#arthur birling

[unsuspicious-nobody]

I type 4 Eva on the groupchat and they think I mean forever when I actually mean for Eva Smith from an inspector calls who deserves better

[secretagentsagainstwhatever]

I saw ‘An Inspector Calls’ on stage today and holy shit

[ultcrackshipskirmish]

Round 1: Brason (Jason Grace x A Brick) vs Bir-cler (Arthur Birling x Once-ler)

No photo for Bir-cler sadly if you have one please send it via asks

[an-inspector-balls]

eat up children - 🥧

[deschainartnerd]

You all helped to kill her

[aninspectorcalls]

"ARTHUR BIRLING is a heavy-looking, rather portentous man in his middle fifties, with fairly easy manners but rather provincial in his speech."

Mr. Birling is wealthy, and comfortable in his life, but he does not come from a high class family - shown by his "provincial" speech. This presents him as the embodiment of the middle-class capitalist ideal.

[novuit]

I'm grieving so badly over the quotes I remember that I never got to write down, so I'm going to draw a bunch of doodles with the quotes I still remember before I thankfully forget it forever. And to the people doing gcses right now, let's celebrate the end of having to memorise quotes from british plays by getting sloshed over champers and then drink more seeing as we have more exams this week!!! :D

(Edexcel gave us easier questions than I thought, I don't know what I was so worried about, hahah...)

[khorazir]

A yellow car at Birling Gap. Arthur Shappey would call that brilliant!

[can-of-w0rmz]

My English teacher’s been off for a long while so we’ve had a good load of substitute teachers, and one of them is teaching us An Inspector Calls and can I just say, is so much less dry than my actual English teacher. I’ll be real, classic lit nerd though I may be, I don’t like that play. Honestly can’t really stand it. But we’re leading a hate campaign against Gerald Croft now? Hell yeah I’ll write an essay for you on him let’s get this bitch! You give me those quotes and references on why he’s a dick I barely paid attention to his character but it’s drama now and I have personal beef with him let’s go

[spaceradio]

Cabin Pressure episode tournament - more polls at #cabin poll

Limerick - S2E6

An interminable flight with a very baffling cargo gives the crew the opportunity to pass the time by alternately opening their hearts up to each other and persuading Arthur not to play charades.

Edinburgh

It's the highlight of Douglas and Arthur's year - taking nice old boy Mr Birling on his annual day-trip to see the final Six Nations match, and get heroically sloshed. Martin, however, has difficulty working out what they see in him.

[o-uncle-newt]

Cabin Pressure Advent Day 21: Uskerty

I absolutely adore this episode as the origin of my single favorite Cabin Pressure line: "You know, between the dames and the horses, sometimes I don't know why I even put my hat on." Nothing will ever beat it for me.

So yeah, this episode is super funny, but I do want to talk a bit about something that's come up as my go to "look, a THEME!" here- vulnerability. Because as I was listening, trying to figure out what I was taking away from this episode besides "this is all really funny and well plotted" because at a certain point that gets old, it struck me that there are ways that both of our (absolutely brilliant) pairings this episode really strike a chord when considering the role of vulnerability- and lack of it- in relationships.

This is a bit less so in the Douglas-Arthur pairing in this episode, which is inspired (and yay, there's finally a nice airport manager!)- there are brilliant set pieces, and the premise of the bar conversation allows two very different people to kind of sort of attempt to understand each other. There's also a really nice father/son element- we already can perceive, even if it's not said outright, that Arthur doesn't have much of a father figure- his life is very dominated by Carolyn's influence, even in the majority-male flight deck, in a way that I think even tints his interactions with Mr Birling about sports (there's a tinge of eagerness for acceptance), which he's clueless about. Would Arthur know more about sports if he'd had a dad who gave a shit about him? Who knows. But this episode giving him an older man who's willing to open an as-yet-shut door into a men's world that excites him.

The men's world is, of course, the world of the pub. We've already seen a glimpse of Douglas in that milieu in Kuala Lumpur, and usually I'd say the less said about that the better, but I think there's something interesting about how mean spirited and surfacey it could be there, alongside Arthur's misunderstanding what Douglas means about "talking about their lives." He asks a question that is so unexpectedly and deeply personal that Douglas isn't even upset that he asks, he understands that this is another rule of masculine bar/pub conversation that he has to teach Arthur. On a certain level, this is fine on its own- there's a time and place for everything- but if you look at it a certain way, it can reinforce tropes about men and expressing emotions and feelings. And yet... even by following the rules of pub chat that Douglas lays out for him, and trying to fall into its ritualistic norms (like creative insults), Arthur, in part through his own open-book vulnerability, is able to bring things to a place where Douglas is pretty unselfconsciously vulnerable himself, about the place in the world where he finds himself. And by the end, he's fallen more into Arthur's more atmospheric image of two men in a bar. He's loosened up, and isn't playing by the rules anymore. It's just really nice (in addition to being hilariously funny).

