Cabin Pressure

"The thing is, we've taken away all the things that can't possibly have happened, so I suppose the only thing that's left, even though it seems really weird, must be the thing that did happen in fact!"

"...Snappily put."

This is Cabin Pressure.

Cabin Pressure is a BBC audio sitcom about a tiny airline and their adventures, or misadventures, as they fly to various locations around the world.

And yes, that is Benedict Cumberbatch. But he is only one of the four principle characters:

Carolyn Knapp-Shappey (Stephanie Cole) owns MJN Air which consists of one plane, nicknamed Gerti. But since you cannot put one jet in a line, if anything it's an air dot. She has what it takes to make it successful however - if only her crew did as well. Despite her fearsome demeanor, she enjoys some of the games that the crew gets up to during boring flights, such as the traveling lemon.

Martin Crieff (Benedict Cumberbatch) always wanted to be a pilot despite everyone who told him he couldn't, including examiners. Once he finally passed, he was lucky enough to get a job as a captain with MJN Air. Much to his exasperation, he's often mistaken for a steward, baggage handler, or anything but a professional pilot (let alone a captain). He's a stickler for doing things by the book, but still isn't the most competent pilot.

Douglas Richardson (Roger Allam), however, is a seasoned pilot oozing with confidence, charm, authority, and smart comebacks. Although he used to be a captain with Air England, he now finds himself as the first officer for MJN after "a difference of opinion with Hong Kong customs about whether having seven silk kimonos stitched inside one's jackets indicated one was a smuggler... or simply a lovable eccentric." With schemes often up his sleeve, he enjoys being right and teasing Martin.

Carolyn's son Arthur Shappey (John Finnemore, the creator/writer of the series) is enthusiastic to be working with Martin and Douglas as a steward. Like really enthusiastic. About everything. Innocent and optimistic, he may not be the best steward but he will always try to help. His favorite word is apparently "brilliant."

Now that I'm done sounding like an official website, I found out about Cabin Pressure from some clips with Benedict. It's really cool to hear him in a comedy, since it seems closer to his real life personality and a lot of his characters in dramas are opposites of him. But then I was introduced to these other great characters, and a really fun, light-hearted show (it's pretty clean to and I'd probably rate it PG). I'm still pretty new to it, but have really enjoyed the episodes and clips I've heard. Here are a couple fan videos you can try to get an idea of it:

(Sherlock fans, search "cabin pressure sherlock" on youtube - there are some hilarious ones)

If you want to hear more, right now you can listen to an episode on the BBC Radio 4 Extra website. Right now they have one episode available a week, which they post online sometime Sunday evening. This next week is Ottery St. Mary, which from the clips I've heard of it, sounds brilliant.

Hope you like it if you give it a try!

by nzlioness