It was the short-lived TV sitcom following the cabin crew of a fictional Scottish airline.
But Air Scotia’s stewards now set to take to the skies again 30 years later – in a major new Scottish musical inspired by The High Life.
Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson, the show’s creators, will be reunited with co-stars Siobhan Redmond and Patrick Ryecart in the new production, which will be a centrepiece of the National Theatre of Scotland’s twentienth anniversary programme.
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Cumming and Masson are writing the new show, which will tour to Dundee, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow next spring, with acclaimed Scottish theatre-maker Johnny McKnight.
The pair reunited for the first time in decades for a book celebrating their long-running cabaret double act Victor and Barry, who would go on to inspire Steve and Sebastian, their alter-egos in The High Life.
A musical version of The High Life has long been an aspiration of the National Theatre of Scotland, but did not get off the ground until Masson and McKnight both went to see Cumming’s Robert Burns-inspire show Burn at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow.
The three met backstage afterwards and McKnight rang Cumming the next day to float the idea of the musical based on the TV, which ended in February 1995, but is currently available to watch on the BBC iPlayer.
Masson said: “It just never felt possible before. It was difficult getting us together. Our trajectories were going in completely different ways. It didn’t feel like the right time.
“The catalyst was having working on the book and having such a laugh, but we weren’t thinking about doing the High Life at that point.
“When Alan told me that Johnny was interested in it I just thought: ‘You know, it could be a really good, fun thing to do, as long as we can just have a laugh.
“When we did The High Life on TV it was quite fraught. We had lots of standing our ground around our own voices and what we wanted to do with the show. There were lots of people in the way. We didn’t want that again.
“It’s been great working with NTS as they have give us time and space to really develop it, try things out, and see what works and what doesn’t.”
Cumming: “We worked on the book throughout Covid. We were working together, spending time together and just laughing.
“We were remembering so much. When so many things happen in your life, it is actually such a surprise to go back.
"We remembered a lot of things together, both the hilarious things that happened to us, but also some of the times when we needed to stand our ground a bit more and speak up for ourselves as artists.
“Things didn’t go so well when we allowed other people to tell us who were and how we should write.
“That has stood us in good stead to go back to the material and get cracking again. It’s been great to take the time and ease ourselves back into it.
“But I can’t over-estimate what the inclusion of Johnny has meant in terms of being a catalyst, the reinvigoration of it and having another voice in a similar vein but was also magical.”
The new musical, which has been in the planning for more than two years, will see The High Life crew still working for Air Scotia but fearing for their futures after the airline is sold off.
The synopsis for the show, which will premiere at Dundee Rep in March, states: “In this flight for their lives, our cut-price cabin crew must get themselves (and their passengers) to their destination safely, testing their mettle and putting decades old friendships and rivalries finally to rest.”
Cumming said: “In real life, I don’t think yearning is a very healthy thing, but writing for people who are yearning is great, because they are always sort of disappointed. They are constantly batted down.
“When you see Steve and Sebastian now, they are still yearning, they are still hoping. It’s actually a beautiful thing because they are optimists and romantics, in a way.
“They’re still working at Air Scotia, still squeezing into those nylon trousers after all these years and still hoping that they will get to do long-haul flights one day. That is really endearing.”
Masson: “We did snippets of Victor and Barry last year for the book launch. It felt really easy going back to that.
“These characters (Steve and Sebastian) always were just extensions of ourselves.
“It was our choice not to do The High Life again. Things came to a bit of a natural end for us. We had been working together for a long, long time. We both wanted to go off and do other things, which we did. We’ve both had an amazing journey.
“What’s great about doing the book and looking back, and these characters looking back, is that you get a renewed vigour for the future, rather than get brought down by longings or yearnings for things that never happen. That’s what the musical will hopefully do.”
Cumming added: “I think it should be euphoric and witty, with a combination of reminiscence and contemporary gags about where we are now and where we were then. That’s what we want the show to be.”
McKnight said: “I am absolutely thrilled to join the Air Scotia cabin crew.
“I grew up watching The High Life, wishing that one day I could get to fly 30,000 feet with Alan, Forbes, Siobhan and Patrick.
“I never believed that a reunion show would happen, let alone that I would get to be part of the team working on it. Fasten your seatbelts and get ready for the flight of a lifetime.”
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