British Airways and Comic Relief have been working on a new safety video which will be rolled out from next month (July 2018).

The video will first be featured on short haul flights and starting August introduced on long haul flights as well.

This will be the second video where Comic Relief collaborated with British Airways and apparently the first one was very popular with passengers.

BA has issued a press release about the production process (access here).

Iconic celebrities including Sir Michael Caine, Olivia Colman and Joanna Lumley have come together to create the second instalment of British Airways’ star-studded pre-flight safety video, which launches on board from July.* In the video, seven celebrities are seen ‘auditioning’ in humorous sketches while also landing important safety messages. They are under the watchful eye of comedian Asim Chaudhry, who attempts to direct their every move. … The new film builds on the success of the first instalment, which featured the likes of Gordon Ramsay, Sir Ian McKellen and Thandie Newton, and has been seen by customers nearly 25 million times. As with the first instalment, the new film brings together a collection of Britain’s most-admired celebrities to create a humorous video, while also helping customers take in important safety information. The video promotes Flying Start, the global charity partnership between British Airways and Comic Relief which has supported over half a million children across the UK and some of the world’s poorest communities since launching in 2010…. “Our first video was seen by customers nearly 25 million times so it’s a great way to promote Flying Start, our global charity partnership with Comic Relief. Thanks to our generous customers and colleagues we’ve raised over £19 million for Comic Relief over the past eight years and we hope this video will help us to grow our total even further, as we support great causes at home and around the world.” Flying Start saw a 20 percent increase in donations to Comic Relief after the release of the first safety video.

To watch the director’s cut** from the new safety video on YouTube, see below:

I’m not familiar with anyone featured in this video except Sir Michael Caine but it’s quite funny, at least the first time you see it.

Usually themed safety videos take a toll on frequent fliers because at some point you can’t laugh about it anymore and you just want the safety video to be over. The FC Barcelona video on Qatar Airways comes to mind which was super annoying, especially since their videos are always shows twice, once in Arabic and once in English.

Conclusion

The theme aside it’s great when a safety demonstration can catch the attention of non-regular fliers and even have a contributing aspect for the Flying Start charity.

Almost all airlines have a dedicated charity organization attached where the carrier collects spare change but also regular donations during flights and then applies it to worthwhile causes worldwide. The sums collected are often quite substantial so it’s definitely beneficial if these videos can help promoting the charity a bit more.