Ripping Yarns (1976)

Golden Gordon - S2-E2

Factual error: This programme is set in 1935, but in all aerial shots all cars that can be seen are from the 1970s.

Trivia: In the pilot of the first series, "Tomkinson's Schooldays," Michael Palin introduces the episode wearing a full black beard, a black poet hat and a black opera cape; but Palin repeatedly bungles his lines and must be coached (by an off-camera Terry Jones) through every word of his introduction. Palin affects the same costume and character to introduce the first episode of the second series, "Whinfrey's Last Case," as well. In both instances, Michael Palin and Terry Jones were mocking the legendary American filmmaker Orson Welles, a heavy drinker who was notoriously difficult to direct and who had descended to appearing in wine commercials on TV by the 1970s.

Charles Austin Miller