Fantastic series. Comedy genius. My absolute fave episodes would have to be "Escape from Stalag Luft 112B", "Golden Gordon", "Roger of the Raj" and "The Curse of the Claw"
Best moments are every bit as great as Pythons F.C. Discuss?
Ripping Yarns
The very first one is my favourite, in the school; brilliant stuff.
I like the one about the staggeringly boring bank robber. It was a classic series, though. Pity it never got another series, although I'd guess it was very expensive to make.
The concept sounds much funnier than the execution. They are amusing but rarely laugh-out-loud stories and often suffer from a bit too much "common sense" - just when they are about to take off on a surreal flight of fancy they are reined in sensibly.
Watching 'star' player Wayne Rooney score a header with his new thatch, England resemble Barnestonworth United in so many ways.
Absolutely love this series. Tomkinson's Schooldays, The Testing Eric Olthwaite and Escape from Stalag Luft 112B are all standouts, but there are no real duds; Across the Andes By Frog is probably the "most surreal flight of fancy" and to my mind the weakest as a result. The Pythons were always best when they reined it in a bit.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ March 2 2009, 6:30 PM GMTThe very first one is my favourite, in the school; brilliant stuff.
It's a full scale model sir!
I watched Roger of the Raj last night with Mrs Will Cam. It wasn't laugh out loud but I really enjoyed the underlying silliness of it and could watch Michael Palin all day. Incidently Mrs Will Cam didn't laugh once, stating somewhat accusingly:-
'You don't half watch some shit!'
Quote: Will Cam @ July 3 2012, 10:21 PM BSTI watched Roger of the Raj last night with Mrs Will Cam. It wasn't laugh out loud but I really enjoyed the underlying silliness of it and could watch Michael Palin all day. Incidently Mrs Will Cam didn't laugh once, stating somewhat accusingly:-
'You don't half watch some shit!'
Has she seen "it Ain't 'Alf Shit Cam" yet?
Though to be honest the shitcam is probably a concept too far.
Btw I like Ripping Yarns a lot and the best bits are brilliant. It ain't sitcom, though!
Ripping Yarns was more up and down than my hand when I'm watching Melanie C videos. But on a good day it was stunning - Tomkinson and Curse of the Claw (not my claw) are rightly regarded classics.
Wouldn't be surprised if they were an influence on Ben Stiller, Will Ferrel type spoof films which are affectionate and a bit silly in the same way Ripping Yarns was.
Quote: youngian @ July 4 2012, 9:43 AM BSTWouldn't be surprised if they were an influence on Ben Stiller, Will Ferrel type spoof films which are affectionate and a bit silly in the same way Ripping Yarns was.
Not really Boys Own type of comedies are they? The sad part about Ripping Yarns is that there could be have been more of them but they were just thought too expensive to make.
Just saw the Pilot episode and this is without a doubt pure genius. That scene where he's given cocaine to withstand the uphill race is even for broadcast standards today very daring.
BBC4 are currently repeating the whole series of this.
Last night (3rd April 2014) they showed the first episode, Tomkinson's Schooldays" which has always been one of my favourites from the series.
Very Python like, as you would expect, and still very funny, though not all of it "worked".
One scene made me laugh where all the boys are in woodwork class making "scale models" of ships about a foot long.
The teacher (Terry Jones) turns and sees Tomkinson (Michael Palin) hanging from the side of a full sized ship (obviously filmed in a real shipyard).
"What's that Tomkinson?", "It's an Ice Breaker sir", "That's not a scale model", "Its a full size scale model sir", "Well melt it down", "But sir there is 17,000 tons of steel in her".
Note there was actually two series of this, the first had 6 episodes, the second was supposed to have 6 but after making 3 the BBC would not give them any more money so they stopped after 3 (they were expensive to make compared to other TV comedy shows at the time - lots of locations shots and made on film rather than video tape).
Quote: Guilbert @ 4th April 2014, 7:50 AM BSTVery Python like, as you would expect, and still very funny, though not all of it "worked".
I'm so familar with this that I couldn't imagine it any other way.