Cabin Pressure (radio series)

Overview

Setting

The story takes place at MJN Air, the world's smallest airline, consisting of just one 16-seater aeroplane: a Lockheed McDonnell 3-12 business jet, with the aircraft registration Golf Echo Romeo Tango India — G-ERTI — and thus nicknamed Gerti. The company name derives from when owner Carolyn Knapp-Shappey (Stephanie Cole) was awarded Gerti as part of her divorce settlement with her Australian husband, Gordon Shappey, (Timothy West) and thus proudly proclaimed that Gerti was: "My Jet Now". The company is so small — with Carolyn joking that MJN was not so much an airline as more of an "airdot" — that everything is run on a tight budget and they are willing to take on any job to keep the business going. The company is based in the fictional Fitton Airport, located somewhere in the Midlands.

Each episode is named after a different city, starting with Abu Dhabi (often a destination for MJN in the episode), each beginning with a successive letter of the alphabet. The episodes were not broadcast by the BBC in alphabetical order, but The Complete Cabin Pressure: From A to Z collection does have the episodes alphabetically.

Plot

The story follows the day-to-day working life of MJN Air and its crew of four: Captain Martin Crieff (Benedict Cumberbatch), whose love of flying and planes is let down by his lack of natural ability; First Officer Douglas Richardson (Roger Allam), an experienced captain formerly at Air England until he was sacked for smuggling; Carolyn Knapp-Shappey (Stephanie Cole), the owner and one-time air stewardess; and Arthur Shappey (John Finnemore), Carolyn's overexcited and idiotic (but well-meaning) son who works as a flight attendant.

Much of the plot revolves around the relationship between Douglas and Martin in the cockpit. Whilst Martin is the captain, Douglas is more experienced, and most people consider Douglas to be superior to him in almost every way. When meeting both men, most guests mistakenly believe Douglas to be the captain rather than Martin. Carolyn refers to Douglas as the "good pilot" and Martin as the "safe pilot". Also, whilst Douglas gets paid, Martin does not because Carolyn cannot afford it. Thus Martin also has a second job with his own "man-with-a-van" business, Icarus Removals, using a van he inherited from his late father, and lives a life of poverty in a student flat-share.

Douglas, meanwhile, has to do his job in order to pay two different alimonies and tries to keep secret from his third wife, Helena, that he is not a captain. It is later revealed that after Douglas confessed to this deception Helena revealed that she was having an affair with her tai chi instructor. Douglas is also a recovering alcoholic, having been sober for a period of several years at the time the story begins, although he tries to prevent anyone else from knowing about it, fearing it will tarnish his image.

Much of the time on the flight-deck is spent with the crew playing various games to pass the time such as "Flight-deck Buckeroo", "People Who Aren't Evil But Have Evil Sounding Names", "Brians of Britain", "Books That Sound More Interesting with the Final Letter Knocked Off", (e.g. Three Men in a Boa, Of Mice and Me), and the game of "The Travelling Lemon" — wherein a lemon must be hidden in plain sight among the passengers, without anyone complaining, to be discovered by the next player. This is the origin of the phrase "The lemon is in play" used by Douglas in the episodes Qikiqtarjuaq and Zurich Part 2.

Though MJN squabble among themselves, in several episodes the crew unite to combat a common enemy or problem. A recurring antagonist is Gordon Shappey (Timothy West), Carolyn's ex-husband and Arthur's father, who resents Carolyn obtaining the jet in the divorce and frequently tries to reacquire it through means fair and foul. Other recurring characters include Mr Birling (Geoffrey Whitehead), who every year hires the plane to take him to see the final match in the Six Nations Rugby Union tournament. On "Birling Day" the crew toady to Birling in the hope that he will give them all large tips, even going so far as hastily organising (and faking) a flight to Timbuktu to watch the final in order to spite his wife. Every Birling Day Douglas attempts to steal the prized 25-year-old Talisker single malt whisky intended for Mr Birling and sell it on while Carolyn and the rest of the crew try to stop him. In addition, Douglas and Martin, despite their personal differences and mutual animosity, also prove to be an effective and highly cooperative duo in some of the more dangerous situations. For example in the episode "St Petersburg", when one of G-ERTI's engines fails after a lethal bird strike, they successfully work together to pull off an emergency landing, thus saving Carolyn and Arthur's lives as well as their own, although Carolyn is typically less grateful than the two pilots would prefer.

