#ask arthur shappey

[thekenobee]

ok I'll just send you more ideas for cabin pressure x poirot crossovers as I relisten to eps

Hastings: Poirot's put me in charge of the faxes.

Miss Lemon: Are you sure, Mr Poirot? Because some people do still have fax machines.

Poirot: Yes, yes some people do. We don't though. (not sure yet what scene this would go well with)

Never enough of Cabin Pressure x POiROT!!

[restlesshush]

Cabin Pressure for the reverse unpopular opinion asks?

Ohhh this is such a kind one to give me thank you <3

Cabin Pressure is soooo joyous I really don’t know where to start. I started writing out an answer about how 1x06 Fitton is a crucial episode for cementing a solidly affectionate foundation for the crew’s dynamic going forward, but then I realised I was not doing a good job at making it comprehensible to you and therefore it was failing as Cabin Pressure evangelism.

Fitton is glorious, and very structurally important, but I suppose in terms of it reflecting the wider joyousness of cabin pressure, what’s important is that basically nothing is happening plot wise (they are just waiting for a guy named Goddard) and it’s still utterly wonderful. One of Cabin Pressure’s key strengths is in the way that just mundane interactions between the characters can be absolutely delightful, and Fitton is the first episode we get where this is the absolute core. Arthur’s everyday happiness speech has brought me out of a long term foul mood on multiple occasions (“you’re hardly ever – you know – blissfully happy with the love of your life in the moonlight; and when you are, you’re too busy worrying about it being over soon. Whereas the [stepping into a bath of the exact right temperature] moments – there’s loads of those!”), and that’s only one thing – it’s an episode completely packed with delightful nuggets.

I think this phenomenon of just purely the interactions between the characters, regardless of plot, being enough to sustain 30 enormously delightful minutes of radio (Ottery St Mary is also a shining example, where an episode structured largely around a car journey has launched fan art, a day in its honour, and me insisting on taking my friends on a pilgrimage to the titular location) is what gives cabin pressure such marvellous relisten value. The jokes only mature on repeated listenings, because they’re not based in some sort of surprise or twist that only works one time, but something very thoughtful and frequently deeply grounded in character that resonates more strongly the more familiar you are. Douglas going up and down in the lift practicing his speech in Cremona so that it ends precisely on the ding is even more delightful after twenty six episodes than it was after three, because yes absolutely that is something Douglas would do. He isn’t at all as effortlessly suave as he’d like you to believe, but he loves doing putting excessive meticulous care into appearing so, which I find an extremely charming character trait.

And Cabin Pressure is just full of all these delightful little details, which is why I just cannot recommend it highly enough. S1 imo doesn’t quite yet have the foundation of warmth it goes on to develop but Fitton absolutely clears that up, and just does so so beautifully and charmingly, while also being a really lovely example of the things that make the show so wonderful.

[theresa-of-liechtenstein]

a page of arthurs (+ carolyn and snoopadoop), for practice

[worst-room]

The meme fits too well.

[mywingsareonwheels]

Every story would be improved by having Oswald “Uncle Newt“ Nightingale in it.

Because he is sweet and delightful and ace and brilliant and is a teacher and a poet and the most uncley uncle to ever uncle even though he is in fact lying when he says he’s an uncle.

[twicecut]

I think it would be fun to throw Diego into an emergency scenario with a lot of people. Give me trapped under collapsed buildings, trapped in wildfires or large burning buildings, or planes about to crash.

Give me Diego doing absolutely everything he can to save as many people as possible with or including your muse.

[o-uncle-newt]

THREE: it's just really good for mental health

I've been saying I'd post this and now that I have a nice long day with not much to do, I will- not that I haven't posted about this before. Honestly, one of the most important things to me about Cabin Pressure is that it has a power, shared with very few other things (among them incidentally are one or two key Double Acts), to make me smile/feel better about pretty much anything, no matter how dire, at least for half an hour- and with at least a bit of "afterglow" so to speak lol.