The Martin and Carolyn pairing is maybe a bit less novel than the Douglas and Arthur one, but it still works really well in this discussion of vulnerability. Both of them have had pretenses/barriers they try to keep up- and both, incidentally, are related to their own interest in expressing that they are in control- but by now Martin has learned enough to have started to relax his. This actually really helps, as his actions aren't hampered by pretense or pride- he's basically able to function ALMOST competently with the cabbie as a result. But Carolyn is almost on overtime trying to keep her barriers up against vulnerability and it is clearly driving her a bit bananas, hence her complete dysfunction this episode- she has to be ironic and invulnerable about her gift to Herc, to prove that she may be seeing him but she doesn't have feelings (which will of course come to haunt her in Vaduz), and as a result loses all her judgment. And her overtime craziness is, unusually enough, what causes Martin’s misfortune, not his own incompetence! He's the functional one here, not her, because unlike her he's not filtering all his behavior through this one very constricting lens.

Once Martin is able to open her up a bit in the discussion of his salary- where she starts off in control as the boss and is forced to face the fact that Martin is loyal to her even when he shouldn't be*, which could very easily pierce the defenses of her invulnerability as she has to accept this reality- she starts to mellow out. Whereas she starts off saying that she's “not a little old lady” so she can’t do the totally reasonable thing until Martin begs, afterward she manages to chill enough that she can do the, you know, sane thing even though it dings her a bit in the self-confidence. She's not quite as in thrall to her inner barriers anymore.

I'll just end off by saying- this episode may also, in addition to my favorite line, have my favorite closing lines of any episode, with the possible exception of Zurich 2. Though that one's mostly about the nostalgia and emotions. So maybe this is it.

*On this note- when did Martin stop looking for jobs? He was looking in Rotterdam… given my St Petersburg post I wonder if it was before or after that.

[placetnemagistra]

Just need to shout derangedly about the Cabin Pressure / JSFP allusions in Good Omens 2, please add your own!!

Yellow Bentley — yellow car

Aziraphale as the incompetent detective / newspaperman with a Clue — the Birling Day episode where Arthur & Martin incompetently investigate Douglas’s theft of the Tallisker

Crowley ordering a large Tallisker — also Birling Day

A number of JSFP sketches where people who are total opposites are thrown together for long periods of time (eg the wildlife cameraman who doesn’t like snow leopards and the gay leopard Professor who absolutely adores them) or are bickering/unlikely but devoted spouses (the train driver and the train manager; the “Don’t Know Much About History” song sketch) - it’s a whole dynamic!! It has prepared him for this assignment!! (As has the practice of people being irrelevantly but cheeringly gay)

[cabinpressurechallenge]

hello everyone! pleased to present the 2022 Cabin Pressure advent listenalong! beneath the cut are the prompts for the episodes, which i will post every day but this is a headstart if you want it!

the first episode will be Abu Dhabi on the 29th, which is next Tuesday and you're welcome to join in however you fancy - write! draw! make liveblog posts! i would absolutely love to coordinate a live listen again, but my timezone has now become problematic. that said, i still propose that if we want to gather at around 6 or 7pm GMT, either on discord or on tumblr or whatever, we'll see what we can do about having a group listen.

any questions or comments please just shout! okay, bye! love the airport!

29th Abu Dhabi

a missing scene: The run up to Carolyn calling Martin a berk

a word: ice

a question: Who is your favourite character?

30th Boston

a missing scene: Douglas’ conversation with ATC

a word: home

a question: What’s your favourite Arthur moment?

December 1st Cremona

a missing scene: Arthur and Martin in the Garibaldi

a word: nuts

a question: What’s your favourite Douglas moment?

2nd Douz

a missing scene: Douglas and the cricketers

a word: big

a question: What’s your favourite Carolyn moment?

3rd Edinburgh

a missing scene: Martin giving Mr Birling the hat

a word: maps

a question: What’s your favourite Martin moment?

4th Fitton

a missing scene: Arthur and Douglas in the flight deck

a word: rain

a question: What’s your favourite episode?

5th Gdansk

a missing scene: Previous games of itemised lists

a word: salt

a question: What’s your favourite word game?

