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20 reviews in total

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10 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
I wanna fly Air Scotia!, 17 August 2004
Author: skottyrock from www.appallingtrash.com headquarters, Tokyo

STARRING Alan Cumming, Forbes Masson, Siobhan Redmond, Patrick Ryecart

Camp classic The High Life ranks right up there with Absolutely Fabulous as one of the funniest sitcoms of the 1990s. Written by its two comic leads, Cumming and Masson, The High Life delights viewers with its mix of Scottish sensibility and camp outrageousness.

The High Life revolves around the lives and loves of flight attendants who work for fictitious Scottish airline Air Scotia. Cumming (Sebastian Flight) and Masson (Steve McCracken) demonstrate perfect comic timing, while Redmond (Shona Spurtle) proves adept as the antagonist who always wants to show Sebastian up as a narcissistic egocentric. Ryecart (Captain Hilary Duff) is hilarious as the absentminded captain, who, despite never being 'all there', has control of the plane!

The Scottish accent is, at times, a bit hard to follow, but is funny nonetheless. Versatile Scot Cumming, who has done a few accents in his career: a Russian accent in GoldenEye; an American accent in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion; has a ball spouting all the lines in his native tongue! And speaking of accents, I think this must be the only sitcom to ever include the F-word. In one episode, Steve asks Sebastian: "You for coffee?", but with a Scottish accent it sounds very similar to: "You F*** off, eh?"

It's a shame this comedy gem ran for only six episodes. Who knows what other story lines Cumming and Masson may have come up with.....

A MUST SEE!

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8 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
I wish this one had carried on for at least a few more programmes!, 17 August 2004
Author: Phil Davison from Herts, United Kingdom

An excellent programme with characters who were already well-developed when they first appeared.

Admittedly, the captain of the plane was very reminscent of Commander Bell, played by Ronnie Barker (qv) in the early series of the BBC Radio programme "The Navy Lark" but that made a new programme nostalgic!

Some of the best situations arose from people who really didn't like each other having to work together in a place where a) they couldn't get up and walk out, and b) they had to be all happy and smiling to the customers and pretend they were all part of one big happy family.

I am sure that, had the programme's run not been cut short after only a few episodes, the writing team would have been able to develop a lot more, and different, situations as they had the ability to include things which didn't only belong in an airline but benefited from the setting. It would have taken quite a while for the show to become one-dimensional. Great stuff!

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8 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Fabulously camp and utterly brilliant, 11 June 2002
Author: Roisin Moriarty (roisin_moriarty@yahoo.co.uk) from Ireland

I count myself extremely fortunate to have first seen Alan Cumming on stage in 1987 or there abouts. He was playing the shepherd in "As You Like It". Hardly a major role but he completely stole the show and had my friends and I frantically flicking through our programmes to find out who the wonderful young actor playing the shepherd was. Since then I've always looked out for him and have yet to be disappointed in any role he's played.

"The High Life" is a cute, original and extremely funny comedy with wonderful performances from the three central actors and it's a huge shame that it was allowed to sink without trace due to very poor promotion by the BBC. It was broadcast on a weekday evening in what used to be the notoriously difficult 9pm slot on BBC2. I can recall nothing more than a couple of brief trailers and a little piece in the Radio Times and it was as if the powers that be just didn't care wether is succeeded or failed. These days we have the likes of the appallingly bad "My Hero" being shown early on a Friday evening on BBC1 and then repeated on a Sunday afternoon, while something as well written and acted, clever and original as "The High Life" was allowed to sink without trace.

I don't suppose Auntie Beeb would ever go to the trouble of producing a video, or better still, a DVD, but they could at least repeat this glorious one-off. That way, the few of us who loved it first time 'round could tape it and watch it over and over, and those who never got a chance to see it will finally know what the rest of us are harping on about.

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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Top nineties sitcom, 19 February 2005
Author: AlbinoAl from United Kingdom

The High Life is one of the most singular sitcoms produced in the nineties thanks to its verbal dexterity and the brilliant partnership between Forbes Masson and Alan Cumming. In fairness, the six episodes was probably the limit for what is essentially a two dimensional plot concept (the attempts to leave the confines of an aeroplane coming with mixed success), but it survives on the wit and clever dialogue created by its two stars.

For most people this will have been their first experience of the now (relatively) famous Alan Cumming but it is clear even here that he is a master at the character comedy roles that have been the backbone of his career in Hollywood. The less well known Forbes Masson (the only other time I've ever seen him is playing Stan Laurel in the "Waxworld" episode of Red Dwarf) also plays well in this tailor-made role in an elegantly self-deprecatory fashion. Check out the pilot episode (available on the DVD) and you'll find his character to be much less pathetic and more masculine; it's just not as funny.

Of course, I can hardly comment on The High Life without mentioning the theme song. Accompanied by a dance routine that any golden age musical would be proud of, the song itself is possibly the most fitting theme song I've ever heard, summing up the spirit and character of the show in a neat thirty seconds.

Well worth an investment in the DVD as I doubt this will ever be repeated on television.

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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Brilliant!, 27 January 2003
Author: Sophia Ellis from London

I used to watch 'The High Life' with my best friend religiously. We were huge fans of this great series! It was hilarious! We still to this day remember the opening title song word for word and the characters constant teasing of Shona. It has become one of my fondest memories of growing up. We watched every single episode made and we loved Alan Cummings performance in The High Life. I am just sorry that it is not available to buy so I can take a trip down memory lane and enjoy once more... 'Living the High Life, we're living it well!'

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4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
DVD out now!, 10 July 2003
Author: j-morris-1 from Edinburgh, Scotland

I loved this series, and have been waiting patiently for it to be repeated. Imagine my surpise when searching the internet I found that it has eventually been released on DVD (including the pilot episode).

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4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Funny and a scottish camp classic, 9 July 2003
Author: scottishsmeghead from Glasgow, Scotland

I remember watching The High Life when I was about 18 and after 6 episodes of it I felt its a shame only 6 was made however the less episodes made the bigger the legend.

Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson wrote and created 6 really funny episodes. Siobhan Redmond was hilarious as Steve and Sebastian's nemesis Shona Spurtle.

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Fiendishly camp cleverly written comedy by Alan Cumming, 13 December 2002
Author: (tek@ic24.net) from London

The High Life, was unfortunate to be cast among the often discarded sitcoms of the BBC's dustbins. This was a brilliantly written comedy set around a scottish airline called Scotair. Although only six episodes and a pilot were ever released, they certainly brought pleasure to myself and many other people. Sadly it has only been aired once, although I think it was repeated in the week for those not fortunate enough to catch it on the Sunday. Again another series as indeed the Brittas empire not released on BBC video. (Although there was one 6 episode VHS tape released of Brittas.

High life was very camp but extremely funny, and it saddens me that a second series was canned.

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Scottishly Brilliant, 26 August 2003
Author: Amy (fantasmicllama@btopenworld.com) from Wirral

I remember this gem from when it was first aired, I was about 12 years old.... brilliantly funny & clever, and now available on DVD !!!!!

Comical, but oh so simple... the only draw back being is that they only made 6 episodes ! Fantastic !

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
...And lights up the aisle..., 12 June 2002
Author: alichay88 from Brighton, England

I used to watch this series with my mum and found it hilarious. What happened? It was probably the best thing on the BBC at the time - well written, well acted and well loved. It not only introduced me to the wonderfully funny and gorgeous Alan Cumming, but had some of the best catch-phrases ever! The sight of the crew doing their 'front exits, back exits, side exits' exercise has lived with me ever since. Like so many other great shows, a new series would spoil it, but is it asking too much for a rerun or video box set?

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