Cabin Pressure
- Radio sitcom
- BBC Radio 4
- 2008 - 2014
- 27 episodes (4 series)
Radio sitcom based around a one-plane charter airline. No job is too small, but many jobs are too difficult for pilots Douglas and Martin. Stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Roger Allam, Stephanie Cole, John Finnemore and Anthony Head
Episode menu
Series 1, Episode 1 - Abu Dhabi
Notes
Trivia from John Finnemore's blog
Broadcast details
- Date
- Wednesday 2nd July 2008
- Time
- 11:30am
- Channel
- BBC Radio 4
- Length
- 30 minutes
Repeats
Show past repeats
Date | Time | Channel |
---|---|---|
Tuesday 24th February 2009 | 6:30pm | Radio 4 |
Friday 1st January 2010 | 5:30pm | Radio 7 |
Sunday 3rd January 2010 | 3:30pm | Radio 7 |
Thursday 27th January 2011 | 5:00pm | Radio 7 |
Wednesday 28th December 2011 | 9:00am | Radio 4 Extra |
Thursday 29th December 2011 | 2:00am | Radio 4 Extra |
Monday 12th August 2013 | 9:30am | Radio 4 Extra |
Tuesday 13th August 2013 | 2:30am | Radio 4 Extra |
Thursday 8th January 2015 | 11:30pm | Radio 4 Extra |
Sunday 25th December 2016 | 11:00pm | Radio 4 Extra |
Sunday 17th May 2020 | 7:15pm | Radio 4 |
Friday 22nd May 2020 | 7:30am | Radio 4 Extra |
Friday 22nd May 2020 | 5:30pm | Radio 4 Extra |
Friday 22nd May 2020 | 10:00pm | Radio 4 Extra |
Saturday 23rd May 2020 | 5:30am | Radio 4 Extra |
Tuesday 11th October 2022 | 10:30pm | Radio 4 Extra |
Saturday 15th October 2022 | 3:30pm | Radio 4 Extra |
Sunday 16th October 2022 | 3:30am | Radio 4 Extra |
Cast & crew
Benedict Cumberbatch | Martin |
Roger Allam | Douglas |
Stephanie Cole | Carolyn |
John Finnemore | Arthur |
Ewen MacIntosh | Air Traffic Controller |
John Finnemore | Writer |
David Tyler | Producer |
Press
Well-defined characters, strong casting and great writing do a good sitcom make. Sounds easy, but few get it right. I am, therefore, delighted to announce that this new series is so funny that I listened to it three times in a row, laughing more loudly each time at the lines I now knew were coming.
It's set in a small airline company staffed by two pilots and run by a forbidding 60-something woman who, one of her staff suggests, sharpens rather than brushes her teeth in the morning. Roger Allam's character is on a par with Basil Fawlty as the embittered pilot on his way down.
Jane Anderson, Radio Times, 2nd July 2008John Finnemore's new situation comedy has the benefit of a superb cast. Roger Allam, Stephanie Cole and Benedict Cumberbatch give their all to this story of a small charter airline whose single plane is flown by one blasé old know-it-all (Allam) and one fiercely competitive young thruster (Cumberbatch). The whole shebang is owned by a fearsome divorcée (Cole) who has come by the plane in a divorce settlement. Her other inheritance is a dim son (played by the author) whose meek optimism is amply reflected in the laughter from the studio audience.
Gillian Reynolds, The Telegraph, 2nd July 2008The fear and joys of flying have been a comedy staple for decades, and every joke it is possible to make has probably been made. The challenge is to tell the old jokes in a new way. So step forward, experienced wordsmith (Dead Ringers, That Mitchell and Webb Sound) John Finnemore, with this new six-part sitcom about a one-plane outfit run by an autocratic divorcée (Stephanie Cole, doing her usual posh bully bit).
Her aircraft has two pilots, one a jaded cynic with a dodgy past who can, though, actually fly (played to worldweary perfection by Roger Allam) and one who seemed to have got his wings through a correspondence college (Benedict Cumberbatch, showing he can do situation comedy as well as he does everything else in the thesp game).
Chuck in Finnemore himself as Cole's keen but dim son-of-all work, plus an unusually high level of well-researched technical information about flying, and you have a half-hour that flies by (fnaarg fnaarg).
Chris Campling, The Times, 2nd July 2008