The Complete Ripping Yarns
by Alan J.W. Bell, Terry Hughes
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DVD details
Director: Alan J.W. Bell, Terry HughesDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 274 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-08-30
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Acorn Media
DVD Reviews of The Complete Ripping Yarns
DVD Review: British comedy at its best
Summary: 5 Stars
Thank you BBC...own it and if not laugh out loud all the time, expand your humor!DVD Review: Fantastic
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
DVD Review: One of Michael Palin and Terry Jones's finest achievements outside Python...
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
DVD Review: Ripping good tales
Summary: 5 Stars
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!!!!!!!!!!
DVD Review: Palin and Jones Materpieces
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Very funny and well worth watching over and over.
Description of The Complete Ripping Yarns
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
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. |
Stills from Ripping Yarns (click for larger image)
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