Cabin Pressure: the great first series

I’m a relative latecomer to the radio comedy series about a small airline (so small it has just the one plane), Cabin Pressure, having only discovered it via its author John Finnemore’s great sketch shows. But now I know how much fun I’ve been missing.

Finnemore’s trademark ability to take the obvious and widely accepted and turn it on its head only features briefly in Cabin Pressure. Instead what we get is a brilliantly balanced cast of characters, mixing just the right amounts of repellant and appealing characteristics and with the comedy aiding both plot and character development rather than one dominating the others.

The two pilots (played by Roger Allam and Benedict Cumberbatch) neatly play off each other as the more experienced versus the more senior, with airline owner Stephanie Cole acerbic yet never turning into a simple figure of hate and owner son’s John Finnemore frequently stupid but without being annoying. They are all kept fed with situations that are bizarre enough to be funny yet never too outlandish to be ridiculous and an incessant supply of jokes. All great fun.

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Buy Cabin Pressure Series 1 here.