But I've written about it here, and here, and here and here... probably other places too. And I think the thing that impresses me the most is that, so often when I share this, I get loads of people telling me exactly the same thing. I don't know what it is exactly- is it just the comedy? The characters, who are over the top enough not to be IMMEDIATELY identifiable but still relatably human? The clever plots that you can get lost in? The heart and warmth and care? Probably a combination of all of these things.

You'll see some of the more specific examples of the above for me in the links in the prior paragraph, so I'll move on, possibly to a TMI extent, to a more specific thing, that might not surprise people- the impact of Arthur Shappey's Guide to Happiness on me. JF has said, I think, that it's a principle he genuinely holds by, and I know that lots of people agree that it's something that really hits you. And it really hit me too.

So I'll talk a bit about my own journey with it- shifting from being an Arthur to being a Martin (or trying to be). As in, this has concretely helped me become a happier/better person.

I am not exaggerating when I say that every therapist I've ever seen has heard of Cabin Pressure and John Finnemore, and I'm pretty sure all of them have seen the above video from Fitton. Now, like a lot of other people, I really glommed on to the whole idea about how if you expect happiness to come from the big things then you'll end up disappointed when they don't measure up, so find smaller things that will give you smaller pockets of joy in your every day.

Without going into excessive detail, the last few years have been tough for me in some ways. At the time, I was in a terrible work environment that had serious ramifications for my personal life. And I kept on listening to that clip and being like "well yes I can make this better with self care" or whatever. And it did- I'd say it was more make this bearable but at the time that was still a lot.

At one point I was talking to my therapist and she was asking if I felt happy. And I said that on a day to day level I was enjoying myself (there were fun parts of my job, it was a larger situation that was the problem), but that I still often felt really miserable. She asked why and I thought about it and was like- I keep doing random little things but nothing is getting better. I'm still in the same situation I was last week, last month, and last year, and this is lulling me into complacency when the underlying root of the problem hasn't been fixed at all.

So my therapist asked me- what do you mean by complacency? Does that mean you're feeling better/happier than you have been? And I had to think about it but I could definitely say- yes, I was. I'd tried new foods, taken great trips, read interesting books, and had a lot of little pops of enjoyment. The difference was that now that wasn't enough anymore. Then my therapist asked me- "but don't you realize how huge that is? That you're past the hump where something small is the best you can hope for?" And she was right.

The way I think about it, that placement of the clip in Fitton, no matter what JF meant by putting it there and no matter whether he had anything that came later in mind when he did it, ended up just working beautifully. Like, it makes sense that this is coming from Arthur- he's the character who changes the least. He doesn't have to, much, and while I won't go so far as to say he doesn't have the capacity to, even if he did he has a lot of people who are protective of him because they don't think he has the capacity to. He enjoys his life. He doesn't really have any problems and the dreams that he sees as within his reach (aka, not being a "muppet baby pilot") are, for him, on par with the pleasure he gets from throwing an apple back and forth.

It's why Arthur is a great character- he's a reminder of something simpler in all of us. I don't think he's relatable at all, and that's a good thing- what we really love is the way Arthur makes us feel. He's so non-self-absorbed that in the few moments where his equanimity is shaken up, he's so thrown off kilter that we, who are more used to dealing with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, want to jump in front to protect him from them. We value the simplistic way in which he sees our goodness, because to us, things are more complicated.

But that complication is a good thing! That's what allows us to be more than and better than what we currently are, eventually. That can be really hard- especially when we're brought low, to take the work to improve things for ourselves can feel impossible. It can take love and support, it can take grit, and it can take an existing base of self-regard, but it can be done. Arthur may not need to, but we do.

At the same time, we learn something important from Arthur, and in particular Martin does in Fitton. (Douglas too, but with a different kind of application.) Martin thinks he's where he wants to be, but he KNOWS he isn't- he's not being paid, he's constantly bullying, and the facade he puts on is doing nothing to earn him the kind of respect that his essentially-purchased title should, in theory, entitle him to. To him, the way to get through it is to grit his teeth and keep on pretending, assume that if he carries on as he is (knowing that he's not good enough yet but still trying anyway) then he'll end up making it. But that just makes him more uptight and difficult, in the end.

