This was the final episode of Ripping Yarns. Roger of the Raj stars Michael Palin as Roger Bartlesham who grew up in a stuffy, out of touch and wealthy family with several large houses, an overflowing breakfast table and plenty of servants.
Roger's mother, Lady Bartlesham (Joan Sanderson) loves to kill grouse and quite a few beaters, she is rather willing to shoot Roger as well if he ever started a revolution.
His father Lord Bartlesham (Richard Vernon) cannot get over the fact that slavery has been abolished and that all his servants are free.
Roger's Latin tutor a former child molester with a fake degree teaches him about Marxism. When the great war breaks out the Bartleshams move to India but Roger dreams of opening a general store with his girlfriend Miranda. He gets embroiled in a revolt by the army thanks to his tutor.
Ripping Yarns satirises English colonial attitudes and this episode again is no different with Sanderson and Vernon on top form as the ruling elite oblivious to any changes in social attitudes.
The episode has a standout sequence when army officers at the dinner table suddenly spurt out outrageous sentiments such as being able to pass the port any way you want and then step away from the table and outside the room to shoot themselves. Leading to Colonel Runciman (John Le Mesurier) to get up and say he wanted to abolish the Loyal Toast, the National Anthem and set up a socialist republic before he too steps out to shoot himself.
Roger's mother, Lady Bartlesham (Joan Sanderson) loves to kill grouse and quite a few beaters, she is rather willing to shoot Roger as well if he ever started a revolution.
His father Lord Bartlesham (Richard Vernon) cannot get over the fact that slavery has been abolished and that all his servants are free.
Roger's Latin tutor a former child molester with a fake degree teaches him about Marxism. When the great war breaks out the Bartleshams move to India but Roger dreams of opening a general store with his girlfriend Miranda. He gets embroiled in a revolt by the army thanks to his tutor.
Ripping Yarns satirises English colonial attitudes and this episode again is no different with Sanderson and Vernon on top form as the ruling elite oblivious to any changes in social attitudes.
The episode has a standout sequence when army officers at the dinner table suddenly spurt out outrageous sentiments such as being able to pass the port any way you want and then step away from the table and outside the room to shoot themselves. Leading to Colonel Runciman (John Le Mesurier) to get up and say he wanted to abolish the Loyal Toast, the National Anthem and set up a socialist republic before he too steps out to shoot himself.
