The High Life [DVD] [1994]

At long last, the BBC has finally come to its senses and has decided to share one of its funniest (and most underrated) sitcoms of the nineties with the DVD-owning public. I have even ordered TWO copies in case one should get ruined. And at least I won't now have to spend hours on my computer (illegally) transferring my precious, but ropey VHS copies of the series to MPEG files!!The High Life somehow manages to combine pre-school-age humour, playground sexual innuendo, amusing tongue twisters Ronnie Barker would be proud of, surreal visual jokes (often involving the equally surreal Captain Duff), Blackadder-style sarcasm (spewing from and more often directed towards chief purser, Shona Spurtle) and camp song-and-dance numbers. It all sounds a horrible mess - but it isn't, mainly due to the convincing and intelligent dialogue, highly inventive storylines and the superb comic acting of the main cast.Written by and starring Alan Cumming & Forbes Masson, the show's central characters Sebastian Flight & Steve McCracken were based heavily on their famous (in Scotland anyway) comedy alter egos, Victor and Barry. Along with Naked Video, Chewin' The Fat and Absolutely, the High Life further illustrates the rich vein of Scottish humour that is all-too-often ignored by the television schedulers south-of-the-border.I think the greatest strength of this show however is that it doesn't have any feeling of nastiness and cruelty that many other modern British comedies seem to leave the viewer with. And it doesn't take itself too seriously either like American comedies are prone to with their heavy moralising.All the six episodes are equally funny. FEART and WINCH are my own personal favourites and DUNK obviously found its inspiration in a famous American super-hero comedy series of the sixties.As stated before, every actor is brilliant but special mention should go to Siobhan Redmond's Shona Spurtle (or Mussolini In Micromesh as Sebastian once called her!). Anyone who is only familiar with her straight acting roles will be very pleasantly surprised. Forbes Masson's Steve is a lovesick no-hoper, Patrick Ryecart's Hilary Duff is on another planet (and the only English character - tut, tut!) and of course, Alan Cumming's Sebastian is the embodiment of vitriolic screaming bitchery!! It's a shame Hollywood beckoned Mr Cumming so soon; otherwise we might have been lucky enough to have had a second series. Most people I know consider the High Life to still be his finest hour!Tell your friends about this great sitcom. Buy this DVD. Forget that, follow my example and buy two!!!

I wanted to see this again, it was quite funny but nothing special.

I guess a lot of people would not find this funny in today’s climate. Ignore those people, it’s excellent if dated and Alan Cumming has proved himself.

There are many barmy moments of deranged genius in this series. I watched it both times it was aired on the BBC, loved it to pieces and was delighted to find it finally on DVD at a VERY low price.Wonderful characters: Captain Hilary Duff - part-Volcan, lamenting his marital difficulties 'she didn't understand me, she's from Sri Lanka', and always having to be reminded that he's meant to be piloting the plane to Heathrow. Shona Spurtal - Chief Stewardess - aka Mussolini in Micromesh, Hitler in Tights or Goebals in a Gossard. Steve McCracken - ginger haired, sex-starved with a passion for finding ever elusive passion. Sebastian Flight - Bitchy fellow steward with Eurovision stardom pretension, composer of that fabulous null-point corker 'Piff Paff Poff'. Cameo roles by such luminaries as Guy Wersh - Scottish rock star 'Pushing 30.... Years in showbiz, babe!', composer of classic albums such as 'Badger Ma Tadger' by the Ganting Screechs. And so on.Really hilarious, perfect viewing for those evenings when you need to recover from your soul-destroying job. Just think, it could be worse - you could be a trolley-dolly driven to cabin-aisle performances of Bolero in a cleaning pinny to liven up the early hours... Oh deary me!

Totally loved this when it was originally on tv - DVD terrific reminder of one series only classicIt's not just the campness that is reminiscent of Are You Being Served, but the fact that the customers are incidental to the airline staff (lets face it we've all been on the receiving end of this lack of service - anyone who is female and over 40 knows that they are invisible to many female shop assistants who always ignore women customers if there is a man in line, especially if said women are older) - so many things to laugh at - the collecting of the passengers false teeth, then trying to find out the owners again is one bad taste skit that makes you nearly fall off the chair laughing...others are piping aboard the captain with the Star Trek "owee-oh" sound, which is hilarious, the course the staff have to attend, Shona's constant and mostly failing attempts at imposing some sort of order over her naughtiest cabin crew...just watch it and enjoy it

Belly laughs all the way. Probably helps if you are ok with "scottish"

This has to be just about the funniest series ever to come out of Scotland. I had forgotten how good it was until I bought the DVD. It's a complete hoot from start to finish with so many highlights that it's impossible to mention them all although the sequence involving the false teeth in the ice bucket (don't ask) had my wife and me in tears of laughter. It may just be me but I think the first three episodes are slightly funnier than the second three but that is only relatively speaking and it's still way ahead of much contemporary television comedy. Anyone not attuned to the finer nuances of Glaswegian speech may miss out on the last ounce of hilarity but it's still deeply, madly wonderful with what is surely the best title sequence of any television comedy ever.

I almost split my sides laughing when this came out out at the time, even when replaying the videos I had made. Seeing it was available on DVD, I pounced on it, and was not disappointed. All the actors in it have gone on to many other roles, which is as it should be, since they are all excellent. The scripts are polished little gems, and I look forward to seeing the episodes many times again in the future. If I had to choose, my favourite would be the Eurovision Song Contest episode, but there are no duds. While it is a shame there were no more episodes made, I can't see how they could have kept up this high standard, so maybe it is just as well.