| Ripping Yarns | |
|---|---|
 Title card | |
| Created by | Michael Palin Terry Jones |
| Starring | Michael Palin |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of series | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 9 |
| Production | |
| Running time | ~30 min |
| Production company | BBC |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC Two |
| Release | 7 January 1976 (1976-01-07) – 24 October 1979 (1979-10-24) |
Ripping Yarns is aBritish television adventurecomedy anthology series. It was written byMichael Palin andTerry Jones ofMonty Python fame and transmitted onBBC Two. Following an initial pilot episode in January 1976, it ran for two series — five episodes in September and October 1977 and three episodes in October 1979. Each episode had a different setting and characters, looking at a different aspect ofBritish culture andparodying pre-World War II literature aimed at schoolboys. In the title, "ripping" is a chiefly British slang colloquialism for "exciting" or "thrilling", with "yarn" used in the sense of a story.
In 1975, theBBC commissioned a pilot episode from Palin and Jones, which was envisaged to be a light entertainment comedy piece. The result wasTomkinson's Schooldays (a title loosely inspired byTom Brown's Schooldays and suggested by BBC directorTerry Hughes). Palin and Jones both wrote and starred in multiple roles.[1] Once the series was picked up, Jones did not appear in any further episodes, following a decision byJames Gilbert that it should be a “Michael Palin series”.[2]
The nine episodes and their original airdates are:
Tomkinson's Schooldays was shot onvideotape in front of a studio audience, with filmed exterior scenes. The remaining episodes were all shot onfilm, and were originally shown with laugh tracks (recorded by showing each completed film to an audience), but with a couple of exceptions these have been omitted from repeats.[3]
In 2014, the series was repeated onBBC Four, commencing withTomkinson's Schooldays on 3 April.[4] This broadcast included a laugh track. The first episode was preceded by a documentary,Alexander Armstrong's Real Ripping Yarns, which examined the assumptions and outlook of the original boys' magazines of whichRipping Yarns were a parody. Both Palin and Jones contributed to the programme.
The theme tune for the series wasFanfare from the ‘Facade Suite No. 2', by SirWilliam Walton, played by the City of Birmingham Orchestra, conducted byLouis Frémaux.
Terry Hughes, who had directedThe Two Ronnies and would later directThe Golden Girls and3rd Rock from the Sun, directed early episodes ofRipping Yarns.[3]Jim Franklin, known forThe Goodies, directed other episodes and two episodes in the second series were directed byAlan J. W. Bell, known forThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy andLast of the Summer Wine.[3] Bell usedMichael Radford, who later became noted for the filmsNineteen Eighty-Four,White Mischief andIl Postino, as cinematographer.[3]
Each episode featured several guest character actors includingIan Ogilvy,Kenneth Colley,Isabel Dean,Liz Smith,Roy Kinnear,Frank Middlemass,Iain Cuthbertson,John Le Mesurier,Jan Francis,Denholm Elliott,Gwen Taylor,Harold Innocent,Richard Vernon,Gwen Watford,Barbara New,Gerald Sim,Gilly Flower,Joan Sanderson,Roger Sloman andDavid Griffin.[1]John Cleese makes acameo appearance in the episode "Golden Gordon".
The series was nominated for aBAFTA award in 1978 for 'Best Film Cameraman' (Peter Hall) and won in 1980 for 'Best Light Entertainment Programme/Series'.[citation needed]
In a review for the Guardian, Phelim O'Neill praised the show for its superior production values, stating it was "charming, insightful and very, very silly."[5]
The scripts were published in book form, with sepia-tinted stills, asRipping Yarns (1978;ISBN 0-413-46250-1) andMore Ripping Yarns (1980;ISBN 0-413-47530-1) and later collected in an omnibus volume,The Complete Ripping Yarns (1999;ISBN 0-413-77360-4).
Across the Andes by Frog originally appeared inBert Fegg's Nasty Book for Boys and Girls, co-authored by Palin and Jones.
The series was released on threeVHS tapes in the UK in the 1990s. Two of these compilations were reissued by Revelation Films onRegion 0 (worldwide)DVD in 2000, though the six episodes included were notremastered.
The fully restored series was released in October 2004 asThe Complete Ripping Yarns. This two-discRegion 2 DVD set included commentaries on all nine episodes by Palin and Jones and a deleted scene (without soundtrack) fromMurder at Moorstones Manor. All of the episodes, exceptTomkinson's Schooldays andMurder at Moorstones Manor, have optional laugh-free soundtracks.
The DVD set also includes the only surviving (and rather poor quality) recording of Palin and Jones's comic BBC playSecrets from 1973, as well as a documentary by Michael Palin entitledComic Roots in which he goes back to visit his home town. Not linked in the menu are scans of the first drafts of the scripts for six episodes (Tomkinson's Schooldays,The Testing of Eric Olthwaite,Murder at Moorstone Manor,Across the Andes by Frog,The Curse of the Claw andWhinfrey's Last Case), type-written with Palin's handwritten comments and changes in the margin. There is an informative booklet enclosed. This set was also released inRegion 1 with all of the above included, apart fromSecrets. A further box set, fully remastered, including the directors commentary, was released in 2004.
The DVD was re-released in March 2012. To publicise the event, Network hosted a "Hopathon" to recreate the "Tomkinson's School Days" episode. The intention was to break aGuinness World Record, but not enough people took part.[6]
