Ripping Yarns

Ripping Yarns
Title card
Created by	Michael Palin, Terry Jones
Starring	Michael Palin
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	9
Production
Running time	~30 min
Release
Original network	BBC One
Original release	7 January 1976 – 24 October 1979

Ripping Yarns is a British television comedy series. It was written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones of Monty Python fame. It was transmitted on BBC 2. Following an initial pilot episode in January 1976, it ran for two series — six episodes in October 1977 and three episodes in October 1979. Each episode had a different setting and characters, each looking at a different aspect of British culture and parodying pre-World War II literature aimed at schoolboys. In the title, "ripping" is a chiefly British slang meaning "excellent" or "fine", and "yarns" is a colloquialism for exaggerated stories.

In 1975, the BBC commissioned a pilot episode from Palin and Jones, envisaged to be a light entertainment comedy piece. The result was Tomkinson's Schooldays (a title loosely inspired by Tom Brown's Schooldays, and suggested by BBC director Terry Hughes). Palin and Jones both wrote and starred in multiple roles.

The nine episodes and their original airdates are:

Tomkinson's Schooldays was shot on videotape with filmed exterior scenes. The remaining episodes were all shot on . They were also originally shown with laugh tracks, but with a couple of exceptions these have been omitted from reruns.

The series was repeated on BBC4 commencing with Tomkinson's Schooldays on 3 April 2014. This broadcast included a laugh track. The first episode was preceded by a documentary, Alexander Armstrong's Real Ripping Yarns, which examined the assumptions and outlook of the original boys' magazines of which Ripping Yarns were a parody. Both Palin and Jones contributed to the programme.

The theme tune for the series was Fanfare from the Facade Suite No 2', by Sir William Walton, played by the City of Birmingham Orchestra, conducted by Louis Frémaux.

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