Mile High

Mile High
Series one titles
Genre	Drama
Created by	Hewland International
Developed by	Sky Television
Written by	Jane Hewland Cameron McAllister
Directed by	Various
Starring	See Cast
Opening theme	"The World Is Mine" by Hooverphonic
Composer(s)	Hooverphonic
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	39 (List of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	Various
Location(s)	Various
Running time	49 minutes (approx)
Broadcast
Original channel	Sky1
Picture format	16:9
Original run	16 February 2003 (2003-02-16) – 20 July 2005 (2005-07-20)
Chronology
Related shows	Dream Team

Mile High is a British television drama based on the lives of the cabin crew members of Fresh!, a budget airline based in London. The name of the show comes from the "Mile High Club". The show was broadcast on Sky1 from 2003 to 2005 and subsequently aired again on Sky Three. In 2012, CBS Drama obtained the rights to the series and began to re-run it from the beginning.

Background

A Hewland International production, Mile High is a mix of fast-paced drama, sex and comedy. The show is based around the flight crew of a young budget airline (Fresh!), in and out of uniform, in the air and on the ground. The series follows the flight crew as they travel around the world and their lives in the London home they share.

Cancellation

In August 2005, shortly after the series two finale, Sky 1's controller announced that the show would not be returning for a third series.

In an interview with Digital Spy, Mile High executive producer and creator Jane Hewland said "Then finally, to make things worse, the policy at Sky changed 180 degrees right as we were in the middle of the 19 ep series. The previous boss had been pushing us to be more sexually explicit. That was the message. Sky had had lots of programmes like Naked in Westminster and Ibiza Uncovered which had done very well by being quite raunchy. Suddenly that went out of fashion. This wasn't anyone's fault. Times just change. I don't think the audience was ever comfortable with the more explicit things we did. It's not what people want in their living rooms. But the whole show got branded as tacky – the title MILE HIGH does encourage that. By now everybody but us had lost faith. I really enjoyed making the final episodes. I thought we'd come back and found our way again. But creatively I was knackered from having had to produce 58 hours of drama in a single year."

Filming locations

Although the airline flies to destinations all over the world, the two airports that were used are London Stansted Airport and Palma de Mallorca Airport. Also used in filming on location were London and Spain.

Airport scenes were filmed in London Stansted Airport However scenes featuring the 'fresh centre' and the airport check-in desks were in fact filmed at the ExCeL London centre on custom built sets. The exteriors of the Crew flat was the Clementina Court Building on Copperfield Road, Bow, London. The interiors and balcony scenes were filmed at 3 Mills Studios in Bow London.

Airline

Mile High revolves around a fictional budget airline, Fresh!,^[1][2] which operates Boeing 737 aircraft to destinations across Europe and North Africa.

In series two, Fresh! merges with long-haul airline Goldstar resulting in two subsidiaries - Fresh! Europe and Fresh! Global which operates a Boeing 747-200. The merger causes distress to workers, especially those from Goldstar. The original blue Fresh! uniform is retained for all crew, rather than the Goldstar crew's mustard colour uniforms.

The airline's main base is London Stansted Airport, sometimes referred to as London Airport, where the airport's external and interior shots are filmed. Other destinations mentioned in the series include Leeds Bradford, Belfast, Manchester, Cardiff, Edinburgh, and Newcastle domestically. Internationally, destinations include Palma de Majorca, Amsterdam, Paris, Split, Brussels, Helsinki, Kos, Alicante, Faro, Malaga and Monastir. Destinations incorporated after the merger with Goldstar include Toronto, Dubai and Bahrain.

Episodes

Series one consisted of 13 episodes. Series two consisted of 7 episodes and 19 in series three.

Series 2 was the shortest series due to a small time scale for filming. Series 2 was a major success and as a result a further series of 19 episodes was commissioned. Episodes 14–20 and 21–39 were all shown in four separate batches. Although episodes 21–39 were commissioned as a third series, episodes 14–20 and 21–39 were combined to create one large series classified as series 2.

