''Airline'' is a

British television Regular television broadcasts in the United Kingdom started in 1936 as a public service which was free of advertising, which followed the first demonstration of a transmitted moving image in 1926. Currently, the United Kingdom has a collection ...

series produced by Yorkshire Television for the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

network in 1982. The series starred Roy Marsden as Jack Ruskin, a pilot demobbed after the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

who starts his own air transport business. ''Airline'' was created by

Wilfred Greatorex Wilfred Glyn Greatorex (27 May 1921 – 14 October 2002) was an English television and film writer, script editor and producer. He was creator of such series as ''Secret Army (TV series), Secret Army'', ''1990 (TV series), 1990'', ''Plane Maker ...

and lasted for one series of nine episodes broadcast in January and February 1982, with a repeat in the summer of 1984. Other leading cast members were Polly Hemingway,

Richard Heffer Richard Heffer (born 28 July 1946 in Cambridge) is a British actor, best known for his roles on television in the 1970s and 1980s. His film career included appearances in ''Women in Love'' (1969), '' Waterloo'' (1970), ''Penny Gold'' (1973), ''Th ...

Nicholas Bond-Owen Nicholas Bond-Owen (born 13 November 1968) (sometimes billed as Nick or Nicholas Owen) is a child actor of the 1970s and 1980s best known for playing Tristram Fourmile in all five series of the popular comedy ''George and Mildred'' and in the fi ...

, Sean Scanlan and

Terence Rigby Terence Christopher Gerald Rigby (2 January 1937 – 10 August 2008) was an English actor with a number of film and television credits to his name. In the 1970s he was well known as police dog-handler PC Snow in the long-running series '' Soft ...

, while noted guest stars included

Anthony Valentine Anthony Valentine (17 August 1939 – 2 December 2015) was an English actor best known for his television roles: the ruthless Toby Meres in ''Callan'' (1967–72), the sadistic Major Horst Mohn in ''Colditz'' (1972–74), Bob in Tales of the Un ...

and Walter Gotell (better known for his numerous guest stints as

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

Gogol in a string of

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

films during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

era).

Production

The main location filming was at the former

RAF Rufforth Royal Air Force Rufforth or RAF Rufforth is a former Royal Air Force station located near Rufforth in North Yorkshire, England. It was used by only one operational squadron on long-range bombing missions during the Second World War, with most fl ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, former RAF

Duxford Duxford is a village in Cambridgeshire, England, about south of Cambridge. It is part of the Hundred Parishes area. History The village formed on the banks of the River Cam, a little below its emergence from the hills of north Essex. One of the ...

airfield in Cambridgeshire and on the island of

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. The aerial unit was managed by the Aces High Company, who operated two C-47/DC-3 aircraft for the series: "G-AGIV"/'Alice' (former USAAF and Spanish Air Force C-47A G-BHUB, now in the American Air Museum in Britain at the Imperial War Museum Duxford, painted in its original markings as "W7"/43-15509) – which featured a postwar drop-down airliner door – and the famous C-47A G-DAKS, which was previously used by the

Royal Aircraft Establishment The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), bef ...

and had an extended nose originally used to test

Ferranti Ferranti or Ferranti International plc was a UK electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century from 1885 until it went bankrupt in 1993. The company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The firm was known ...

/ Marconi radar for the

English Electric Lightning The English Electric Lightning is a British fighter aircraft that served as an interceptor during the 1960s, the 1970s and into the late 1980s. It was capable of a top speed of above Mach 2. The Lightning was designed, developed, and manufa ...

. This aircraft was retired by the RAE and ferried to RAF Catterick's Fire Training Ground to be used as a fire training aid but was saved by Mike Woodlet of Aces High at the last minute, being purchased by him from the UK Ministry of Defence. The extended nose was replaced at Duxford by Aces High's chief engineer to enable the aircraft to appear as "G-AGHY"/'Vera Lynn'. During production, a Taylorcraft Auster and a

North American Harvard The North American Aviation T-6 Texan is an American single-engined advanced trainer aircraft used to train pilots of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), United States Navy, Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force and other air forces ...

, rented from private owners, also featured, as did shots of grounded / stored

Douglas DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...

's in Malta which were used for the

Berlin Airlift The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road ...

scenes in the final episode.

Later events

Although originally planned as a long running series which could run up to the present day, the series ended up being cut short. Towards the end of the production of ''Airline'', Greatorex objected to the editing of the series, which he saw as Yorkshire TV engaging in unauthorised script rewrites. As a result only nine episodes were made. A second series of ''Airline'' was planned to start filming in 1983 and additional aircraft had been purchased by Aces High for the production (including the Lockheed Constellation now at the

Science Museum at Wroughton The National Collections Centre, near Swindon, England, is the collections management facility for the Science Museum Group and the Science Museum Library & Archives. Overview The Science Museum originally took ownership of the 545-acre former ...

) but the dispute resulted in the series being axed by Yorkshire Television. Aces High subsequently moved operations to

North Weald North Weald Bassett or simply North Weald is a village and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of Essex, England. The village is within the North Weald Ridges and Valleys landscape area. A market is held every Saturday and Bank Holiday Mo ...

airfield in Essex, donating G-BHUB to the IWM and the Constellation to Wroughton, where both remain on display today. In 1987 the main characters from ''Airline'' (along with the theme music by

Tony Hatch Anthony Peter Hatch (born 30 June 1939) is an English composer for musical theatre and television. He is also a songwriter, pianist, arranger and producer. Early life and early career Hatch was born in Pinner, Middlesex. Encouraged by his mus ...

) appeared in adverts for shares in

British Airports Authority Heathrow Airport Holdings is the United Kingdom-based operator of Heathrow Airport. The company also operated Gatwick Airport, Stansted Airport, Edinburgh Airport and several other UK airports, but was forced by the Competition Commission to s ...

. Wilfred Greatorex was unaware until he saw them appear on television, and subsequently took legal action against the advertising agency over his intellectual property. C-47A G-DAKS can now be frequently seen on BBC's '' Top Gear'' programme, normally parked next to the

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022. After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...

on the hard standing behind the show's race track. The main ''Top Gear'' studios are located at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome, which has also been Aces High's base since moving from North Weald in the early 2000s. G-DAKS is still regularly flown for TV and movie work, now on the American register as N147DC

DVD release

The complete series of ''Airline'' is available on DVD in the UK.

Episode list

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0083378, title=Airline Television series by Yorkshire Television ITV television dramas Television series by ITV Studios Television series set in the 1940s Aviation television series 1980s British drama television series 1982 British television series debuts 1982 British television series endings English-language television shows