6th Helsinki

a missing scene: Arthur’s holiday scheming

a word: gift

a question: Which is your favourite series?

7th Ipswich

a missing scene: Martin and Douglas revising 

a word: pool

a question: Who’s your favourite minor character?

8th Johannesburg

a missing scene: Arthur and Martin’s golf buggy conversations

a word: shade

a question: Who is your favourite friendship?

9th Kuala Lumpur

a missing scene: Arthur rehearsing his story for Martin

a word: service

a question: What’s your favourite ship?

10th Limerick

a missing scene: Carolyn and Arthur creating poetry

a word: sunset

a question: What’s your favourite MJN family moment?

11th Molokai

a missing scene: Christmas in Hawaii

a word: cracker

a question: What scene makes you laugh the most?

12th Newcastle

a missing scene: Playing Trivial Pursuit

a word: games

a question: What’s your favourite Herc moment?

13th Ottery St Mary

a missing scene: Martin twisting his ankle

a word: river

a question: What’s a scene you know by heart?

14th Paris

a missing scene: What’s Carolyn up to during all the nonsense?

a word: glass

a question: Which Birling Day is your favourite?

15th Qikiqtarjuaq

a missing scene: Arthur giving bear lectures

a word: facts

a question: How did you get into Cabin Pressure? 

16th Rotterdam

a missing scene: Martin practicing his speech

a word: honey

a question: What are your favourite Cabin Pressure fics?

17th St Petersburg

a missing scene: discussing the plan

a word: names

a question: what’s a scene that makes you cry?

18th Timbuktu

a missing scene: Arthur’s preparations for Birling Day

a word: colours

a question: What’s your favourite piece of CP fanart?

19th Uskerty

a missing scene: Herc receiving the sheep

a word: drinks

a question: Do you like anything else by John Finnemore?

20th Vaduz

a missing scene: Carolyn and Theresa meeting

a word: dragons

a question: What’s your favourite Theresa moment?

21st Wokingham

a missing scene: Arthur and Wendy’s adventures

a word: puzzles

a question: If you could change something about CP what would it be?

22nd Xinzhou

a missing scene: Stuck in the traffic jam

a word: waiting

a question: What would your dream CP revival episode be?

23rd Yverdon les Bains

a missing scene: Martin telling Theresa he got the job

a word: capsized

a question: Which part of CP do you find most relatable?

24th Zurich

a missing scene: OJS’ first flight

a word: gold

a question: What does CP mean to you?

[an-inspector-balls]

she birling on my eric until i goole - 🥧

[garfieldbussys]

clo this isnt funny anymore.

arthur is deteriorating in front of my eyes and i dont like it what is happening right now i dont know if i can handle this its so sad

what does campbell have against this poor policeman hes always having a go at him its unreal

ALSO wait hang on whats poll doing also tommys found her kids OH NO HER DAUGHTERS DEAD POLL IM SO SORRY ☹️

ANYWAYS i cannot WAIT to finish this cause that means i can go on a rampage of reading fics SO excited

poll ily but put the gun down babe ik youre hurting but babes anyways they’re opening the garrison again since it was blown up last ep ALSO finn is SO grown up its crazy

finns talking to arthur i have a feeling this isnt gonna go well NO NO NO FINN NOT DRUGS PLEASE FINN DO NOT I SWEAR YOURE KIDDING ARTHUR NO

oh no hes fucking high off his tits isnt he 😐 ffs

why do i have a feeling another bomb is gonna go off idk i just feel like smth really bad is about to happen- hes got graces letter out hes burning it good to know i wont be seeing her again then

ADA BABY YOU MADE IT 🫶🫶

i think shes come to speak to poll shes so drunk i LOVE drunk poll shes so funny shes dancing with some guy

could you imagine if this guy ended up being her son that would be HORRIFIC cause it looks like they just had like 4 rounds tbh

why are blackcurrent soothers so good like???

HAHA POLLS DOING THE WALK OFF SHAME

ITS HER SON

hang on is that- IS THAT ERIC BIRLING FROM AN INSPECTOR CALLS OR AM I BUGGING

anyways thats it for ep 2 onto ep 3

i love ada so much and i love in fics where she’s like the best big sister ever i just can’t

and you finally watching arthur like crumble in front of your eyes is so upsetting i actually hate season 2 for him it’s so upsetting

no because finn is like 14 why is 6foot ?!?! what have the shelbys been feeding him??

LMAO THE UNIVERSAL experience of watching eric birling appear on your screen as the iconic polly gray’s son 😭😭