Charlotte Taylor portrayed by Sarah Farooqui departed the show after filming series 2, causing her character to disappear without explanation in series 3 when it was combined with series 2. This is one major difference between series.

Series one (2003)

Series one follows the lives of Emma Coyle (Emma Ferguson), K.C Gregory (Sarah Manners), Jason Murdoch (James Redmond), John Bryson (Matthew Chambers), Janis Steel (Jo-Anne Knowles), Lehan Evans (Naomi Ryan), Marco Bailey (Tom Wisdom) and Will O'Brien (Adam Sinclair). The main storyline for series one is the love triangle between Emma Coyle, John Bryson and Emma's husband Ian. In episode one it is Emma's wedding day and she has a one night stand with John. Later in the series it is revealed that Emma is pregnant with John's baby whilst married to Ian. Janis reveals the truth to Ian causing their marriage to end and Emma having a breakdown. Another major storyline in this series is the complicated relationship between Janis and Marco.

The characters Jason Murdoch, K.C Gregory, Emma Coyle and John Bryson all depart the show at the end of this series.

Series two (2004–2005)

Series two introduces some new characters to the show. Poppy Fields (Stacey Cadman), Jack Fields (John Pickard), Charlotte Taylor, Nigel Croker (Christopher Villiers), Lorna Newbold, Rachel Potter, Dan Peterson (Luke Roberts) and Ed Russel (Scott Adkins) were all introduced. Janis Steel (Jo-Anne Knowles), Lehan Evans (Naomi Ryan), Marco Bailey (Tom Wisdom) and Will O'Brien (Adam Sinclair) were the only returning cast.

The main storyline in series two is the merger between Fresh! and another airline GoldStar. The storyline of Janis' and Marco's complicated relationship continues this series with the addition of Poppy and Nigel. Poppy is a new love interest for Marco and Nigel is a new love interest for Janis, complicating things further. Series two also has the main storyline of Nigel and his love interests. It is revealed that Nigel is a habitual cheater and has dated many women in the time in which he was married to his wife Denise. This storyline continues throughout the series until the series finale where all his love interests get revenge.

The series finale sees some of the staff at Fresh! having their contracts cancelled, leaving Ed and Poppy out of a job. The series finale also shows the character Lehan Evans (Naomi Ryan) being killed in a plane crash caused by Nigel having a heart attack upon landing. As a result of his girlfriend's death, Dan Peterson descends into alcoholism. Ed and Poppy move to Minsk, Belarus and have a child. Janis Steel and Will O'Brien leave the airline to open their own bar named 'Mile High' on a Spanish beach.

Last episodes of second season were broadcast on Finnish station MTV3 before British channel Sky One aired them.

Future

In 2012, CBS Drama obtained the rights to the series and began to re-run it from the beginning. As a result of large viewing figures, CBS Drama revealed that the broadcasters are in talks with various production companies including Hewland International to produce a new series.

As of November 2012 there have been no further announcements.

CBS DRAMA never been in talks to bring back Mile High in a new series.

Cast

Main characters

Recurring cast

International broadcast

Mile High has been broadcast in many different countries around the world, including Canada, Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, India, Israel, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, Sweden, South Korea, Serbia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia the United Kingdom and the United States. In Serbia, 80,000 fans have written a petition to continue recording Mile High, but the petition never reached the producers.

DVD release

UK

• Series one, two, and the complete series are available in the UK.

Australia

• The complete season one 7-disc boxset was released in Australia on Region 4 DVD in November 2006. The complete season two boxset was released on 21 March 2007.

USA

• Season one 1 was released in the USA by Koch Vision on 13 March 2007, with Season two volumes 1 and 2 being released later in 2007.

The DVD's are however very different from the shows broadcast. Differences include the episode openings (there is no recap of the previous episodes) and episode music (Hewland International did not buy the rights to release the music onto DVD that was used in the episodes). The music was replaced by a cheaper and bubbly soundtrack.

Theme song

• Mile High 's theme song is "The World Is Mine" by Belgian band Hooverphonic.

References

External links

• Episode Guide
• Mile High at the Internet Movie Database