Line #75 Series/TheHighLife


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thehighlifecast_1815.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:From left to right: Sebastian Flight, Captain Duff, Shona Spurtle and Steve [=McCracken=].]]
3
4	->''If we're feeling kind of tedious,\
5	if life is seriously mediocre,\
6	here's how to get that adrenaline flowing:\
7	just step up on a boeing going high.''\
8	\
9
10	This {{Britcom}} followed the cabin crew of the fictional "Air Scotia" airline, based at Prestwick Airport in its pre-Ryanair days. There's the camp, ego-centric Sebastian Flight, perennially single Steve [=McCracken=], their boss Shona "Hitler in Tights" Spurtle and a Captain who is so out of it, he makes [[Series/FatherTed Dougal]] seem normal. Add surrealism and song and dance numbers for anarchy.
11
12	!!This series provides examples of:
13	* AmbiguouslyGay: Sebastian -- extremely camp, but never actually says anything indicating he is gay, and is described by Steve as an "uptight celibate".
14	* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: The dialogue is littered with alliteration, [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Sebastian on one occasion:
15	-->'''Shona''': Ah have turned a blind eye to your [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal frequent, farcical, in-flight female fraternisations-]]
16	-->'''Sebastian''': Ye used five 'F' words then, did ye know that, Shona?
17	* AndImTheQueenOfSheba:
18	-->'''Steve''': (quoting his self-help book) "[T]oday might be the day when everything starts to change for the better.
19	-->'''Sebastian''': Aye, and shite doesnae stink.
20	* AsideGlance: Sebastian occasionally does these towards the camera.
21	* BlandNameProduct: Averted with Betterware, which is still going strong.
22	* BootCampEpisode: Birl.
23	* BritishBrevity: Only six episodes ever made.
24	* BritishRockstar: Guy Wersch is a perfect example.
25	* ButtMonkey:
26	-->"Nothin' good ever happens tae folk from Falkirk."
27	* CasanovaWannabe: Steve.
28	* {{Catchphrase}}: "Oh Deary Me".
29	* ChildhoodFriend: In "Choob" we learn Steve and Sebastian were at primary school together.
30	* CloudCuckoolander: Captain Duff. Lampshaded by Steve and Sebastian:
31	-->'''Steve''': That man is so surreal, he's no' real.
32	-->'''Sebastian''': Aye - he's Salvador Dali in epaulettes.
33	* CoolShades: Averted by Shona who wears some truly hideous sunglasses due to her apparent HangoverSensitivity:
34	-->'''Shona''': Morning, Sebastian. I see travel hasn't broadened your mind - it's still as cheap and tacky as ever.
35	-->'''Sebastian''': No' as cheap and tacky as doing a Music/RoyOrbison impersonation.
36	* DawsonCasting: Played for Laughs when Siobhan Redmond plays seven-year-old Shona in a flashback.
37	* DisappearedDad: Shona's dad.
38	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Steve is showing Sebastian the engagement ring he has bought for Shona. Captain Duff comes in, sees them with the ring and congratulates them on their engagement.
39	** As well as Steve trying to get Sebastian out of the dog costume.
40	* DrowningMySorrows: Sebastian after [[spoiler: failing to win the Eurovision Song Contest.]]
41	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Sebastian's "over-demanding bed-ridden mother" never gets a mention past episode one.
42	* EightiesHair: Sebastian. Even though the show was made in TheNineties. His hairdo makes him look like a member of Music/NewKidsOnTheBlock.
43	* ExpositoryThemeTune: Averted - the theme is all about how great working on an airline is, but all Sebastian and Steve do on the show is complain about how much their job sucks.
44	* GoldenMoment: Parodied at the end of Feart after Steve delivers a rather long-winded spiel about how he turned down a promotion because he would rather work with Sebastian than be successful and lonely.
45	-->'''Sebastian''': Oh, Steve...ya stupid mug!
46	* GoshdangItToHeck: OH BURNT MUFFINS!
47	* GossipyHens: Steve and Sebastian. A variation on the trope since Sebastian seems to be the one who pecks at Steve to get gossip rather than just passing it on.
48	* HalfHourComedy
49	* HamToHamCombat
50	* InelegantBlubbering: Sebastian at the beginning of "Birl".
