The High Life (1994 TV series)

The High Life is a Scottish situation comedy written by and starring Forbes Masson and Alan Cumming as Steve McCracken and Sebastian Flight. Cumming and Masson met at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and united after several solo projects to create the theatrical BBC sitcom, The High Life. The two leads were based heavily on their famous Scottish comedy alter-egos, Victor and Barry.[1]

The High Life
The High Life
Created by	Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson
Starring	Alan Cumming Forbes Masson Siobhan Redmond Patrick Ryecart
Country of origin	Scotland
No. of episodes	6 (+1 pilot)
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Release
Original network	BBC2
Original release	9 January 1994, 6 January 1995 – 10 February 1995 (1995-02-10)

The series followed the cabin crew at the fictional airline, Air Scotia, flying out of Prestwick Airport. The crew consisted of the camp, alcohol-loving, narcissistic and vindictive steward, Sebastian; his sex-obsessed colleague Steve; their up-tight, antagonistic chief stewardess, Shona Spurtle; and the eccentric pilot, Captain Hilary Duff.

Sebastian and Steve longed to be promoted to long-haul flights to see exotic locations, instead of the current short-haul trips with their superior Shona, played by Siobhan Redmond, whom they described as 'Hitler in tights', 'Mussolini in Micromesh' and 'Goebbels in a Gossard'. The deranged pilot, Captain Duff, played by Patrick Ryecart, would need to be frequently reminded who he was, where the cockpit was and where he was flying to.

The High Life was interspersed with surrealism, childish humour, sarcasm and theatrical song and dance numbers. It only ran for one series due to Cumming's increasingly successful film career in Hollywood; however during an interview, Masson claims that a second series was written, yet not acted upon.[1] Despite its short run, it is remembered for Steve and Sebastian’s joint catchphrase: 'Oh deary me!' and for the opening sequence which featured the cast performing a dance routine to the title song. During an interview on BBC television, Cumming noted that he accidentally mimed a Hitler-style salute during the opening sequence, due to being in the musical Cabaret at the time.

The series ran for six thirty-minute episodes. An initial pilot was broadcast in the Comic Asides anthology strand on BBC2 at 9pm on Sunday 9 January 1994. The series of six episodes were broadcast on Friday nights at 9.30pm between 6 January and 10 February 1995.

The entire series (including the pilot) was released on VHS and DVD in 2002, and was re-released in May 2009.[2] The complete series was re-run on BBC Four early in 2009 and BBC Scotland in 2019.[3]