RIPPING YARNS DVDS COMING TO U.S.
by Hans ten Cate
Monday, 30 May 2005



The 2-disc DVD of Ripping Yarns is coming to the U.S. market August 30
Ripping Yarns, the renowned BBC series from the 1970s created and written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones, will be released on DVD in the United States this August. The nine episode Ripping Yarns features Michael Palin (with Terry Jones and even John Cleese playing small roles) in a series tongue-in-cheek schoolboy adventure stories. Each half hour episode is a self-contained story, largely parodies of movie genres, such as 1920s murder mysteries, prisoner-of-war escape movies, and Biggles-style heroic tales about the First World War.

The shows first came to video in the U.S. in 1986 and last November finally found its way onto a 2-disc DVD set in the U.K. This 2-disc set is now coming stateside. The set features all nine episodes, digital restored, as well as a host of extras, including commentaries for all of the episodes, deleted scenes, and a 1982 featurette called "Comic Roots" with Michael Palin.

On the occasion of the announcement, Michael Palin wrote in to say "I am very excited about the release of Ripping Yarns in the North American market. From the days when I first showed them to the likes of John Belushi, Dan Akroyd and Bill Murray, the Yarns attracted a lot of fans in America. It's great news that these fans will now have access to this terrific new DVD"

Included are all nine episodes, which aired from 1972 through 1979.

Tomkinson's Schooldays
Set in the frontier days of British education, when upper lips were stiff with cold and corporeal punishment was a required course. A savage, searing indictment of something or other.
The Testing of Eric Olthwaite
A boy becomes a man in the harsh world of the Depression. The rough, tough story of a stupefyingly boring Yorkshireman.
Escape From Stalag Luft 112B
A tale of courage and valor behind the lines in the Kaiser's Germany. An inspiring story of camp life and a British officer who wouldn't lie down.
Murder at Moorstones Manor
Hugo and Dora drive down to see Mumsie and Dadsie-pie for a long weekend in the country. But it turns out to be longer than they thought.
Across the Andes by Frog
The stirring story of one man (and six frogs) who tried to defy the world in the greatest gamble of all.
The Curse of the Claw
The terrifying story of a man who dabbled in the dark mysteries of the Orient, and lived to tell the tale. Or did he . . . ?
Whinfrey's Last Case
Dashing, debonair Gerald Whinfrey saves his country twice a week. But in 1913, a German plot to start the First World War without telling anybody coincides with his holiday. Where do Whinfrey's priorities lie? Has he got any? A knockabout tale of international intrigue.
Golden Gordon
A torrid tale of football fanaticism in the 1930s. Super-fan Gordon Ottershaw supports a team that hasn't won a match in six years. But worse is to come, and Gordon and his bicycle clips are reunited in a last desperate bid for glory.
Roger of the Raj
Roger Bartlesham comes of age in a world of 18-course breakfasts and 12 servants per leg. But when the Great War breaks out, Roger finds himself in a world of changing values and is forced by circumstances to the most despicable act known to the British Army.
Special features on the DVD set include:

Commentaries for all 9 episodes by Michael Palin and Terry Jones
Laugh-track-free audio option
Deleted scene
Photo gallery
Comic Roots: Michael Palin, 1982
Restoration clip
Michael Palin's original scripts (DVD-ROM)
Commemorative booklet