IMDb > "Ripping Yarns" (1976)

"Ripping Yarns" (1976) More at IMDbPro »TV series 1976-1979

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Overview

User Rating:
8.1/10   275 votes
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Up 14% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
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View company contact information for Ripping Yarns on IMDbPro.
Seasons:
Release Date:
7 January 1976 (UK) more
Genre:
Plot:
Ripping Yarns is a collection of tales that make for 'ripping good' television. Michael Palin plays a different lead character in each yarn.
Awards:
1 win & 1 nomination more
User Comments:
Would have been an amazing series of six, unfortunately, they did nine. more (6 total)

Cast

 (Series Cast Summary - 2 of 5)
Michael Palin ... Bank Manager / ... (9 episodes, 1976-1979)
Charles McKeown ... 2nd Native / ... (4 episodes, 1977-1979)
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Additional Details

Runtime:
30 min (9 episodes)
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Language:
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Fun Stuff

Trivia:
At least three "Ripping Yarns" were never fully realized. According to Palin and Jones, "The Seawolf", "Rizzo The Wonder Dog" and "Dracula At St.Dominics" were started, but never completed. more
Movie Connections:
Featured in What the Pythons Did Next... (2007) (TV) more
Soundtrack:
Façade, Suite No. 2 - Fanfare more

FAQ

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5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful.
Would have been an amazing series of six, unfortunately, they did nine., 17 January 2007
8/10
Author: EckyThump from United Kingdom

As you've probably guessed from my summary, there are three duff episodes of Ripping Yarns (namely Murder at Moorstones Manor, Roger Of the Raj and Across the Andes By Frog) and six really good ones. Apparently the BBC agreed, because when they released two videotapes of the series, each containing three episodes, you can guess which episodes never made it to either cassette. (All nine episodes have subsequently been released by Network.) Ripping Yarns is a series of extended parodies on 'Boy's Own'-type adventure stories, with Michael Palin's versatile performances well to the fore and superb production and costume design adding to the authentic flavour. The best of the bunch are Tomkinson's Schooldays (which takes place at a public school run by perverts, maniacs and incompetents who favour ridiculous 'traditions' and bizarre punishments over scholastic achievement), the Testing Of Eric Olthwaite (in which a Northern misfit, judged by all and sundry to be "a boring little t*t", becomes an unlikely folk hero after getting caught up in a bank raid), Golden Gordon (the most loyal supporter of a hopeless soccer team saves the club from liquidation by re-recruiting several retired players for an important match), Winfrey's Last Case (a self-styled 'superhero', sick of saving the world on an almost daily basis, finds his holiday interrupted by a despicable plan to start the First World War a year early), Escape From Stalag Luft 112B (a riotous inversion of the "stiff upper lip" war movie and the Great Escape in particular) and the brilliant Curse Of the Claw, a surprisingly dark and occasionally moving black comedy about a repressed young man's doomed quest to lift the titular curse from his disease-ridden (quite voluntarily, I might add) Uncle Jack which has one of the bleakest twist endings ever seen in British comedy. When these Yarns are good, they're very very good, but the clunkers are simply tedious. Still, the half-dozen masterpieces in miniature detailed above, and the addition of an ultra-rare Palin-Jones BBC drama from 1973 makes the DVD set a compulsory purchase.

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RIPPING YARNS STAGE SHOW NEXT WEEK! Perris
Great DVD space_hamsters
How many episodes? stanb-4
Where's the DVD? semprini20
Subtitles or transcripts.. ejhler
secrets bonus not on US DVD, why? sguphx
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