Airline (1982) - Series 1

TV : Drama : VHS quality : English
Airline (UK ITV - 1982)

Airline was a series produced by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network in 1982. It was created by Wilfred Greatorex and starred Roy Marsden as Jack Ruskin ...

Leaving the RAF after World War II, Jack Ruskin decides to set up his own airline. Jack is prepared to bend every rule in the book to continue flying. Doing a deal with Ernie Cade to buy an aircraft, he enlists Peter Witney as co-pilot and Jock McEvoy as engineer. Cade is a notorious spiv, who can lay his hands on anything for the right price, Jacks dealings with Cade will be the cause of much trouble as the series unfolds. Other leading cast members were Polly Hemingway, Richard Heffer, Sean Scanlan and Terence Rigby.

Episode 1 - Look After Number One (3 January 1982)

In this first episode, Flt Sgt Jack Ruskin, still in the RAF and spending the final days of his wartime flying career bringing demobed servicemen home from India, encounters Sq Ldr Dickie Marlowe, who is intent on making his fortune smuggling goods from Germany for the black market. Jack gets drawn in.

Episode 2 - Brave New World (10 January 1982)

Civvy Street, and no heroes welcome for Jack Ruskin. Jack struggles to get to grips with post-war life. After a failed interview with BOAC, Jack meets Ernie Cade, who just so happens to have a war-surplus Dakota for sale ....

Episode 3 - Conscience (17 January 1982)

Ruskin Air Services is now in business ... then a deal takes an unexpected turn for Ruskin's crew, and puts all their lives in danger.

Episode 4 - Touch And Go (24 January 1982)

Ruskin Air Services is grounded by the ice & snow of a bitter winter and with no fuel. Cade makes a proposal that Ruskin finds impossible to refuse despite the risks of flying in the bitter winter of February 1947.

Episode 5 - Fools' Errand (31 January 1982)

Ruskin is broke and his aircraft is badly damaged. He needs another aircraft ... but how to get the money? Cade has rich clients willing to pay what it takes to get what they want during the snow-bound winter of 1947, giving Ruskin the opportunity to try and put-one over on Cade.

Episode 6 - Captain Clark Plus One (7 February1982)

With the bureaucrats on his tail after a low-flying incident, Jack finds himself stranded in Malta with no fuel and no cooperation.

Episode 7 - Not Much Of A Life (14 February 1982)

Stripped of his pilots licence Jack has to find new ways to keep the airline in business, with Jack away, Jennie faces her own risks at home.

Episode 8 - Officers and Gentlemen (21 February 1982)

Spring 1948 and dark clouds are gathering over Jennie and Jack's wedding plans. The airline is in deep trouble and Ruskin faces a situation which could mean the end of Ruskin Air Services and affects the lives of all around him.

Episode 9 - Too Many Promises (28 February 1982)

With great money to be made from the Berlin airlift, Ruskin has nothing to operate. He has lost his licence, one of his planes and most of his crew. Can Ruskin save himself from disaster or is it the end for Ruskin and his airline?

Quality : This is not my recording (thanks to MikeD) it was a VHS rip authored to DVD when I got it. All in all it is an OK VHS rip which I was happy to watch. Being a bit more critical, early episodes are a little washed-out and there are a handful of video glitches, but none that are very serious. All episodes have embedded interlace artifacts (combing on horizontal movement) but when watching, I didn't find it particularly bothersome. In episode 3 there are a number of sequences where the sound is muffled or 'distorts' somewhat, but while it's not good, you can follow the dialogue. In all other episodes audio is OK. Episode 5 is incomplete - the first 10 minutes (approx) are missing.

With some slight variation in video bitrate the specs are:

Video Codec..: XviD ISO MPEG-4 (B-VOP//)
Video Bitrate: 1010 kbps
Aspect Ratio.: 576x432 (1.333)
Framerate....: 25.000 fps
Audio Codec..: 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3
Audio Bitrate: 128kbps 2ch CBR 48000Hz