Ripping Yarns
| Ripping Yarns | |
|---|---|
 Title card |
|
| Format | Comedy |
| Created by | Michael Palin, Terry Jones |
| Starring | Michael Palin |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 9 |
| Production | |
| Running time | ~30 min |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC One |
| Original run | 7 January 1976 – 24 October 1979 |
Ripping Yarns is a British television comedy series, shown on BBC 2 from 1976 to 1979. It was written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones of Monty Python fame. Each episode had a different setting and characters, each looking at a different aspect of British culture and parodying pre-World War II literature aimed at schoolboys.
Contents |
[edit] Origin
The series grew out of a one-off BBC programme called Tomkinson's Schooldays (1976), loosely inspired by Tom Brown's Schooldays, and suggested by BBC director Terry Hughes. Palin and Jones both wrote and starred in multiple roles.[1]
Palin thought of the name while driving down the A15 road and when passing the village of Rippingale in Lincolnshire. The name played in his mind until he turned it to Ripping Yarns. The Manor house used to film "The Curse of the Claw" was Rippingale House near Bourne, and its grounds and Vicarage.[1]
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Production details
Tomkinson's Schooldays was shot on videotape with filmed exterior scenes and has a laugh track. The remaining episodes were all shot on film. They were also originally shown with laugh tracks, but with a couple of exceptions these have been omitted from reruns.[2]
The theme tune for the series was Fanfare from the Facade Suite No 2', by Sir William Walton, played by the City of Birmingham Orchestra, conducted by Louis Frémaux.
[edit] Directors
Terry Hughes directed most of the episodes, and would later direct The Two Ronnies, The Golden Girls and 3rd Rock from the Sun.[2] Others were the responsibility of Jim Franklin, known for The Goodies, and two episodes in the second series were directed by Alan J. W. Bell, also known for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Last of the Summer Wine.[2] Bell used Michael Radford who later became noted for the films Nineteen Eighty-Four, White Mischief and Il Postino.[2]
[edit] Cast
Each episode featured, apart from Palin, well-known guest actors including Ian Ogilvy, Kenneth Colley, Liz Smith, Roy Kinnear, Frank Middlemass, Iain Cuthbertson, John Le Mesurier, Jan Francis, Denholm Elliott, Richard Vernon, Joan Sanderson and others.[1]
[edit] Reception
The series was nominated for a BAFTA award in 1978 for "Best Film Cameraman" (Peter Hall)[3] and won in 1980 for "Best Light Entertainment Programme/Series".[4]
[edit] Books
The scripts were published in book form, with sepia-tinted stills, as Ripping Yarns (1978; ISBN 0-413-46250-1) and More 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 in Bert Fegg's Nasty Book for Boys and Girls, co-authored by Palin and Jones.
[edit] Video and DVD
The series was released on three VHS tapes in the UK in the 1980s. Two of these compilations were reissued (not by the BBC) on Region 0 (worldwide) DVD in 2000. As this was an unofficial release, the six episodes included were not remastered.
The fully restored series was released in October 2004 as The Complete Ripping Yarns. This 2-disc Region 2 DVD set included commentaries on all nine episodes by Palin and Jones and a deleted scene (without soundtrack) from Murder at Moorstones Manor. All of the episodes, except Tomkinson's Schooldays and Murder 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 play Secrets from 1973, as well as a documentary by Michael Palin entitled Comic 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, and Whinfrey's Last Case), type-written with Palin's handwritten comments and changes in the margin. There is an informative booklet enclosed, written by Andrew Pixley.
This set also saw release in Region 1 with all of the above included, apart from Secrets.
A further box set, fully remastered, including the directors commentary, was released in 2004.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Palin, Michael; Terry Jones (1980). Ripping Yarns. London: Eyre Methuen. ISBN 0413462501.
- ^ a b c d "Zeta Minor DVD Review - Ripping Yarns". www.zetaminor.com. http://www.zetaminor.com/dvd/dvdreviews/ripping_yarns.htm. Retrieved 2010-07-10.
- ^ "BAFTA Awards (1978)". www.imdb.com. http://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000123/1978. Retrieved 2010-07-10.
- ^ "BAFTA Awards (1980)". www.imdb.com. http://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000123/1980. Retrieved 2010-07-10.