What Arthur recognizes is that you DO need those little bits of happiness to make the big ones doable! If Martin is going to keep on trying for the big breaks, he'll inevitably fail at least some of the time (in his case, far more lol) and that will just dump him even farther down than he started. You start to curse the wind, because at a certain point you're trying to control forces that are uncontrollable and that will never guarantee happiness, just give you a potential chance at it. Once you've appreciated the smaller things that you CAN control, and you boost your mood and mentality that way, you start to recognize that maybe you can move past where you are. That you can get both the little things, the apple-tossing and singing, as well as the new big things you are striving for.

Arthur will never need to go past that first thing- the character as constructed has no interest in it. But as much as he doesn't understand the END of Martin's journey except when paraphrased for him in the terms of various movies (not all of which he actually understands), he understands the beginning more than Martin does- that he needs to have the small happinesses to build him up and make him be ready for whatever else comes his way.

Because here's the thing- if we all lived like Arthur, we'd never be with the loves of our lives in the moonlight, would we? We'd be worried it could go wrong or we wouldn't fully appreciate it, and anyway everyone would love us as much as we want to be loved already, and we'd be too busy soaking in the bath to care about the other thing. But the non-Arthurs of us are resilient enough to WANT the loves of our lives (well, on average- plenty of people don't but they wiil have their own equivalent bigger-picture and higher-stakes wants) and, as a result, to be willing to take the risk of it not being everything we immediately want it to be. But, if it's NOT what we want it to be, Arthur wisely knows that we need to make sure we have a cushion of smaller happinesses to fall back on in the meantime, to build us up until we can try again.

With credit to my therapist, I have to say that this reimagining of the Arthur/Martin paradigm and Martin's journey vs Arthur's stasis in Cabin Pressure has stayed with me- reminding me to give myself the smaller boosts I need as I take bigger leaps and really choose the goals that I care about. I'm in a different job that is a better situation, and while I still have plenty of problems, I've learned to find ways to balance them out with the smaller things that make life worth living as I try to overcome them more essentially and hopefully permanently. In the meanwhile, I have Arthur to help.

[jamesphillimoresumbrella]

So. Coming back from bringing my aunt to visit relatives in South Carolina, I had no milk in the fridge (on purpose because I hadn't wanted to leave anything behind that might spoil) and was in desperate need of coffee. And I need milk in my coffee.

I did, however, have tins of milk in the cupboard. But, owing to an unfortunate combination of circumstances in the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad month of June, I had no can opener. My choice would have been evaporated milk, but it did not have the easy-open, pull-tab top. The condensed milk did.

I need milk in my coffee, but--and this was something of a surprise to me when I discovered that it could be done, coming from a place where 3-in-1 coffee sachets and instant coffee with spoonfuls of sugar is Just How It's Done*--I do not do sugar. However, when other people do condensed milk in coffee, it's delightful (witness barako condensada and Vietnamese coffee). And I thought to myself how bad can it be?

Answer: not bad at all, actually. It's...it's all right.

I say this in the tones of Arthur Shappey describing something as "all right" rather than "brilliant". I might have been better off bringing the coffee into work and grabbing a few little buckets of creamer from the break room (I know no moderation when it comes to milk in my coffee, and dread the day when my system finally goes "nope, you can't have dairy anymore").

So I had an open can of condensed milk that I didn't know how to use, and the next logical step was, of course, to see if I could make bread with it.

(This makes sense. To me, at least.)

I could. I found a recipe. I tried it. And it looked delightful.

"Looked" is the key word here.

I know where I went wrong. It was in trying to frantically multitask before I had to make myself get some sleep before going in to work and blindly trusting the directions instead of seeing how they adapted to the kitchen I'm not yet entirely used to. I ended up with an externally lovely loaf with an unsalvageable gooey interior maybe 2 slices in from the end.

Devastating,

So I ended up not just not having milk, but also not having a fresh loaf of bread. Not that I had a fresh loaf of bread to start with, but the absence of it was more keenly felt. (It was the potential of the fresh loaf of bread, you see.)

I did, however, have a very stale loaf from eons past in the fridge, which was in surprisingly good shape. The next logical thing then was to find a good recipe for bread pudding. Which I did. Because I am a rational human bean, and it made sense to me at the time.

