After Monty Python but before Pole to Pole Michael Palin starred in Ripping Yarns, a series spoofing Boys' Own adventures. In the Testing of Eric Olthwaite, the hero is so drearily boring his family casts him out and he goes on a minor crime spree in the north of England, teaming up with an equally dull sidekick. The fugitive pair discover a topic of great mutual interest - black pudding. 'My mum once made the blackest black pudding I've ever seen ... even the white bits were black,' said Eric in his signature line.