Plane Eyre! Is British Airways' 'Period Drama' the Best Flight Safety Video Ever?

“May we haveth your attention.”

British Airways’ latest safety video is old school. Like, stuck in the 19th Century. It’s a must-see and ranks among the best work in the travel category so far this year.

Creative studio Uncommon stages a lavish costume drama with exquisite production values. We get country manors and ornate drawing rooms with lords and ladies in foppish, frilly attire and outrageous wigs. Modern BA staff school these folks of yore on how to stay safe at 30,000 feet.

ARISTOCRATIC LADY (grasping a laptop): What witchcraft is this? The painting, it moves!

COURTESANS: Gasp and faint.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Devices, including laptops, must be switched off and placed in your luggage for takeoff and landing.

Some especially inspired bits unfold among mounted horsemen.

RIDER 1: Do I smell the winds of war?

RIDER 2: I see smoke on the horizon.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Smoking, including e-cigarettes, vaping and the use of other smoking devices, is not permitted at any time.

Later, the troopers fasten their seatbelts securely, per instructions, before charging into battle.

“We know that these videos deliver vital safety information, and it is so important that we keep our customers engaged, so we have created a video that captures the audience’s attention, using humor to do so,” says Calum Laming, BA’s chief customer officer.

Director Sharon Maguire (Bridget Jones’s Diary) crams impressive historical detail into every frame, infusing each vignette with BBC-level visual appeal and a Monty Pythonesque sense of absurdity

Some of the dialogue and character reactions—”Is it a winged creature of the air or, perchance, a celestial contrivance navigating the skies?”—is priceless.

Yet, the vital message never gets lost amid the pomp and circumstance. These drawing-room antics should hold the attention of even the most distracted, cynical passengers. (Heck, we’d ask them to play it again.)

Three-time Oscar winning British costume designer Jenny Beavan (The King’s Speech) developed the fashions. 

The cast—including 40 BA employees in key roles—worked with dialect coach Jill McCullough (Mama Mia) to nail their accents.