The bread pudding turned out considerably better than the Tragedy of the Condensed Milk Loaf.

I'm still working on that--working on consuming that, I should say--but since I did eventually go and get the milk, I now have milk that I'm trying to use up (and a glass bottle with a $2 deposit that rather surprised me) so I am once again looking for recipes that aren't the one for the milk loaf that I usually fall back on. Because variety is the spice of life and I am in need of some low-key excitement.

This has been the long and bread-y ramble no one asked for.

*I would like to thank "The Hounds of Baskerville" and John Watson's "I don't take sugar" for this revelation. Mind was blown when I tried coffee that way and learned that sweetness wasn't compulsary.

[lothiriel84]

5 things that have made you smile in the last few days?

In no particular order:

John Finnemore’s latest Cabin Fever video! He’s an international treasure and we’re all so incredibly blessed.

Simon Kane’s daily reading of Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year. Never mind that it’s about the Great Plague of London.

Weekdays episodes of The Tall Tales Emergency Broadcast System, featuring the Tall Tales/The Mighty Fin team.

This absolutely lovely Cabin Fever fanart by @halorvic​.

Going through my old posts and finding these lovely pictures from John Finnemore’s Library Edition. Blessed be those precious humans.

I hope you’re doing as okay as can be expected under the circumstances. 🌻

[queensantiagoofthe99]

I've just imagined Arthur Shappey discovering The Duck Song and getting it stuck in his head for months

Much to the dismay of the rest of MJN Air

[thekenobee]

thinking about Poirot/Cabin Pressure crossovers, I am just very delighted by the one the show itself gave us: Hastings teaching Poirot the one man went to mow a meadow song on a car ride and Martin and Arthur teaching Diego the engineer the same song on a car baggage truck ride. esp for Poirot it was such an adorable thing to have that if I hadn't seen it, it would sound more like something made up for your crossovers than an actual thing in the show

Cabin Pressure + Poirot (Part 5 of many) Tis be my favourite scene in the series! Was rewatching it with a friend who's also a Cabin Pressure fan and we both SCREAMED I'm so Glad you're enjoying the crossovers<3

[mjn-air]

[jinkx-monsoon-season]

Favourite Martin Moments

I LOVE when Martin is rising to the occasion or stands up for himself, which he, with Douglas’s unintentional help, starts doing pretty well by the end of the series.

So, #1 goes to Martin crushing his interview:

“And the more pressure Elise put on you to break the rules, the more confident you got. How’d you do that?!”

(The Swiss airlines CEO! *hearteyes* He’s more of a crazy guy, you know?)

#2 - since all shit sounds better in French, I’m a sucker for le capitaine du Creff and his fascinating story about fighting off the polar bears. My favourite bit is how he nervously switches from being French to being… not entirely French: “For me they made ze exception. Because I'm not entirely French. In fact, I'm half English - more than half, actually!”

#3 – Martin being casual, confident and relaxed is a sight to behold:

“Now, before we go right ahead and fly some plane, I’m going to ask you to pay attention to this short safety demonstration. Hey, I know, guys – big yawn, eh? But you know what? It might just save your life. … See you on the flip side… Ciao!”

#4 – Martin and Arthur being successful on their quest to get a mechanic! He’s got some snazzy shades, and they sing together brilliantly!

“… went to mow a meadow! Three men, two men, one men and his… elephant!” - “Pra! Pra!”

P.S. Martin is NOT flying with a live otter in the flight deck, even a hypothetical one! I respect that in a man.

P.P.S. I adore the scene of Gordon having rather sticky fingers, and Martin is brilliant in it, too!

“Martin!”

“Yes. Can I help?”

“Mr. Shappey finds he has use for some alcohol. Do you happen to have his bottle of gin?”

“Right here, Douglas! I know it’s his, because it’s got his name on it.”

[fairytalesandfandoms]

Hornblower for the dashboard osmosis ask meme?

Thank you! This is mostly going to be 'osmosis from the videos you sent me' rather than my dash

absolute mad lads getting up to things on a Napoleonic era ship

Horatio Hornblower aka Ioann Gruffudd, more of an awkward nerd than you would expect

PAUL MCGANN??? As the grumpy Lt Bush (but possibly secretly friendly?). Shouts a lot.

