This made me cry with laughter.
That is the honest truth about Ripping Yarns, and it still does nearly 50 years later.
I spent my childhood reading adventure stories from my father’s collection. Tales of Robinson Crusoe, The Coral Island, King Solomon’s Mines, and Biggles transported me to exotic locations where brave British heroes faced impossible odds with nothing but their wits and their stiff upper lip. These stories were deeply British in their attitudes, their honour, and their unshakeable belief in British superiority.
But what made the 1970s special was that British television took these very stories and gave them a Pythonesque twist. The result was Ripping Yarns, a series that brilliantly satirised the adventure story tradition while celebrating everything that made it so absurdly, wonderfully British.
Ripping Yarns first broadcast in January 1976 as a single episode called “Tomkinson’s Schooldays,” a wickedly funny parody of Tom Brown’s Schooldays. Young Tomkinson, played by Michael Palin, is sent to Graybridge, a traditional English public school where new boys must fight grizzly bears and can be nailed to the wall on St Tadgar’s Day. It is ridiculous, but not too far from the traditions shown in the original stories. The episode was so successful that the BBC commissioned a full series.
Between 1976 and 1979, nine episodes of Ripping Yarns were produced, each standing alone as a complete story. There was “The Testing of Eric Olthwaite,” featuring a man so dull his family pretends to be French to avoid speaking to him. “Escape from Stalag Luft 112B” parodied war films and TV shows like Colditz. “The Curse of the Claw” took the horror tradition of The Monkey’s Paw and turned it into a hilarious tale of a cursed Burmese artefact.
But the episodes that stand out for me are from the second series. “Golden Gordon” is a football drama that evokes Roy of the Rovers but also the older comics like Victor and The Eagle. Gordon is the greatest fan of Barnstoneworth United, a team that has fallen from glory. When the club faces dissolution, Gordon reunites the old team for one final match. The centrepiece is a brilliant moment where a former player, known for his shiny bald head, arrives wearing a wig. When the match begins, he whips it off. It works on so many levels, evoking both sporting drama and the absurdity of British tradition.
The final episode, “Roger of the Raj,” takes the old tales of the British in India and stands them on their head. Roger Bartlesham grows up in a wealthy family with servants, grouse-shooting, and all the trappings of British Empire. His father cannot accept that slavery no longer exists. His mother has killed more grouse than any woman in history. Roger spends his time with a Latin tutor who teaches him Marxism instead. When the family moves to India during the war, they continue their comfortable life, having Indian servants play croquet for them. At the end, Roger and his girlfriend achieve their dream of running a small shop, the complete antithesis of the British Imperial dream.
What makes Ripping Yarns remarkable is that it still makes me laugh today. Unlike many shows from that era, it has aged beautifully. The historical setting, the brilliant writing by Palin and Jones, and the exceptional casting ensure these episodes remain genuinely funny after nearly 50 years. The cast included Ian Ogilvy, Liz Smith, Roy Kinnear, Frank Middlemass, Iain Cuthbertson, John Le Mesurier, Jan Francis, Denholm Elliott, Gwen Taylor, and Joan Sanderson. These were top British actors who clearly relished the material.
Ripping Yarns taught me more than just how to pass the port. It taught me that the best comedy comes from understanding what you are parodying, and that British humour at its finest is self-deprecating, ironic, and unafraid to laugh at our own traditions and absurdities.
Have you gone across the Andes by Frog? Tell me your favourite Ripping Yarns episode.
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Take care,
Oliver
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John Le Mesurier pronounced his surname to rhyme with “treasurer” :-)