Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson start work on a stage adaptation of 90s sitcom The High Life

The BBC Two sitcom about cabin crew on a budget airline only ran for one series in 1995 but attracted a cult following. A stage adaptation has been mooted for several years, but is now a work-in-progress.

Written by and starring Cumming and Masson as air stewards, the narcissistic Sebastian Flight and Steve McCracken, the sitcom was set aboard the fictional Air Scotia, flying out of Prestwick Airport. It co-starred Siobhan Redmond (Two Doors Down) as chief steward Shona and Patrick Ryecart (The Crown) as deranged pilot Captain Duff.

The pair, who will be reunited on stage for the first time in more than 30 years, have begun working with writer, director and writer Johnny KcKnight and the National Theatre of Scotland on the production.

It has been instigated after Cumming and Masson worked together on a forthcoming book marking the 40th anniversary of comedy-cabaret duo Victor and Barry's first appearance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

They created the characters in 1982 as part of a cabaret event for the final year students at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.

Victor and Barry became huge stars thanks to annual Fringe runs and TV appearances but were “killed off” at a benefit night at the London Palladium in 1992. However the actors reunited to write and appear in The High Life, which was snapped up by the BBC in 1995.

Speaking at an in-conversation event with the writer Michael Pedersen at Edinburgh University, Cumming said: “I’ve been talking a lot about getting older of late, because of the concert show that I’m touring, and this past week I’ve been in Glasgow with the National Theatre of Scotland workshopping a musical of the High Life that we’re going to do.

“We’re going to be in our sixties still playing these flight attendants. It’s really shocking to me that I’m this old and feel the way I do, but it also makes sense when you say ‘oh, I did that in the 1980s or I made that 30 years ago.’ I’m actually embracing it because that’s my life, I still feel very vital and I’ve still got a lot of living to do.

“Writing the book has reminded us how much we love each other, how much fun it is to write together and what a magic combo we are.

"It’s because of that we're now going to do the musical, which we’re writing with the amazing Johnny. We’ve been working on the structure of it, we’re going to do various workshops and then actually do it at the beginning of 2026.”

Masson told The Scotsman: “Alan and I hadn't properly seen each other for a long time before we started working on the book.

"The last time I saw him properly was in 2011 was when I was over in New York with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and I had my wife and kids with me. He took us all out to his place in the Catskill Mountains and we played the Victor and Barry records under the stars - it was surreal.

“We needed to have some space from each other. When you work as a sort of ‘travelling player’ you can get really close to people and then you move on. You get back together with them again years later and it’s like no time at all has passed.

"We wrote the Victor and Barry book together over Zoom. We did so much together when we were kids. The connection we had was just extraordinary. We had such fun doing the book together. We just thought: ‘This has been great – we should do something else.’

"We were a bit scared about the musical. It was a bit daunting. You just think: ‘It could be a pile of pish?’ But it’s like that with everything you do. We just thought: ‘Let’s do it. Let’s have a laugh. Life is short.’ So we're constructing something at the moment."

In their book, Victor and Barry’s Kelvinside Compendium, Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson reminisce about their hectic years as Victor and Barry through photographs, songs and musings in a scrapbook style compendium, including a foreword from former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. It will be published by 404 Ink in July.

Laura Jones, publisher, said: "It's a privilege to be publishing an euqally nostalgiv and hilarious reflective on Alan and Forbes's early career duo who offered a genteel, harmonious parodying of amateur dramatics and Glasgow's aspirational gentrifiction in the '80s before their careers took them to prolific new heights in writing and performance."

Cumming and Masson said: "Victor and Barry have had such a huge effect on both our lives. What we learned as writers and performers has influenced and stayed with us through our careers, so looking back and celebrating the incredible experiences and the huge amount of laughs Victor and Barry gave us and our audiences has been a joy and we can't wait to share it with everyone."