Another recurring character is Captain Hercules "Herc" Shipwright (Anthony Head), a former colleague of Douglas who now works at Scottish airline Air Caledonia. Herc is an occasional rival to Douglas (partly due to Herc's refusal to consider Douglas for a position with Air Caledonia) and a love interest to Carolyn, though she is reluctant to reciprocate Herc's affections.

Princess Theresa of Liechtenstein (Matilda Ziegler) appears in the final season, first appearing when she hires MJN to take her younger brother and ruling monarch, King Maxi, to Fitton so he can return to school. She and Martin begin a romantic relationship owing to their shared love of aeroplanes and childhood dreams of becoming pilots.

In the two-part series finale, after a peculiar job interview in "Yverdon-les-Bains", Martin has been offered a paid job at Swiss Air, which means MJN has to close down and Gerti has to be sold. However when Gordon tries to purchase Gerti Arthur puts in a gigantic bid to stop his father from buying the plane. Douglas suspects that there is something valuable hidden on the plane and MJN manage to buy back Gerti. His suspicions prove correct when he discovers that in an effort to hide his wealth and assets Gordon had replaced all the copper wiring of the plane with gold, not expecting that Carolyn would get the plane in their divorce. Martin concludes he is a more skilled pilot than he thought, having been struggling in the past years with a poorly weighted plane, and the solution to Carolyn's financial problems has been right under her nose all along. Carolyn uses the money to secure the company's future, renaming it OJS Air ("Our Jet Still"), and buying buns for tea. In a fairy-tale ending, Martin takes up his new job securing paid employment with Swiss Airways and living close to his girlfriend, Princess Theresa, in Vaduz; Douglas is promoted to Captain; and Herc — who accepts a downwards career move due to his affections for Carolyn — is hired as the new First Officer. The series ends with OJS flying off into the sunset to Addis Ababa, bringing the alphabetical progression of cities full circle.

Reception

Writing in The Independent newspaper, Nicholas Lezard praised the first series highly, called "the writing and performances ... exceptional" and suggested that the show "deserves an award". Gillian Reynolds of The Daily Telegraph called Cabin Pressure "one of the best written, cast, acted and directed comedies on anywhere." Tom Eames of Digital Spy said "Finnemore should really be a household name by now. Not only does he play a hilarious character brilliantly, but his scriptwriting is up there with some of the best British comedy writers of all time." Jane Anderson of Radio Times called Cabin Pressure "the comedy series where the writing and acting are so tight they're in danger of cutting off your blood supply."

Partly due to the popularity of leading actor Benedict Cumberbatch, the show has a significant fandom, and its final episode received a record number of requests for audience tickets for a Radio 4 comedy recording: 22,854 requests for just 200 available tickets. It has been argued that this is an example of the Odagiri effect occurring in western media.

Awards

Cabin Pressure was nominated for a Writers' Guild of Great Britain award in 2010. In 2011, John Finnemore won the Best Radio Comedy 2011, awarded by the Writers' Guild of Great Britain. It was nominated for the Best Scripted Comedy category at the 2012 BBC Audio Drama Awards. The series has won numerous Comedy.co.uk Awards, voted for by readers of the British Comedy Guide. The series won the award for "Best British Radio Sitcom" for 2011, 2013, and 2014. Also it was voted "Comedy of the Year" across TV and radio for 2014, making it the first radio show to be given the honour.

