Over the past several months there seems to have been a number of well-deserved programs revisiting classic British comedy series such as the celebration of the 30th anniversary of A Bit of Fry and Laurie, a look at the early days of Morcambe and Wise and the return of Ronnie Corbett in The One Ronnie. For my money, another classic, short-lived, British comedy series from the department of they just don’t make them like they used to anymore and one that deserves a second look, is Ripping Yarns.

Perhaps you’re just discovering British comedy or maybe you’ve been watching for years and forgotten this gem from the genius minds behind Monty Python. Take a moment and re-live the greatness that was Ripping Yarns. Post Python, the BBC was desperately looking for new material from ex-Pythons. John Cleese had Fawlty Towers in the works by this time and so they looked to other Python alums, Michael Palin and Terry Jones, for their next project. Up first was “Tomkinson’s Schooldays” which was a classic spoof of Tom Brown’s Schooldays. The immediate success of the pilot paved the way for 11 more individual anthology episodes over the next several years. Enjoy this trip into the British comedy vault. Anyone remember and have a favorite episode?

Ripping Yarns “Escape from Stalag 112B”, pt 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf4MgXKzbng&feature=related

Ripping Yarns “Escape from Stalag 112B”, pt 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_yjzoYps5s&feature=related

Ripping Yarns “Escape from Stalag 112B”, pt 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGkbc_eCFu8&feature=related