History Series / RippingYarns

** Rather than seeing the suicides, we only ever hear a gunshot and a loud thud (implied to be the body falling) from behind the door they just walked through. In one case, we hear a gunshot and glass shattering, followed a few seconds later by a second shot and a thud. [[EpicFail Apparently, that soldier somehow]] ''[[EpicFail missed]] [[EpicFail the first shot.]]

** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] when it turns out that, while all of them are revolutionaries, none of them are actual communists, but rather variations on anarchists and socialists. Mr. Hopper is very disappointed.
* DirtyOldMan: The British Consul in ''Across the Andes by Frog'' has an unhealthy interest in schoolgirls.

* TheRaj: in ''Roger of the Raj''

* HeyItsThatGuy: Denholm Elliot, aka [[IndianaJones Marcus Brody]], shows up in ''Across The Andes By Frog'' as a British vice-consul in a remote Peruvian town in the Andes

* ''Literature/TheThirtyNineSteps'': Parodied very thouroughly in ''Whinfrey's Last Case.'' The episode is notable for being the most faithful adaptation of ''The Thirty-Nine Steps'' ever.

Basically, what Creator/MichaelPalin and Terry Jones did after ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' but completely different and just as funny. ''Ripping Yarns'' was the definitive parody of the "Boy's Own" genre of the inter-war years.

Ripping Yarns started a year after Python ended, with its pilot ''Tomkinson's Schooldays'' being broadcast in 1975. It was followed by a first series of six episodes (including a re-run of the pilot) was broadcast in 1977. It was followed by a second series of half the size in 1979.

''Ripping Yarns'' contains examples of:

* ''Literature/TheThirtyNineSteps'': Parodied very thouroughly in ''Winfrey's Last Case.'' The episode is notable for being the most faithful adaptation of ''The Thirty-Nine Steps'' ever.
* TownWithADarkSecret: ''Winfrey's Last Case''. It turns out that all the inhabitants of the Cornish fishing village where agent Winfrey takes his holiday in 1913 are in fact German spies. What's more, this turns out to be part of a conspiracy between the British and German Governments.

* TheThirtyNineSteps: Parodied very thouroughly in ''Winfrey's Last Case.'' The episode is notable for being the most faithful adaptation of ''The Thirty-Nine Steps'' ever.

** Of course, after all of the British prisoners ''except'' Phipps escape (he wasn't included in their plans because he refused to submit his own plans to the various necessary escape committees), the prison becomes very much not a CardboardPrison. This is why the guards themselves eventually escape

* GymClassHell: In ''Tomkinson's Schooldays'' the school hopping team is trained to within an inch of its life and sent on a thirty-mile-hop across some of England's bleakest mountains, against a team of young Nazis. Note the ritual "Palfrey" - a blow on the head - bestowed by a teacher with a wooden club beforehand. Tomkinson only survives with the assistance of performance-enhancing drugs.

* CardboardPrison: ''Escape from Stalag Luft 112B'', in which Major Phipps becomes the only man ''never'' to have escaped from the prison camp of the title.

Basically, what MichaelPalin and Terry Jones did after ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' but completely different and just as funny. ''Ripping Yarns'' was the definitive parody of the "Boy's Own" genre of the inter-war years.