Episode list

The episode titles follow an alphabetical sequence, beginning with the first episode, "Abu Dhabi", followed by "Boston" etc. In Series 2 and 3 episodes were broadcast out of the original intended order for various reasons. The episodes however are listed in alphabetical order in The Complete Cabin Pressure: From A To Z collection, and Finnemore has stated that the series was always meant to be heard alphabetically. The titles usually refer to a destination which the characters visit or are travelling to. However, some refer to locations that are not visited but play a key role in an episode's plot, such as "Kuala Lumpur" when, during standby in Fitton, Arthur insists on Carolyn specifying a destination (i.e. Kuala Lumpur) for a flight when undertaking stewarding training.

Series one

Guest Cast: Ewen MacIntosh as Karl Guest Cast: Ewen MacIntosh as Karl, Kerry Shale as Hamilton Leeman, Matilda Ziegler as both the Paramedic and Shanwick ATC (Air Traffic Control) Guest Cast: Helen Baxendale as Hester MacCaulay, Rufus Jones as Percival, Robert Harley as Gawain, Ali Amadi as Lancelot Guest Cast: John Sessions as Yves Jutteau, Rufus Jones as Captain Jessop, Robert Harley as Lachlan, Ali Amadi as Habib

Guest Cast: Geoffrey Whitehead as Mr Birling, Adam G Goodwin as Philip

Guest Cast: Adam G Goodwin as Mr Goddard, Melisande Cook as Helena Richardson

Series two

Guest Cast: Alison Steadman as Ruth, Matt Green as Kieran, Simon Greenall as Milo

Guest Cast: Britta Gartner as Madame Szyszko Bohusz, Simon Greenall as the Conductor

Guest Cast: Philip Davis as Mr Sargent, Alex MacQueen as Dr Duncan

Guest Cast: Michael Fenton Stevens as Señor Quintanilla, Javier Marzan as Diego

Guest Cast: Paul Putner as Dave, Roger Morlidge as George

Christmas special

Guest Cast: Ben Willbond as Mr Alyakhin

Series three

Guest Cast: Melanie Hudson as Nancy Dean Liebhart, Kosha Engler as Mrs Cook, Ewan Bailey as Mr Peary Guest Cast: Geoffrey Whitehead as Mr Birling, Flip Webster as Mrs Birling, Ewan Bailey as Phil Guest Cast: Anthony Head as Herc Shipwright, Mark Williams as Eddie, Anna Crilly as Linda Fairburn Guest Cast: Anthony Head as Herc Shipwright, Flip Webster as The Lady from the Laurels, Ewan Bailey as Mr Hardy Guest Cast: Anthony Head as Herc Shipwright, Gus Brown as Martin Davenport Guest Cast: Timothy West as Gordon Shappey, Paul Shearer as Tommo

Series four

Guest Cast: Geoffrey Whitehead as Mr Birling, Steve Brody as Giancarlo and Karl Guest Cast: Marian McLoughlin as Breeda, Robert Wilfort as Gerry, John O'Mahony as Farmer Fisher Guest Cast: Anthony Head as Herc Shipwright, Matilda Ziegler as Princess Theresa, Kieran Hodgson as King Maximilian, Dan Tetsell as Otto/Karl

Guest Cast: Prunella Scales as Wendy Crieff, Rosie Cavaliero as Caitlin Crieff, Justin Edwards as Simon Crieff, Dan Tetsell as Dr White

Guest Cast: Lobo Chan as the Chinese ATC

Guest Cast: Anthony Head as Herc Shipwright, Kate Duchêne as Captain Elise Deroche, Nicholas Woodeson as Oskar Bider

Zurich

The crew of MJN Air discover that whether it's choosing an ice-cream flavour, putting a princess in a van, or remembering your grandmother's name, no job is too small, but many, many jobs are too difficult.

Guest Cast: Anthony Head as Herc Shipwright, Timothy West as Gordon Shappey, Matilda Ziegler as Princess Theresa, Gordon Kennedy as Bruce Fraser, Jonathan Kydd as the auctioneer, Dan Tetsell as Rick and Karl.

