Cabin Pressure

There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that Cabin Pressure, the BBC Radio 4 comedy written by John Finnemore is a simple, continuously uproarious masterpiece.  Now, you ask: what is it and why is it so good?

Well, the BBC themselves can describe it better than I, but in summary, it is the story of a budget charter airline which is run by a formidable 63 year-old who received her ancient Lockheed McDonnell 312 (a fictional jet) G-ERTI as part of a divorce settlement from her enormously rich husband.  It is expertly crewed around its somewhat eccentric range of trips by four almost devoted people one of which is herself, as manager and part time steward.  The usual steward is her idiotic yet entirely devoted 29 year old son, who still lives with her and who often finds the world in general rather baffling.  He is excellently portrayed by John Finnemore himself.  Then there is the captain, Martin Crieff, when not mistaken for one of the cleaners is delighted in his hobbey of being a commercial pilot: having failed his CPL several times, he was not accepted by most airlines and so eventually agreed to be not a first officer as one would usually start but a captain, with the caveat that he would be unpaid.  He gets by through running a "man with a van" service.  He is played by Benedict Cumberbatch, of Sherlock fame.  Finally there is (assuming he actually did bother to come to work at all today, that is) the first officer (copilot) Douglas Richardson, who considers himself to be very nearly omnipotent, and once says "God moves in strange ways, in order to do lovely things for Douglas Richardson."  He is resented by Martin in most ways, be it his height, his voice, his public-school education, his luck or his many years with "Air England" and is generally working some sort of a fiddle, having been sacked from Air England for smuggling.

I was pleased to hear that Cabin Pressure is to run for a fourth series in 2012 - let us hope it runs as long as that other classic British comedy "The Navy Lark" which is another favourite of mine having run from 1958 to 1977. 

I thoroughly recommend Cabin Pressure.  Enjoy it!

-iTech-