Come Fly the Friendly Skies Trivia Quiz

Answer: MJN

MJN stands for 'My Jet Now', as the company's plane was acquired as part of the owner's divorce settlement. She is quick to point out that she is C.E.O. of an 'airdot' rather than an airline, as you cannot put one plane in a line.

Answer: Carolyn Knapp-Shappey

Carolyn certainly runs her airdot with a rod of iron, probably for the best given the ragtag air crew she has to deal with and the company's seemingly infinite capacity for losing money! Carolyn is played by the veteran English actress Stephanie Cole.

Answer: Benedict Cumberbatch

Martin loves being a pilot and he claims it is all he has ever wanted to do. Unfortunately he is not very good at it and has taken seven attempts to get his pilot's license, which helps to explain why he is working for MJN for free while moonlighting as a 'man with a van'.

Answer: Douglas Richardson

Douglas is an excellent pilot, however his reckless rule-breaking and inability to resist a potentially profitable scheme, got him fired from his prestigious job at Air England, which is how a self-described 'sky god' like him finds himself taking orders from an inexperienced captain young enough to be his son.

He makes up for this by teasing Martin relentlessly and beating him at every flight deck word game they play. Douglas is also something of a mastermind when it comes to saving the airdot from going out of business as he is seemingly never without a cunning plan.

Answer: Arthur

Arthur Shappey is Carolyn's son, he is in his late 20s in the first series and is an extremely cheerful and friendly character with a great eagerness to please and be helpful. Unfortunately, his attempts to help often lead to him annoying the rest of the crew as well as any passengers they are carrying. Arthur is often the victim of relentless teasing and outright insults, but nothing seems to dull his belief that people are 'brilliant' or put a dampener on his spirits.

Arthur is played by the wonderful comedian and writer John Finnemore, who, as well as writing 'Cabin Pressure', also writes and stars in his own Radio 4 sketch show, 'John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme', as well as regularly appearing on Radio 4 panel shows such as 'The Unbelievable Truth' and 'Heresy' and the comedy current affairs show 'The Now Show'?

Answer: Mr. Birling

The crew refer to the day of the rugby final as 'Birling Day', we have joined the crew on three separate Birling days. Mr. Burling is a rich, posh old man who enjoys being 'toadied' to by everyone around him, he is willing to tip generously as long as the crew are willing to be sufficiently obsequious and to put up with his constant insults.

As well as rugby, he also has a love for fine whiskey which Carolyn always buys in for him. Douglas usually spends most of Birling day attempting to steal this expensive whiskey, and usually succeeds, since nobody outwits Douglas!

Answer: Hercules Shipwright

Hercules is introduced in the episode 'Newcastle'. It turns out that Hercules and Douglas were old friends from flight school (though subsequent episodes imply that Douglas is actually very jealous and resentful of Hercules). Hercules and Carolyn begin an argumentative flirtation during this episode which leads to other dates and a marriage proposal from Hercules in later episodes.

Answer: Liechtenstein

In the episode 'Vaduz', the crew are booked to pick up the king of Liechtenstein and fly him back to England. When they arrive at the royal palace, they are surprised to discover that the king of Liechtenstein is actually a spoiled schoolboy and that they have been hired to take him back to school in England.

He is being chaperoned by his older sister, Princess Theresa, who takes quite a shine to Martin and who agrees to go on a date with him near the end of the episode. In a later episode it is revealed that they have been on other dates since.

Answer: Mr. Alyakin

During the Christmas special 'Molokai', the crew are annoyed to discover that Carolyn expects them to give up their Christmas Day to fly Mr. Alyakin from Tokyo (where they were all hoping to spend Christmas) to Molokai, meaning they will miss Christmas entirely. Carolyn is keen to impress Mr. Alyakin as he is a prolific user of charter jets and she believes if she can persuade him to use them regularly it might secure the future of MJN.

It is left to Douglas to perform a Christmas miracle and make sure everything works out, leading to MJN doing various jobs for Mr. Alyakin in subsequent series.

Answer: four

There are four series of 'Cabin Pressure'. The first was broadcast in 2008 and the last in 2013. Each series is six episodes long, although series 2 was followed by a Christmas special so there were 25 episodes in total. Each episode had a one-word title, referring to the destination of that episode's journey, each beginning with a different letter of the alphabet, the first episode being 'Abu Dhabi' and the last being 'Yverdon-Les-Bains'. Scheduling problems meant that not all of the episodes in series 2 and 3 were broadcast in alphabetical order, even though that had been the intention.

Many fans speculated that the series would end once the series reached 'Z' and creator, John Finnemore, confirmed on his blog that this would be the case. The cast would record one last 45 minute episode in which there would be resolution for some of the cliff-hangers from 'Yverdon-Les-Bains' and it would indeed be the last ever episode.