn't find it. But, when the surgeon and his wife got home, the diamond was missing...

Roald DAHL
 

Roald Dahl was born on the thirteenth of September 1916 in the town of Wales called Llandaff. His parents came from Norway and emigrated to the United Kington. He studied in British schools but not in university. Before World War II, he worked for Shell Oil Company for a few years and during this war, he was a fighter pilot in the British R.A.F, but he was severely injured and stayed five months in a hospital called Royal Navy hospital which is in Alexandria. After World War II, when he worked as assistant air attache in Washington DC, he began writing. In his life, he married twice. In 1953, he married Patricia Neal and they had five children. But they divorced in 1983 and in the same year, he married Liccy Dahl. He wrote novels and books for adults and children. His most famous short stories are ''Kiss Kiss'' written in 1959 and ''Switch Bitch'' written in 1974. ''Tales of the Unexpected'' was adapted for television series in twenty six episodes for nine years. He wrote nineteen children's stories. ''Charlie and the chocolate factory'' written in 1964 was adapted as movie in 2005 and ''Matilda'' written in 1988 was adapted as movie in 1996. In his life, he wrote two novels, two autobiographies, a lot of screenplays and book adaptations. He died on the twenty third of November in 1990 in Oxford, in England.
 

Dr SANDY (John Alderton)

The surgeon is called Mr SANDY. In the story, he operated on the son of a rich emir and the emir gave him an expensive diamond, it was worth one million dollar !
He is a tall man, with dark hair and a moustache. He is honest and clever.

The surgeon's wife liked her children because when she had the diamond, she wanted to help them. She is quite small and she had dark hair. At the end she drank alcohol with her husband and she swallowed the diamond because it was in an ice cube.

The emir’s son is a quite young man, he wears a black jack jacket and a red tie. He looks strange. He played just once in the film. He gave the diamond to the surgeon from his father (the emir) to thank the surgeon for the operation he did on the prince. The surgeon didn’t want to accept so, the prince said: “You can’t refuse a present from my father!”.

The jeweller is an old person, his hair is white and he wears glasses. He works in a jeweller’s shop. He played twice in the film. First, when the surgeon went to the jeweller’s shop to know the price of the diamond, the jeweler weighed it and said: “If you are an American, you can say you have a million dollars.” Second, when the second surgeon went to see him, he phoned doctor Sandy and the police because he thought the diamond was stolen.

The burglar is a Prince's friend. He has a lot of debts because he gambles at casinos and on horses so he wanted to steal the diamond and sell it. But he didn't find the diamond.

The girl is the burglar's girlfriend and she helped him to steal the diamond. But she found bottles of alcohol and then she was drunk so she didn't know she swallowed the diamond. She went to hospital to be operated on.

The 2nd surgeon wore a white coat and a surgeon's hat. He was old. He participated in the operation of the young girl. He went to the jeweller's with the nurse to know the price of the diamond and to sell it.

The nurse found the diamond in the stomach of the burglar's girlfriend when she washed the medical instruments. To see if the diamond was a real diamond, she scratched it on the window. She wore a white coat and a nurse's hat. She was young.

I think this film is good because there is a lot of action and suspense. The story is interesting. The diamond goes to a lot of different places and a lot of different people have it and woud like to sell it but  just the doctor sells it. I think it's a great story  but it's not the best film. I don't like the nurse and her husband because I think they would like the diamond for themselves.
 

I give 3 stars for this film, because in my opinion, the story is nice and funny but there are a lot of coincidences. The actors weren’t very good, we can see it was played and the quality of the film wasn’t good. ( I think it’s an old film and the cameras weren’t very precise.)
 

I liked the story because it was a little funny. A woman drank alcohol and she was drunk, then she swallowed the diamond. And at the end the surgeon's wife swallowed the diamond too. But it was a little strange because the woman and the surgeon's wife had swallowed the diamond and when we drink alcohol we don't swallow the ice cube.
 

EDITH

I give tree stars for the series that we watched beacause I liked it but it's not really the category of film that I like normally. The story was interesting but maybe I don't like this series very much because I like more modern films. But I was really happy to see this video because it was very funny to speak about that and to imagine what will happen !
 

I give two stars for this film because I think it was not very good, the quality of the film was bad. There was not a lot of suspense and I think the actors were not very good but I liked when Mrs Sandy swallowed the diamond.
 

I like the plot of the film because we don't know where the diamond will go. We understood the characters when they spoke. I don't like the short films and there isn't a lot of action. We saw the film in disorder, so we didn't know the new characters and their relations.
 

I don't like the film because the film was very short, and I haven't watched all of the film so I don't understand the end of the film. I don't know the style of the film. It's very difficult to know. I watched just a part of the film and I watched it in disorder .
 

I quite like the story because I love investigation stories. And the end was very suprising. But I was a little bored during different passages.
 

I liked this film, because we discovered it in several times, so it was fun to imagine what will happen next. The story was interesting and I liked to listen to ideas of the other pupils. All times we saw this film, it was funny and I had a lot a fun. Some ideas were really funny!
 

I think the film is good but not very much because there isn't a lot of suspense but I like the story. It's simple but it's funny and amusing too when the wife swallows the diamond at the end.
 

I give three stars to this film because the story is funny and strange, two good points but I prefer a film with a lot of action and science-fiction.
 

I give two stars to the story because I don't like it very much, there was just a little suspense but I think it was not interesting.
 

I give three stars for this film because I like the idea about the diamond in the icecube which was swallowed by the girlfriend, but I'm not used to watching this type of movie.