Ripping Yarns C/D

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I just rented the new DVD, with a bunch of entertainingly ho-hum Jones & Palin commentaries, but mostly for the purpose of watching "The Curse of the Claw" which scared the living bejeezus out of me as a kid, and I can see why. Anyway -- no ILX thread on this. It's very patchy but quite hilarious in places. My Canadian friends didn't really "get" it -- I was giggling while they were watching in stony disbelief. What's the critical consensus on this, anyway? It doesn't get mentioned a lot.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 18:39 (twenty years ago)

I finally got this set myself for Xmas, after years of having the scripts but only ever having seen "Golden Gordon" for some reason. I think it's uneven but often inspired -- in respects I think they couldn't decide whether they wanted to do full on costume drama or not! Maybe Terry Jones should have just directed them all.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 18:44 (twenty years ago)

"Testing Of Eric Olthwaite" - CLASSIC. Or it was when I was 10.

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 18:49 (twenty years ago)

"It were ALWAYS raining..."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 18:52 (twenty years ago)

It seems to have slipped through the canonical timestream a bit, which is strange, considering the high profile casts (Denholm Elliot!) and it's pretty expensively-shot. There's clearly a lot of love in it, which makes me wish it were slightly better than it is.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 18:52 (twenty years ago)

The full-body knitted suit is clearly classic though. Pre-burka topical joke, almost.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 18:53 (twenty years ago)

Barnstoneworth United? It's all coming back to me...

― Rotatey Diskers With Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 18:54 (twenty years ago)

You've got it.

"I'm going to have a BABY!"

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 18:59 (twenty years ago)

I bought this on DVD recently! Was most pleased it were ~~always raining~~ out now. I love "Da Claw!" and the Tomkinsons Schooldays one. Alarmed to find some eps had a laugh track I'd not recalled hearing before, but then found there's an option to turn it off. Hurrah!

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 22:02 (twenty years ago)

eight - nil, eight BLOODY NIL!

Classic! Like the wee extra about the chocolate factory churning out chocolates with human content.
Can remember these when BBC2 repeated them in the early 90's and got the DVD when it came out a few years back. I think they're being shown on thursday nights on BBC4.

― JohnFoxxsJuno (JohnFoxxsJuno), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 22:29 (twenty years ago)

"Ah you must be Jean-Pierre Olthwaite's boy."

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 15:21 (twenty years ago)

i thought this was a knitting thread. :(

― Miss Misery xox (MissMiseryTX), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 15:21 (twenty years ago)

You have your own! ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 15:23 (twenty years ago)

There's some significant knitting in "The Curse of the Claw."

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 20:00 (twenty years ago)

I remember talking about Ripping Yarns to friends at college in the late 80s & we all had dim memories based on having older siblings who loved Python and seeing the odd episode once in the 70s as children. We had typical studenty conversations about how odd and hilarious it all was & when it was repeated in the early 90s we were excited beyond measure - by then RY had become 'our thing'. Of course we were all slightly disappointed by it. For me it is part of a personal nostalgia for a pre-video age when programmes like this can be seen by millions of people, but are never repeated, so turn up years later in drunken 'oh, yeaahh...' type conversations. Like some Plays for Today or certain documentaries, or the Wicker Man, which used to be shown at about 1am every few years on ITV.
I was reminded of this a few years ago when I saw a copy of Bert Fegg's Nasty Book in a s/h bookshop. We'd had this book as kids & I never realised it was by Michael Palin & Terry jones, back then it was just all part (along with the above) of the general weirdness of childhood.

― bham, Thursday, 2 March 2006 09:58 (twenty years ago)

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