51	-->'''Steve''': [[NoSympathy Shut it, piggy eyes!]]
52	* InherentlyFunnyWords: "Choob" gets a bit of mileage out of the Scottish pronunciation of video as "vidjo".
53	* InSeriesNickname: Sebastian has quite a few of these for Shona, including, but not limited to, "Pol Pot in Pantyhose" and "Goebbels in a Gossard".
54	* IneptTalentShowContestant
55	* InnocentInnuendo: Shona, when talking about her ex, who used to work on a fish farm.
56	-->"Every so often, if I was lucky, he gave me crabs."
57	* LargeHam: During his guest spot as the Batman-style villain Vincent Stoat in "Dunk," Peter Blythe serves up massive quantities of gleeful ham, complete with Evil Laugh.
58	* NewOldFlame: Avril, who came back as a [[spoiler:[[WesternTerrorists Tartan Terrorist]]]].
59	* PretentiousLatinMotto: Averted: Air Scotia's corporate motto is "Dinnae fash yerself, dae it awfy well".
60	* TheRemake: Episode 4 is a remake of the pilot, which was not part of the series proper, but an episode of ''Comic Asides''.
61	* SeinfeldianConversation: Briefly, when Steve and Sebastian compare Hershey Bars with British chocolate.
62	* UsefulNotes/ScottishEnglish: Has some great examples of this:
63	-->'''Sebastian''': You're the new face of Air Scotia?
64	-->'''Shona''': Yes, Ah'm are!
65	* ShoutOut:
66	** [[PunnyName Sebastian]] [[Literature/BridesheadRevisited Flight]].
67	** Episode 6 is an episode-long homage to ''{{Series/Batman\|1966}}''. The machine that shows off all of Stoat's different products is most likely a nod to ''Series/TheGenerationGame''.
68	** Captain Duff can be seen reading a copy of ''Fear of Flying''.
69	** The instructor at the Air Scotia boot camp references ''{{Film/Alive}}'' when teaching emergency landing procedures.
70	** Steve and Sebastian give Shona a quick blast of ''All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth'' while playing with the passengers' dentures.
71	** When Shona jogs up to the boot camp:
72	--->"[[DeadpanSnarker Oh look]], it's [[Series/TheBionicWoman Lindsay Wagner]]."
73	** Sebastian owns a ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' duvet cover.
74	** Steve takes one of his off-screen dates to The Shish Mahal, which is an actual restaurant in Glasgow.
75	** Steve spotted Lena Zavaroni in an Italian restaurant in Motherwell.
76	** Captain Duff calls Steve [[Series/TheSootyShow "Sooty"]] and Sebastian [[Series/TheSootyShow "Sweep"]] in one episode. It's oddly appropriate in Sebastian's case.
77	* SitcomArchNemesis: Sebastian vs. Shona.
78	* SpiritualSuccessor: Forbes and Cumming had previously played two very similar characters, the Kelvinside Young People's Amateur Dramatic Art Society founders Victor [=McIllvaney=] and Barry [=McLeish=], at the Edinburgh Fringe and on various STV programmes.
79	* StealthPun:
80	-->'''Avril''': Driver, take this plane to Dunoon, or the steward gets it.
81	** [[DontExplainTheJoke As in that old favourite, "Fly me to Dunoon..."]]
82	* TheTalk: Steve and Sebastian narrowly avoid being given a cow-themed version of this from Captain Duff.
83	* WaxingLyrical: Shona, whilst rejecting [[spoiler:Steve]].
84	-->"I'm an uptown, uptempo woman, you're a downtown, downbeat guy. It would never work out."
85	** Sebastian probes Steve about one of his dates in the style of ''[[Film/{{Grease}} Summer Nights]]''.
86	* WesternTerrorists: The Scottish Liberation Front.
87	* WhatDidIDoLastNight: Played with, when Sebastian is desperately trying to find out what Steve did the previous night. Then subverted when it turns out that Steve was totally wrong about what he thought he did and is rather disappointed to learn the truth.
88	* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: The celebrity sprog in ''Dug'' is named "Aurora Borealis", since that was what her dad was looking at when she was conceived.
89	%%* WorkCom
90	%%* WorldOfHam

Context Series / TheHighLife