Alan Cumming and other original cast from The High Life reuniting for musical
The production will tour Scotland in spring 2026, almost three decades after the series was screened.
All four original cast members – Alan Cumming, Forbes Masson, Siobhan Redmond and Patrick Ryecart will feature in the show.
The High Life, first commissioned and broadcast by the BBC, centred on the crew of the fictional Air Scotia airline.
In the musical Air Scotia has been sold and the crew is fighting for their future.
The TV series was created by Cumming and Masson who have reunited to create the musical, joined in their creative collaboration by writer, performer and panto-maker Johnny McKnight and the artistic director of Dundee Rep, Andrew Panton.
Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson said: 'Never say never! We are both beyond excited to be donning those nylon slacks and crimpelene blazers and connecting with our inner trolly dollies after all these years.
'Returning to these characters alongside the genius that is Johnny McKnight has been a joyful experience and we can't wait to share what madness we've come up with around Scotland.'
The High Life was first introduced to TV audiences in an initial pilot in 1994 and then in a series of six episodes which were broadcast in early 1995. The series is currently available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
Johnny 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 thousand 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.
'The bags are packed, the tena-man pants on, and I am ready for check in.
'Fasten your seatbelts and get ready for the flight of a lifetime.'
The new show is being presented by National Theatre of Scotland and Dundee Rep Theatre in association with Aberdeen Performing Arts and Capital Theatres.
It will tour to Dundee Rep Theatre, His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh and King's Theatre, Glasgow in Spring 2026.
Andrew Panton said: 'Having been a High Life fan right from take-off in 1994, it's been a total joy to work with this amazing team of pure talent.
'Our development time together has been a riot of creative energy, hilarity and brilliant music and songs and I feel sure our new stage musical will appeal to both fans of the TV show and folks new to The High Life.
'I'm thrilled that we're creating the show at Dundee Rep Theatre before it jets off to entertain audiences across Scotland.'
Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Record
12 minutes ago
- Daily Record
Top Gear host slams Jeremy Clarkson as a 'massive show-off and egotist'
A former Top Gear host has admitted he "never got along" with Jeremy Clarkson while working alongside him on the hit BBC motoring show A former Top Gear presenter has confessed that he "never got along" with Jeremy Clarkson. The BBC motoring show has since come to an end after a serious on set crash involving Freddie Flintoff, who had been co-hosting the series with Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris. Prior to that era, Top Gear was famously fronted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May - a trio that proved hugely popular with viewers. Now, former presenter Steve Berry has shared his true thoughts on Jeremy. The motoring journalist described Jeremy as a "massive show-offs and egotist" but notes that was what made him appealing to the show's producers, the Mirror reports. Steve made the comments during an interview on Al Arabiya News. "The first shoot that I went along on was presented by a certain Mr. Jeremy Clarkson. And I'll never forget this, he turned up two hours late. I turned up half an hour early because I wanted to impress." "He turned up to hours late and the crew were fuming. Absolutely fuming, I thought. Right, make a point, don't do that because you want the crew on your side," he recalled. Steve also shared what Jeremy was actually like behind the scenes, describing him as a "less bombastic version of that person that you see on the screen." He stated: "So in real life, Jeremy is a less bombastic version of that person that you see on the screen. You couldn't act that persona for all the years that he has." "He is kind of like that, and like I said, even though he and I never really got on together, the last time I met him in person, there was a bar, it was at a car show and there was an open bar and he said, Barry, people know we don't like each other, I'll buy you a pint and we'll stand over there pretending we like each other." Now, Jeremy runs a successful farm in the Cotswolds as well along with a pub called The Farmer's Dog, which specialises in selling local produce. His colleagues on the Oxfordshire farm have spoken more positively about it, offering praise for their boss. The anonymous worker told the Oxford Mail: "I've been working here well over a year and I do enjoy it to be honest, because you meet completely different people from all over the world and all around the UK." "Jeremy and Kaleb come up every now and then and chat with us and check that we're alright. Jeremy is just really funny, but he takes things seriously if we struggle with anything, which is nice, but he is just really funny and makes us feel comfortable."
