Cabin Pressure. Image shows from L to R: Arthur (John Finnemore), Douglas (Roger Allam), Carolyn (Stephanie Cole), Martin (Benedict Cumberbatch). Copyright: Pozzitive Productions
Cabin Pressure

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 6 - Fitton

The crew are on their 28th straight day of stand-by, which means sitting around their office and their plane, listening to the rain, and passing the time with games, arguments, and a pursuit of the secret of happiness through apple-juggling.

Notes

Trivia from John Finnemore's blog

Broadcast details

Date
Wednesday 6th August 2008
Time
11:30am
Channel
BBC Radio 4
Length
30 minutes

Repeats

Show past repeats

Date Time Channel
Tuesday 31st March 2009 6:30pm Radio 4
Friday 5th February 2010 5:30pm Radio 7
Thursday 3rd March 2011 5:00pm Radio 7
Wednesday 1st February 2012 9:00am Radio 4 Extra
Thursday 2nd February 2012 2:00am Radio 4 Extra
Monday 16th September 2013 9:30am Radio 4 Extra
Tuesday 17th September 2013 2:30am Radio 4 Extra
Thursday 12th February 2015 11:30pm Radio 4 Extra
Sunday 29th January 2017 10:30pm Radio 4 Extra
Sunday 21st June 2020 7:15pm Radio 4
Friday 26th June 2020 7:30am Radio 4 Extra
Friday 26th June 2020 5:30pm Radio 4 Extra
Friday 26th June 2020 10:00pm Radio 4 Extra
Saturday 27th June 2020 5:30am Radio 4 Extra
Tuesday 15th November 2022 10:30pm Radio 4 Extra
Saturday 19th November 2022 3:30pm Radio 4 Extra
Sunday 20th November 2022 3:30am Radio 4 Extra

Cast & crew

Cast
Benedict Cumberbatch Martin
Roger Allam Douglas
Stephanie Cole Carolyn
John Finnemore Arthur
Guest cast
Melisande Cook Helena (Douglas' Wife)
Adam G Goodwin Goddard (Grumpy Essex Passenger)
Writing team
John Finnemore Writer
Production team
David Tyler Producer

Press

For the last six weeks, there has been one reason at least to put away the razor blade - a weekly appointment with Cabin Pressure, one of the funniest sitcoms ever to air on the radio.

It is always a puzzle to me as to why I sit through so much comedy with a 'We are not amused' expression when I find most of what goes on in real life belly-achingly diverting. Similarly, it is almost impossible to analyse the secret of good comic writing but John Finnemore's script for the six-parter had it in spadefuls.

So Finnemore, who has also written for Dead Ringers and Mitchell and Webb, had his characters with incompetence ranging against dry wit, and his landscape, that surreal world in the sky which is an airliner in transit. It could still have all gone wrong but his ear for a comic retort was equal to his instinct for a comical situation. The result was a six-week abdominal workout for listeners and, I hope, a recommission for Pozzitive Productions.

Moira Petty, The Stage, 11th August 2008

I gave the show a brief mention a few weeks ago, but now its run has finished, it's time to give Cabin Pressure its due. Its first episode was, I said, flawless. Nothing can be flawless for ever, but the writing and performances in this tight comedy have been exceptional. Let me put it like this: this is the only programme that has kept me close to a radio at 11.30 every Wednesday morning. Never mind Listen Again - you want to catch this as soon as you can.

The setting might be novel - a charter plane, with its skeleton crew of misfits - but the writing obeys pretty much all the necessary rules of classic British sitcom writing, which are simple. In fact, students of the art form would do well to listen to it and take notes. You need little more than an inverted class relationship, a sense of failure, an idiot, and a scary authority figure. What writer John Finnemore has done as well is to add, without tilting things off balance comedy-wise, some depth to the characters.

So the dragon of a boss, played by Stephanie Cole, is revealed to be scared of becoming a 'little old lady'; and the wonderfully supercilious Jeeves/Sergeant Wilson figure, the man who should be Captain but isn't (a perfect performance by Roger Allam), is shown to have weaknesses of his own. The show deserves an award.

Nicholas Lezard, The Independent, 10th August 2008

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