Ripping Yarns

Ripping Yarns is still worth a casual holiday season viewing or two, and if you like Michael Palin (or Terry Jones) it is an essential part of the canon.

At the time it was reckoned something of a failure – a late night cult item – with only nine episodes being made over a number of years from 1975 to 1979 (starting a year or so after the last Python series finished in ’74). Perhaps it was the cost – in terms relative to usual sitcoms the show clearly had money to spend, though it looks ever so humble these days. Perhaps it was also the target – sending up English foolishness and kids’ adventure yarns is pretty easy game.

But when you look at the shows these days they are simply jolly good fun, a jape amongst chums, and even when simply silly they are a pleasure to watch. Palin always did a good line in cheekiness and heroics, and here he’s in his element. A typical episode sees him playing a British explorer attempting to cross the Andes by way of frog, with Denholm Elliott as a crutch clutching British representative constantly reverting to his bedroom.

Now if this doesn’t sound funny (meaning you never listened to The Goons) read no further. But if you like the tone, then you’re probably ready for the first episode, Tompkinson’s Schooldays, made in honor of all those Fifth Form of St. Dominic’s stories (and those Harry Potters to come much later in cross genre form), with Palin as a young tortured schoolboy, and a school with a resident professional school boy – not to mention the honorable tradition of crucifying young boys to the school walls, or the famed cross country one legged hop race in fiendish conditions.

The series naturally boasts a send up of Christie murder mystery stories – Palin plays two brothers in Murder at Moorstones Manor, which sees a bout of upper class bumping off – and a send up of interminable POW escape shows - Escape from Stalag Luft 112B sees Palin as an escape artiste of exceptional and irritating incompetence.

 The Testing of Eric Olthwaite sees Palin with an obsession with the weather, black puddings and shovels – neo realism comes to Yorkshire – while The Curse of the Claw references old Edgar Allen Poe type horror stories with growths, rats, and fiendish claws.

 Whinfrey’s Last Case brings in the war and a holiday in Cornwall, while Golden Gordon deals a fan’s hopeless faith in Barnseworth United, and the last show Roger of the Raj introduces the theme of the British blithering about in India.  You might even see a send up of Orson Welles' as show host.

The only tragedy is that there were so many other themes for Palin and Jones (who was mainly behind the camera) to explore – with Fawcett in the Amazon, or actually going to the South Pole (instead of having an explorer turn up at school). But equally, like Fawlty Towers, there’s an argument that less is more, and that nine is the right number, neither eight or ten being right, and that these nine cover all the Ripping Yarns ever needed. While they vary in terms of laughs, and they are always very silly, they are that rare form of television where a return after a little absence is rewarded with renewed appreciation. For once, the fact that they don’t make them like that any more actually means something.

For extras, you get the six scripts, and a half hour documentary (made in 1983) about Palin, his history and his march into comedy. More bizarrely, you also get an hour drama, written by Palin and Jones, about three men working in a chocolate factory, who fall into the machines and end up as chocolates. Neither writer is on view, and the original materials for the show – made by the BBC – were lost, so what you get here is a cleaned up version taken from a VHS copy. Needless to say, image quality is rough, and the show has a dated, period air about it, showing how much better it was when Palin and Jones did their own thing in Ripping Yarns. For enthusiasts only.

What is remarkable is just how good the shows look after some thirty years. The images on the two disc DVD set look remarkably sharp and color is good, with only a few typical bits of roughness revealing the telly style production. Sound is less in your face, being mono, but there’s also a chance on seven of the eps to watch without the audience canned laughter track (purists will insist on watching it in the format in which it went to air).

This is the kind of show for which there will always be a cult following and a cult audience, and the vast unwashed hordes will be indifferent or uncaring, and that is their loss. Palin never did anything better – settling instead for a career trekking around the globe or catching trains – and viewed backwards through a telescope, these shows constitute his comedy legacy.

 If you are on the hunt for gifts or for something to watch instead of Headland over the holiday season, you could do a lot worse than set those frogs marching across your big screen telly, and you might well find yourself in surprisingly good humor, even if like the frogs you end up in Mexico …

 

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