Cabin Pressure (2008-2014)

bbc.co.uk

I’ve been into audiobooks for a while – it started with Whoniverse stuff, and I like listening to novels when I’m on walks – but radio plays are a fairly new development for me.  I’ve never been a big radio person in general, and I’m not sure if I’ve ever actually heard an American-broadcast radio play.  Until recently, the most I’d heard were a handful of Torchwood plays and the radio dramatization of the awesome Donmar Warehouse production of Othello.

 

Well, as I started getting more into Benedict Cumberbatch’s work, I finally listened to the radio version of Neverwhere, in which he and about a bazillion other fabulous British actors recreate the wonderful Neil Gaiman story.  I enjoyed it so much that, when I discovered that Cumberbatch has an affinity for BBC Radio productions, I decided to start tracking down some more of them.  I’m still not a radio person overall, but I’m now definitely a radio-play person.

 

The best program I’ve come across so far is easily Cabin Pressure, a radio sitcom that began before Sherlock made Cumberbatch a celebrity.  The premise – the exploits of a tiny, run-down charter plane business – is deceptively simple.  Excellent characters, spot-on performances, and sublime writing make the show one of the best comedies I’ve found recently, in any format.

 

MJN Air is a microscopic operation.  Carolyn (Stephanie Cole) is the long-suffering owner of GERTI, the company’s lone plane.  She’s proud, penny-pinching, and thoroughly unimpressed.  Martin (Cumberbatch) is MJN’s by-the-book captain.  His position is everything to him, despite his adequate piloting skills and inability to convince clients that he really is the captain.  Douglas (The Thick of It’s Roger Allam) is Martin’s jaded first officer.  Considerably older than his captain, he’s a former Air England pilot who makes a habit of chronic rule-breaking.  Finally, Carolyn’s adult son Arthur (John Finnemore, also the show’s writer) is MJN’s sunshiny steward.  What he lacks in competence and basic common sense, he makes up in unbridled enthusiasm.

 

Each episode, listeners are treated to a new helping of troublesome clients and aviation-related mishaps.  When it comes to MJN, there’s no such thing as smooth sailing (or the flying equivalent thereof.)  Whether it’s a snag at customs or a live cat trapped in the unheated cargo hold, this crew has an extraordinary talent for getting into messes.

 

The absurd scrapes are funny enough, but Cabin Pressure is all about the character interactions.  I love Douglas’s dry sarcasm, Carolyn’s incredulous scolding, Martin’s panicky indecision, and Arthur’s incurable optimism.  I love the way they all look out for each other when the chips are really down.  And most of all, I love the endless string of games they invent to endure the boredom of long flights.  My favorites include “Book Titles that Sound More Interesting with the Last Letter Knocked Off” (such as The Da Vinci Cod,) “Rhyming Journeys” (like “From York to Cork,”) and “The Traveling Lemon” (in which one has to find a lemon hidden somewhere in the cabin, unbeknownst to passengers.)  My only complaint is that the show will be ending soon (the last episode, “Zurich,” will air later this year;) it’s a winner all around.

 

Warnings

 

Just a little drinking (not by the pilots while in flight!) and a few imperiled animals (like the cat mentioned above.)