Bush knows about cannons, Hornblower knows about physics (told you. Nerd (affectionate).)

not sure of the actor's/character’s name but the cheerful guy. I like him but I think he comes to a sad end which we are not meant to speak of. Gives me Arthur Shappey vibes.

cool guys walk away from explosions? Well these guys jump off a cliff to get away from one

speaking of which, there are a lot of explosions

Hornblower dangles from a crane, the other two are like ‘rather you than me’

the crew put up with a lot of nonsense but seem to be okay with it, more or less

a wild Samuel West appears. He's on a horse. And because he’s so much younger than I’m used to, my first reaction on seeing him is 'who let this CHILD on set'

lots of people I recognise. Ioann Gruffudd. Paul McGann. Greg Wise. Samuel West. Julia Sawalha. Philip Glenister. Every time I’m like that ‘BEYONCE???’ meme

an old man hallucinates Spanish ladies? Or maybe he does actually see them through the floor/ceiling. I can’t get back to the video to check because it’s “unavailable” (boooo ITV)

Overall has a similar vibe to those weekend evening shows I used to enjoy watching (Robin Hood, Merlin, The Musketeers)

send me an ask about a fandom i know nothing about and i will summarize it as best i can

[phoenix-is-still-here]

Cabin Pressure for the ask please

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most): Douglas - at east the one I quote the most

scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped): Martin (sweet poor baby boy) but also Arthur (too good for this world, too pure)

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave): Carolyn all the way

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week): Finn McCool III, the stuffed sheep

poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave): Mr. Burling, because if I was a filthy rich rugby fan, I would probably do the same thing.

horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason): Gordon Shappey, because fuck him

eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell): Carolyn's sister Ruth, because she is maybe the single most horrible human in the entire series (also Gordon Shappey again just because)

[k-k-keroppi]

I wrote a fanfic combining my two favourite tiny fandoms: the goes wrong show and cabin pressure. I’ve been kicked violently back into the goes wrong show since the new episode (and since I fond the peter pan play and the stolen christmas one online) and I’m permanently into cabin pressure and have been since I was eleven, so I decided to combine them. It’s set in the Rotterdam episode if carolyn had hired cornley to to the video instead of paramount martin. It’s not very long, and it hasn’t bee proof read but enjoy :) fanfic under the cut. 

“Robert, why are you wearing the captain epaulets?” Chris asked, straightening his tie. Robert looked up and smiled cunningly. “I think it would be more convincing if I played the captain, Chris. And I am the lead actor.”

“You are not the lead actor.” snapped Chris, tugging the epaulets off Robert’s shoulder. “And we already agreed that I would play the captain and you would be the first officer.” Robert tried to take the epaulets back, and the pair squabbled over the patch until Chis eventually snatched them away from Robert. “Give me that.” he hissed, glaring at his friend and he secured the patch on him shoulder. 

The cabin door opened and Arthur hurried in. “Everything alright in here chaps?” he asked. “Only mum was wondering when you’d be ready to go” Chris began to answer, but the cabin door opened again before he could. “Oh, hello.” said Martin, and he glanced at Arthur in confusion. “Skip, these are the actors, for the video,” Arthur clarified. 

“What!” 

“Oh, hello Douglas, I didn’t see you there. Yeah, mum said that if you weren’t going to do it, we might as well get some proper actors in.”

“Well what about me?” asked Martin indignantly, as he and Douglas entered the main cabin. “I could do it.”

“No you couldn’t.” Carolyn emerged from the cabin door and turned to Chris and Robert. “So sorry about this, gentlemen. I trust you have sorted out the parts between you?”

“We certainly have, Mrs Knapp-Shappey-”began Chris, but Robert butted in smugly. “Yes, Captain Robert Groves. That has a certain ring to it.”

Chris sidestepped in front of Robert and smiled with a tight jaw. “Actually, I will be playing the captain. Captain Chris Bean.” finished Chris with a flourish, earning a scoff from Robert. “You don’t have the gravitas, Chris. ‘Good evening, this is Captain Robert Groves’” He smiled. “Yes, that sounds good.”

