Directed By: Alan J.W. Bell, Terry Hughes Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC Label: Acorn Media Number of Items: 2 Region Code: 1 Release Date: August 30, 2005 Running Time: 274 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 1976
Description: Monty Python fans rejoice! This renowned BBC series, created and written by Python stalwarts Michael Palin and Terry Jones, provides more of the same surreal, bawdy, tasteless—and absolutely gut-splitting hilarity you know and love. The nine lavishly produced half-hour comedies—each starring Michael Palin—spoof the stirring adventure stories that were a staple of Edwardian schoolboy life. Plucky heroes triumph over adversity (or not) in such varied settings as Victorian London, Depression-era Yorkshire, WWII Germany, Peru, and India during the Raj.
The Episodes:
Tomkinson’s Schooldays The Testing of Eric Olthwaite Escape From Stalag Luft 112B Murder at Moorstones Manor Across the Andes by Frog The Curse of the Claw Whinfrey’s Last Case Golden Gordon Roger of the Raj
Amazon.com: Not as well- known as Fawlty Towers or The Rutles, Michael Palin and Terry Jones's Ripping Yarns is poised for discovery as among the best of the post-Python projects. The release of the complete series on DVD is ripping good news. Palin essays a gallery of colorful (or colorless, as in the case of one of the series' best episodes, "The Testing of Eric Olthwaite"), archetypal characters drawn from the storybook adventures that thrilled English schoolboys back in the day.
Read our interview with Michael Palin.
Palin and Jones take a Python-esque delight in turning genre convention on its head. In "Tomkinson's Schooldays," a series benchmark, woeful students must endure such corporeal punishment as being nailed to the school walls, and it is the enviable position of school bully where the real authority resides. "Murder at Moorstones Manor" presents a baffling mystery with a large body count and a rash of self-proclaimed murderers. "Whinfrey's Last Case" and "Escape From Stalag Luft 112B" are tales of wartime espionage and (attempted) derring-do. Ripping Yarns is an excellent showcase for Palin, who is at his funniest portraying characters either obsessed (a soccer fanatic in "Golden Gordon," an ill-fated car buff in "Manor," and an amateur amphibian-enthusiast in "Across the Andes by Frog") or dreadfully dull (Eric Olthwaite, who is so tedious and boring that his own father speaks French just so he won't have to communicate with him). Jones makes a brief appearance in "Schooldays," and John Cleese fleetingly cameos in "Golden Gordon" as a pedestrian. Beloved British comic actor and Richard Lester veteran Roy Kinnear (Help!, The Three Musketeers) costars in "Escape." As with Monty Python, Ripping Yarns has a tendency to get silly (in a couple of episodes, Palin hilariously strains for credibility as a hapless, caped host), but the lavishly produced yarns themselves are played to their best advantage without a nudge-nudge, wink-wink. Choose the preferred option to view these episodes without the intrusive laugh-track. --Donald Liebenson
British comedy at its best Thank you BBC...own it and if not laugh out loud all the time, expand your humor!
Fantastic As a lifelong fan of Monty Python, I was very excited to discover this series - and very surprised that it isn't more widely known. Perhaps this is because a lot of the humour of Ripping Yarns is aimed at people who grew up in England at a particular time, and are familiar with the literature that the series is based on - yet plenty of the humour (as with Monty Python) is universal & timeless.
The surreal style of Monty Python is present in Yarns, but the show also has a more understated sort of humour that is all its own - and which I only completely appreciated once I'd gotten to know the show quite well. The humour is in the stories and the characters as much as it is in the jokes, and what is particularly distinctive and innovative for the time is that it is played completely straight, with mostly serious dramatic actors rather than comedians (which makes me wonder if it could have been an influence on the film 'Airplane!').
There are several episodes, namely 'Across the Andes by Frog' and 'Golden Gordon', which I felt were slightly below par - but maybe they'll grow on me after repeat viewings. Every other episode is a gem, my personal favourite being 'Curse of the Claw' (followed closely by 'The Testing of Eric Olthwaite' and 'Escape from Stalag Luft 112B'). Extras are very good and include commentaries on each episode, a documentary by Michael Palin about his childhood & comedic development, and an optional laughter-free track on every episode except for 'Tomkinson' and 'Murder' (needless to say it's much, much funnier without canned laughter).
Recommended for anyone who is a fan of Monty Python, or of comedy generally.
One of Michael Palin and Terry Jones's finest achievements outside Python... This is the first significant work by Python alum Terry Jones and Michael Palin after Python close up the TV show in 1974. I remember renting these on a cruddy VHS copy, and laughing hysterically at them. This series is really an offshoot of the final (and least seen) season of Monty Python. After John Cleese left the series after season three, Jones and Palin took over the writing and wrote long form sketches, some lasting the whole 30 minutes of an episode (there was an earlier episode in Python Season Three called "The Cycling Tour" that followed this formula as well, and it featured Jones and Palin prominently). In this series, they parody the historical tales of the British empire, and much of it is amazingly funny.
My favorite episodes have to be Tomkinson's Schooldays (with a great guest turn by Ian Oglivy as "school bully"), Escape from Stalag Luft 112B (with Roy Kinnear), and The Testing of Eric Olthwaite (where Palin plays a dunce of a boy). The others are fine as well, but these 3 have always stood out the most. The only one I didn't care for was The Curse of the Claw. It's not bad, but the subject matter (creepy old house owned by creepy old man) has been parodied to death (no pun intended). It's also good to have the whole series (nine episodes), as the original VHS releases only had six episodes (on two tapes). They never released the other three episodes until now. The DVD is excellent, with commentary by Jones and Palin, a 1983 TV documentary about Palin, and a booklet detailing the filming and the release of the show and the mishandling of it by British TV executives.
This show belongs in the parthenon of great British TV, and I'm glad my good friends at Acorn Media (who also put out Brideshead Revisited) put this out.
Ripping good tales These are quite frankly the funniest spoofs of the old "Boy's Own" stories I have ever seen. I grew up in Scotland and so was introduced to the original series as a young boy and find that I laugh at them just as heartily over 30 years later. When I return to the old country for a visit, my brother and I still have 'Ripping Yarn nights':) If your a Monty Python fan these are most definately for you. Micheal Palen at his comic best!!!!!!!!!!
Palin and Jones Materpieces This DVD set contains the original BBC pilot episode "Tomkinsons Schooldays" first broadcast in 1976. The first series of 5 episodes broadcast in 1977 and the second series of 3 episodes originally broadcast in 1979.
The idea was prompted by an old Ripping Yarns annual that Michael Palin had given to Terry Jones as a gift. The episodes all have Pythonesque elements and there are many great moments in nearly all the episodes. John Cleese makes a brief and very funny cameo role appearance in "Golden Gordon" which is amongst the best episodes. The plots cover obessions about Football (soccer), saving the empire, wartime exploits and it is done with tongue firmly in the cheek, with that edge of absurdity you'd would expect from two members of the Monty Python team.
There are some great extras on the DVD. Perhaps best of all you can watch the episodes without the laughter track. There are commentaries from Michael Palin and Terry Jones as well as a documentary made in 1982.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