Guest Cast: Anthony Head as Herc Shipwright, Timothy West as Gordon Shappey, Matilda Ziegler as Princess Theresa, Gordon Kennedy as Bruce Fraser, Jonathan Kydd as the auctioneer, Dan Tetsell as Rick and Karl.

After Zurich

In 2018 and 2019 John Finnemore toured a live stage version of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme. One sketch was an interview of Arthur Shappey in which he outlines the post-Cabin Pressure futures of the show's cast. These include Herc and Carolyn being married, Douglas remaining captain, and Martin and Princess Theresa's continuing relationship. Arthur is still working as cabin crew, but pretends in the sketch that he is studying and riding polar bears in Kuala Lumpur.

Between March and August 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Finnemore again revived the character of Arthur Shappey for a one-man online YouTube spin-off series called Cabin Fever! which takes the form of a 26-part online vlog by the character in quarantine and later lockdown. The other main Cabin Pressure characters are occasionally mentioned.

Multimedia

A number of CD releases for the show have been made by BBC Physical Audio and the production company Pozzitive.

References

References

1. https://pozzitive.co.uk/cabinpressure/index.html
2. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04vf25d
3. ER. (27 November 2014). "Good Omens and last ever Cabin Pressure confirmed in Radio 4 Christmas schedule".
4. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04vj6l2
5. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04vf959
6. "Cabin Fever!". [[British Comedy Guide]].
7. "BBC4 Radio 4 Extra – Cabin Pressure". BBC.
8. (21 June 2012). "Cabin Pressure (a Titles & Air Dates Guide)". epguide.com.
9. "BBC4 Radio 4 Extra – Cabin Pressure – Radio guide".
10. Finnemore, John. (13 November 2013). "Prepare for final descent". Blogspot.
11. (27 November 2011). "The Cabin Pressure Theme Music". Cabin pressure Fans.
12. "Newcastle".
13. Finnemore, John. (5 February 2015). "Cabin Pressure: From A To Z Booklet". [[BBC Worldwide]].
14. (January 29, 2015). "The Complete Cabin Pressure - From A To Z (Audio)". [[British Comedy Guide]].
15. "Ipswich".
16. "Qikiqtarjuaq".
17. "Limerick".
18. "Vaduz".
19. "Zurich, Part 1".
20. (10 August 2008). "Cabin Pressure, Radio 4: Scratch the surface and there's a classic British sitcom beneath". The Independent.
21. (18 July 2011). "A strike and a scandal keep Radio 4 on its toes". The Telegraph.
22. (20 April 2013). "'Cabin Pressure': A radio comedy gem".
23. (1 July 2011). "Cabin Pressure - S3 - Episode 1: Qikiqtarjuaq".
24. (9 January 2013). "Cabin Pressure writer John Finnemore on the joy of radio, crafting comedy – and Benedict Cumberbatch". Radio Times.
25. (23 February 2014). "John Benedict Cumberbatch fans go wild for actor's recording of the last ever "Cabin Pressure"". Radio Times.
26. Wolf, Ian. (13 February 2017). "LGBT TV - Yuri!!! On Ice". On The Box.
27. "Guild Awards 2010 – shortlists announced". Writers' Guild.
28. [http://www.writersguild.org.uk/news-a-features/general/225-writers-guild-awards-2011-winners Writers' Guild Awards 2011 – winners] {{webarchive. link. (14 April 2012)
29. (17 November 2011). "Victoria Wood awarded top TV honour from Writer's Guild". BBC News.
30. (10 January 2012). "Shortlist announced for first BBC Audio Drama awards". [[Ariel (newspaper).
31. "The Comedy.co.uk Awards 2011". [[British Comedy Guide]].
32. "The Comedy.co.uk Awards 2013". [[British Comedy Guide]].
33. "The Comedy.co.uk Awards 2014". [[British Comedy Guide]].
34. "Zurich, Part 2".
35. (19 July 2011). "Newcastle". Blogspot.