High Life Trivia

1. What was Steve and Sebastian's catchprase which became synonymous with the show?

From Quiz 'The High Life' Part 2

Answer: "Oh deary me"

Steve and Sebastian would say "Oh deary me!" every time one of them said something that sounded funny to them or if they'd slagged off something or someone and found it funny.

From Quiz "The High Life" Part 1

Answer: Steve McCracken and Sebastian Flight

Sebastian Flight and Steve McCracken were known as the two main characters, played by Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson. They starred alongside Siobhan Redman, as Shona Spurtle, and Patrick Ryecart, as Captain Duff.

From Quiz "The High Life"

Answer: Sebastian Flight and Steve McCracken

Steve and Sebastian are the two air stewards who feel that life has perhaps treated them a little harshly. Sebastian Flight is a take on the character name "Sebastian Flyte" from "Brideshead Revisited" by Evelyn Waugh. Hilary Duff is the Captain of the aircraft, but no one can be quite sure how he reached that exalted position, he's useless!

From Quiz 'The High Life' Part 2

Answer: "Piff-Paff-Poff (I Want To Have It Off)"

Sebastian entered into the Song For Europe competition as Scotland's entry into the Eurovision Song Contest in the hope he would find fame and success. He also recruited Steve, Shona and Captain Duff to be part of his group but unfortunately came last in the competition with "nil points".

From Quiz "The High Life"

Answer: The Air Scotia mascot

In "Dug" Steve asks Shona what is in the large box she is holding. She replies that it is a "Shuggy McGurk". Steve earns Shona's praise as "Observation is the first rule of stewardship", when he points out that it's rather a large box for "Yon wee fuzzy furry gonk they sell in the Air Scotia souvenir shop". In fact it is a Shuggy McGurk costume which Sebastian then has to wear to entertain the children at the in-flight party. Not a pleasant job, it's synthetic fur you see...

From Quiz 'The High Life' Part 2

Answer: "Step aboard a Boeing going high"

The theme song was known for its lines about how flying would make you feel better about your life. In an interview, Alan Cumming admitted to making a mistake with the choreography in the last part of the opening titles and explained that in freeze-frame it could be seen that he was doing a Hitler-style salute by mistake instead of a seeking gesture. He later apologised for his mistake.

From Quiz "The High Life" Part 1

Answer: Air Scotia

Air Scotia was the fictional airline Steve and Sebastian worked as air stewards for under the watchful eye of their boss Shona. It was seen as being a very patriotic Scottish airline as their tie and scarf colours were blue tartan with "Scotia" being another term for Scotland.

From Quiz "The High Life"

Answer: An ornamental frog sitting in a shell

Sebastian: "...and it's got 'Florida' written in squid ink on the front...and look, if you shake it, its eyes move. Isn't it lovely?" Steve: "It's LOVELY" (somewhat sarcastically!). The engagement ring is what Steve was looking for on the floor when Sebastian came in, he doesn't want Sebastian to know he intends proposing to Shona. The jelly beans were for Sebastian, but he ends up sharing them with all the passengers when he forgets to order breakfast in time.

From Quiz 'The High Life' Part 2

Answer: £123.86

Steve had his pay docked for being late five times in a week which was an Air Scotia by-law. Steve tried to appeal against this punishment but to no avail.

From Quiz "The High Life" Part 1

Answer: "Dinnae fash yersel, dae it awfy well"

"Dinnae fash yersel, dae it awfy well" means "don't worry, do it very well". The motto is only mentioned in one episode in "Choob" after Sebastian fails to land the job of presenting the Air Scotia in-flight video only for it to go to Shona, much to Sebastian's annoyance.

From Quiz "The High Life"

Answer: "Have we landed yet?"

This line is directly followed by a mild expletive and a look of alarm: roll credits. We presume they survive as they're all there for the next episode. Captain Duff does a lot of things like this, including asking where they're flying to, it's always Heathrow, and he is convinced that this is in Austria. He also frequently has problems finding the cockpit and hence the instrumentation and equipment that would be there. Sebastian once finds him in the toilet looking for the joystick and the co-pilot. While Captain Duff does not actually ask who proposed, he does tell them that he hopes they'll both be very happy, he's an old softy really!

From Quiz 'The High Life' Part 2

Answer: Guy Werch

Guy Werch was the fictional lead singer of a Scottish rock band who were also fictional, The Ganting Screechs. Shona was very excited about the prospect of meeting him as she had been a fan since she was a teenager.

From Quiz "The High Life" Part 1

Answer: Sir Cameron Bridie

Sir Cameron Bridie is mentioned in the episode "Choob" and again in "Birl" as being the chairman of Air Scotia but he is never seen at any point in the series.

