Ripping Yarns - Season 1 (1977)

New boarder Tomkinson is thoroughly miserable at Graybridge public school where he has to fight the grizzly bear,get nailed to the wall on St Tadger's Day and do the bidding of Grayson,also known as School Bully. When his mother refuses to let him come home he makes several attempts to escape,all unsuccessful,but after winning the Thirty Mile Hop against a rival (Buddhist) public school he is promoted to School Bully when Grayson leaves for Eton.

Eric Olthwaite is so boring that his family all leave home to escape him. Then one day he is accidentally caught up in a bank robbery and discovers that the robber shares his interests in shovels, black pudding and rainfall so they team up to make daring raids to steal rainfall records. As a result Eric becomes famous and is considered interesting again, so much so that he is made the mayor of Denley Moor.

During World War I Major Errol Phipps is determined to escape from Stalag Luft 112B but his attempts all fail. However all the other prisoners and the guards succeed, leaving him alone in the camp to make elaborate plans - including a tunnel system so extensive it becomes the Munich Underground. He is so obsessed with his escape plans he fails to realize that the war has ended and dies a disappointed man. He does however manage to escape from his grave after he has been buried though.