“I think I’d be fine Robert. ‘Good evening. This is Captain Chris Bean speaking.’” Chris’ received pronunciation was in strong contrast to Robert’s gravelly tenor, and Robert scoffed. “Please-” he began, but Douglas stepped forward. 

“Actually gentlemen, I think you’ll find that I have the best voice for the job. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Douglas Richardson.’” Douglas looked pleased with himself, earning him a challenging glare from Robert, and Martin clenched his jaw. Chris tutted. 

“Well, you aren’t even a professional, so it doesn’t mater anyway.”

Martin nodded. “Yes, yes, thank you Chris. In fact, none of it matters, because I am the captain. I am the commander of this vessel, so I-”

“Well go on then.” said Douglas. 

Martin stuttered to a halt. “Go on what?”

“Introduce yourself, Commander.”

“Right, yes, okay.” Martin cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Good evening everyone, thi-this is Captain Martin Crief.”

“Right.” said Douglas. “Thank you Martin. Well done.”

“Oh shut up.”

“And just going back a moment, what was it you said Chris? That I’m ‘not a professional?”

“Douglas”, hissed Martin, but his protest went unheard under Chris’ reply. 

“That’s right.” he said stiffly, holding his head up. 

“Right, of course. Just remind me the name of your company again? Cornley amature dramatic society, was it?” 

Chris’ face fell, and Martin fruitlessly attempted to attract Douglas’ attention again. 

“Amature.” said Douglas slowly. “As in, the opposite of professional. Of which you are, of course, the exulted director.”

Robert chuckled. “He’s got you there, Chris.”

“No he hasn’t!” snapped Chris. “Look, I’m playing the captain, end of discussion.”

“No it isn’t.” said Douglas smugly. “Ahem. Ladies and gentlemen” he began in a voice like syrup. “we hope you have a pleasant flight.”

Robert cleared this throat obnoxiously. “We do hope you relax, and enjoy your flight.” he said, his deep voice almost stifled in the confined space of the cabin. Chris stepped between the two men, as if that would quash the competition, and hissed at Robert to shut up. 

“Please, do relax,” said Douglas, stretching his vocals to provide an even more honeyed tone “and have an absolutely splendid flight.

“Ahem-hem!” said Robert loudly, pushing Chris aside. “You simply must have the most awfully lovely, super scrumptious flight.”

Chris glared up at Robert from the footwell. 

“Beat that Mr Richardson.” he said, ignoring Chris with a smug smile. Douglas opened his mouth to speak, but Martin beat him to it. 

“Right, that’s enough. Carolyn this is ridiculous. I am the captain, I should play the captain.”

Chris struggled upright and crossed the cabin to where Martin was standing, and looked down at him bitterly. 

“Thank you, Captain, but we are perfectly capable. And professionals.” He shot a furious glance at Douglas, who steadfastly ignored him. 

“Yes.” chimed in Robert. “I’ll play the captain perfectly competently-” 

“No you won’t!” snapped Chris. “I will be playing the captain, because I am the director!”

“Well hang on, I’m the Captain! Captain beats director, surely.” Martin said, looking to Douglas for help.

“I wouldn’t know captain.” replied Douglas dryly. “I’d have to check my top trumps.”

“Oh for pities sake! I am the CEO. Which means that everyone will play who I tell them to play, when I tell them to do so, the moment I tell them to do it! Understood?”

Martin sighed. “Yes, Carolyn.” he said reluctantly.

“Thank you so much. Actors, follow me.” Carolyn led Chris and Robert into the flight deck, followed by Martin, Douglas, and Arthur. 

“Who am I, Douglas?” he asked as they followed Carolyn chastenedly. 

“You’re you, Arthur.”

“Oh good.”

After a few more squabbles, and a momentary scare that Chris was ‘completely incapacitated’, the MJN welcome message was finally complete, and the fine actors of the Cornley amature dramatic society, and the proud pilots of My Jet Now air parted ways, determined never to see each other again. Except for Arthur, who visited the actors a few weeks later, and was delighted to discover a new actor friend equally as enthusiastic as he was.