From Quiz "The High Life"

Answer: He had fallen asleep on his sunbed and blistered his buttocks

Steve knows, Shona doesn't...or so Sebastian thinks. Steve has told her it was his verrucas, which enrages Sebastian. It was Steve who had had a restless time with a girl called Rhonda McAllister, the biriani and the blue nun, on a futon. Sebastian's dermititis has cleared up, Shona asked him as a retort to a wisecrack made when he was trying desperately to be nice to her in "Feart". And actually Shona does know about the sunbed!

From Quiz 'The High Life' Part 2

Answer: Nanny for his daughter Aurora Borealis

Shona mistook Guy's advances for flirting and thought she was going to be the next Mrs Werch. Unfortunately for her she was wrong and refused the job as she didn't like the prospect of being a nanny and not his wife.

From Quiz "The High Life" Part 1

Answer: "Dinnae Be Feart, Grab Life By The Nuts"

Steve thought that his reading of the book which he called the "new Scottish positive thinking bible" would sort out his pre-midlife crisis as he turned 30. Sebastian couldn't see that it would work and that Steve needed an A to Z for all his problems.

From Quiz "The High Life"

Answer: They sing "O Flower of Scotland"

A beautiful harmonised version, unfortunately they only get two lines in before Shona stops them. Avril is Steve's childhood sweetheart and currently a Scottish revolutionary terrorist who will not tolerate a Full English Breakfast served on a Scottish airline. She certainly wouldn't let them play her bagpipes, "Get your mitts off my pipes!", and although Steve does start to make her a haggis, she tries to hijack the plane before he can serve her with it.

From Quiz 'The High Life' Part 2

Answer: Shuggie McGurk

Shona made Sebastian dress up as Shuggie McGurk, a big black shaggy dog with a tartan collar. Sebastian found it very uncomfortable in the suit and he and Steve had trouble getting it off.

From Quiz "The High Life"

Answer: A small island off the west coast of Scotland

Shona thinks she got the troll because she's carrying it when she comes on board for her birthday party, but no, it was the island. However, "There's planning permission for a marina development, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity." Well, isn't she a lucky girl?!

From Quiz 'The High Life' Part 2

Answer: Stoat's

Stoat's was a biscuit factory whose owner had kidnapped the owner of a rival biscuit factory to try and torture her to unveil a secret recipe for tablet. Steve and Sebastian were taken hostage after failing to hand over the floppy disk that contained the secret recipe and Shona was taken hostage after trying to rescue them. It took Captain Duff to save them as he had been an ex-SAS agent.

From Quiz "The High Life" Part 1

Answer: Gretchen Betumen

Gretchen Betumen was their "retrain commander" whose job it was to sharpen up the skills of the Air Scotia staff but had had a previous relationship with Captain Duff it emerged at a party and the two ended up in Steve's bed together where Sebastian found them.

From Quiz "The High Life"

Answer: Gordon Ferret

Ferret, who only went bad because he had a craving for "Stoat's chocolate creams" that only Vincent Stoat could satisfy when they were taken off the market. Frank Weisel was Jim Hacker's original political advisor in "Yes Minister".

From Quiz 'The High Life' Part 2

Answer: Commit suicide

Steve felt that after Shona turned down the offer to sleep with him that he had nothing left in life to live for and was going to jump off a high building. Sebastian figured out where he was and started talking to him, unaware of what he was going to do, and eventually talked him out of it.

From Quiz "The High Life" Part 1

Answer: Shona

Steve had wanted to propose to Shona after a brief affair, she felt she could not love someone who was short and had red hair. Sebastian figured out who Steve had the affair with and was not surprisingly shocked at the thought.

From Quiz "The High Life"

Answer: Latin American Ballroom Dancing and Tai Chi

The lead up to this is one of my favourite scenes from the series. Sebastian demonstrates the Bolero to Steve and they end up with Sebastian in that classic end-of-Bolero pose, flat out in the aisle, Steve crouching over him with a fire-extinguisher, dry-ice everywhere and the gangway lights lit up like the best theatrical rig. Steve thinks that it is like Tai Chi, only with more finger clicking, same arm movements. It is at this point that Shona walks in.

From Quiz 'The High Life' Part 2

Answer: 6 episodes,1 series

Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson starred in and wrote six episodes of 'The High Life' which was enough for one series. Masson has previously said why there was no more than one series - the reason being it was written but never filmed. Victor and Barry were characters who were created by Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson a couple of years before "The High Life" and Steve and Sebastian were loosely based on them except they were made to have Scottish accents instead of being quite posh and had more double-entendres in their comedy.

From Quiz "The High Life" Part 1

Answer: "Eh?!"

Sebastian was known for saying "eh?!" every time Steve would comment on either Sebastian's way of doing things or if he disagreed with something Steve said or didn't believe what he was saying was true.

From Quiz "The High Life"

Answer: Captain Duff

Yes, he is Captain Duff now, but he was in the SAS, and when you've done it once it's easy, "Like falling off a dog, log, bicycle." Gretchen Betjeman was the re-train commander at the Air Scotia training school in "Birl", my favourite episode, she's a fearsome woman, but didn't come to their rescue this time.

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