Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson board return flight of The High Life

BBC News

28-05-2025

It's 30 years since Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson last portrayed Air Scotia's bumbling cabin crew in the cult TV sitcom The High Life.The BBC show ran for just one short season before both actors, who had met at drama school, went off in different directions to pursue solo careers.But reuniting to write a book about their first stage partnership, playing Victor and Barry, made them realise that The High Life was ripe for a revival."We had talked about it but we'd both gone off to do other things and it just didn't happen," says Forbes, now an associate artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
"We had so much fun writing the book, that we thought it would be great to do this."Alan and Forbes first met as students in 1982 and formed the double act Victor and Barry which became a staple of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. When they killed off the characters at a last benefit night in the London Palladium 10 years later, they transformed them into Steve and Sebastian.For the last year, they've been working with the National Theatre of Scotland to revive them, along with long-suffering stewardess Shona Spurtle and the unhinged Captain Hilary Duff. Both Siobhan Redmond and Patrick Ryecart will reprise their roles on stage.The show's director Andrew Panton, who now heads Dundee Rep where the show will open next spring, was a dancer in the original opening title sequence. Jonny McKnight, who co-wrote the show, grew up with the TV series."I never believed that a reunion show would happen, let alone that I would get to be part of the team working on it," he said.Writing workshops have been taking place in Glasgow over the past few months, with one full, rehearsed run-through.
"It's bonkers," says Alan Cumming, who last autumn took over as artistic director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre.He now divides his time between Scotland and his home in the United States, where he hosts the US version of the TV show The Traitors."For so long, we've been imagining all the crazy things we wanted them to do so to have them doing it with gusto was quite surreal. "The fact we're all back doing this - the fact we're still alive - is a cause for celebration."The musical picks up where the series left off. Sebastian Flight and Steve McCracken are still on duty in the cabin of Air Scotia's limited services. Only this time, dearie me, the end could be in sight as the airline has just been sold."It could be the end," says Alan, who plays Sebastian."The last flight as we know it and all sorts of supernatural ginger things are about to happen.""The High Life came from that Scottish surreal comedy tradition," says Forbes, "and we've tried to recreate that in the musical. "But it's also rooted in the truth of two guys who work together and have been forced to be together for years and years. "Life has gone on and they've still been dreaming of other things. They're now in their 60s and they're asking, is that it?"As two guys in their 60s, who have achieved plenty of things in their separate careers, this is born out of love, not necessity. And they can't wait to get back on the road, just as they did in the 1980s as young graduates of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama."It's exactly what we did when we first left drama school except we're in big theatres now," says Alan."The fun of being on tour, there's nothing like it. "Strange cities, with a bunch of people you love, working on it as you go along. It's such a great experience."The High Life is presented by National Theatre of Scotland and Dundee Rep Theatre in association with Aberdeen Performing Arts and Capital Theatres. The world premiere is at Dundee Rep on 28 March 2026, touring to HMT Aberdeen, Edinburgh Festival Theatre and Kings Theatre Glasgow.