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
The BBC's Unforgivable asks if we can ever forgive a child sex offender
Warning: contains spoilers It must be galling for the BBC to be reminded that it didn't make Adolescence. Four months post-release and it's still creating news: as Netflix's most watched show of the year with 145 million views, or picking up 13 Emmy nominations. The closest thing the BBC can offer is Unforgivable (BBC Two), a new one-off drama from Jimmy McGovern that mines a similar seam of social realism, and is also about a family coming to terms with one of them committing a terrible crime. As with all of McGovern's work, it is well written and impeccably acted. Those are the two elements on which Unforgivable needs to sell itself, because nobody thinks, 'A drama about a man who sexually abused his nephew? Must sit down to watch that.' Maybe that's why it's buried on BBC2 on a Thursday night. Also, there isn't much of a plot. It's more a study of a family torn apart. They are related both to the abuser and the victim, and how do they navigate that? For Anna (Anna Friel), it's straightforward. Her brother abused her son. She will never forgive him. She has been left to pick up the pieces: her boy, Tom (Austin Haynes) has stopped speaking since the abuse, save for 'yes' and 'no'. Anna, a single mum, has to homeschool him while also trying to hold down a job on the supermarket tills. Her mum has just died, so she is grieving and also supporting her newly-widowed dad (David Threlfall). It's a lot. Friel gives the best performance of her career, managing to make her lines sound improvised even though they're not. 'I'm a lousy mother who's doing the best I can,' she tells her kids. The real focus, though, is on the perpetrator. Joe (Bobby Schofield) is released from prison near the start of the drama. He moves to a hostel run by an ex-nun, played with unnerving stillness by Anna Maxwell Martin. He hates himself, but feels more guilty about the pain he caused his mother than the damage he did to Tom. It emerges, via therapy, that Joe was abused himself by a predatory football coach. This complicates things. Joe is both the abuser and the abused. That is true in many real-life cases, although a fellow victim of the coach points out that he was abused too but didn't turn out to be a 'nonce'. It's not a given. It's an unpalatable truth that the vast majority of children who are abused have been preyed upon by someone they know, many of them family members. McGovern isn't afraid to go there, but he also goes further by asking us if we can feel compassion for Joe. At times, this seems too big an ask, even if Schofield is impressive in scenes where the tears flow. Tom, by contrast, is a mute presence; we understand that this is a response to trauma – even if his mum, oddly, asks if he's doing it for attention or a bet – but rendering him voiceless feels unfair. Perhaps that's deliberate. Anna complains bitterly that she has been unable to get child mental health support for Tom, because the system is overloaded, yet Joe has therapy on tap. The ending is too neat, as if McGovern was told he needed to wrap it up on a positive note. Until that point, though, it's a thought-provoking piece on a subject that most writers would avoid.
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Inspiration behind harrowing new drama Unforgivable as it lands on BBC
Unforgivable official trailer for BBC drama Unforgivable, the new BBC2 drama, has already proved to be a talking point due to its very sensitive narrative, with the whole feature drama centring around grooming and sexual abuse. For esteemed screenwriter Jimmy McGovern, tackling the taboo subject through the harrowing drama is something he feels needed to be done. He is hoping viewers will walk away from the production with a new sense of education and perspective, that they otherwise may not have had before. Jimmy is a firm believer that child abusers "should be held to account and also punished for their crimes", stating that to the BBC that he would personally find it "very hard to forgive" if the same harm came to his own family. Jimmy McGovern opens up on the "truth" behind Unforgivable (Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC) The new 90-minute series which is set in Liverpool, follows the Mitchell family whose lives have been shattered by the devastating consequences of sexual abuse. As a family, they are now living with the aftermath and the reality that the perpetrator, Joe, played by Bobby Schofield, is now being freed from jail with rehabilitation after serving just a two year prison sentence. Bobby Schofield plays perpetrator Joe (Image: BBC / LA Productions / Kerry Spicer) Anna Friel plays Anna Mitchell, the sister of Joe but also the desperate mother who will stop at nothing in protecting her two children, with her eldest son played by Adolescence actor Austin Hayes. The pain spirals through the entire family with David Threlfall playing a key role of Anna's father, who is angry after realising she'd reached out to her abuser brother Joe. Unforgivable creator, Jimmy, had one main aim to ensure that every character within the family had a voice at the table to further highlight the toll and emotional hold such an awful crime can have on everyone involved. With the adaption being so raw and close to the bone, it really is no wonder that thoughts are turning to whether there is a deeper truth hidden within Jimmy's compelling drama. Anna is desperate to protect her two children but is conflicted as her brother Joe is the person who committed the crimes (Image: BBC) The Cracker and Time writer opened up on what had inspired him to pen something so dark-routed, revealing there was an element of truth within his creation. Speaking about his thought process and how the idea blossomed, he confessed: "I received a letter from a woman who works with sex offenders and wanted to speak to me. "She spoke no holds barred about her job and working with sex abusers. She told me certain facts and figures that are quite unbelievable, so I want people to watch the film and learn things about child abuse. I felt compelled to write about it." Jimmy has never shied away from discussing the topic of abuse and had even written past productions such as Priest and Broken, that follow in similar vein. Addressing the link in his writing style, he explained to BBC: "I've always been quick to condemn child abusers, as we all are and as we all should be. "This is not a film that goes easy on child abusers at all. I wanted the audience to hear a few of the things I'd learned. I think we should be ultra cautious whenever we're dealing with abusers. I'm a father and a grandfather, I would find it very hard to forgive somebody who had done that to me or my family." The drama has landed on BBC's streaming platform this morning at 6am and will air tonight, from 9pm on BBC2, with the compelling story already proving to be a drama not to be missed.
