#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.

[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.

[unionjackpillow]

“The cheesecake is poisoned!”

[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. 🌻

[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

[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

[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

[sircarolyn]

uskerty set me off...

They’re still not back yet. The sun is going down, casting long shadows through the bar, the light glinting off the ice in their pineapple juices. Douglas downs the last of his glass and shuts his eyes. In a way, this is more comforting than all those drinks ever were, all those times he was sitting somewhere like this, trying to chase a high he barely remembers anymore. 

He sets down his glass. “Yes,” he says. “I do.”

“What?” says Arthur, sipping thoughtfully on his juice through a garish straw. 

“I do miss my wife. Not Helena. Catherine. My first wife.”

“Oh,” says Arthur. It’s almost funny. Of all people to say something like this to, Arthur is one of the only ones Douglas trusts not to make a big deal of it. Instead of trying to ask more questions or understand his motives and mistakes, all Arthur’s done is put on a thoughtful frown and titled his head as if to encourage Douglas to go on. 

All those times Douglas called Arthur stupid or dismissed his emotional intelligence are lining his stomach with weights now. 

“You know Verity’s been calling me again?”

“Yeah, you said it to Mum when you wanted that weekend off, and-”

“Yes, exactly,” Douglas interrupts before Arthur can remind him of that argument again. He is already feeling fragile enough without it. “Well, we have been reconnecting.”

The word sounds so cold in his mouth, so calculated, like he’s been scheming to get his daughter on side again. Like he’s not still surprised every time she calls. 

“Oh! That’s brilliant! Isn’t it?” 

Douglas chuckles bitterly. “Yes, Arthur, it is. It’s just…”

“What?” 

Before he can really think about what he’s saying, he confesses, “I haven’t been a brilliant Dad to her, you know. I let her down when she was young and- and I never expected her to forgive me.”

Arthur hums thoughtfully, taking another sip of his juice. Douglas waves to Jerry to top his own glass up. He can’t take Arthur’s thoughtfulness with an empty glass. 

“I think,” says Arthur, as seriously as he can. On anyone else, it would have been patronising, but because it’s Arthur, it’s as earnest as can be. “If she’s talking to you now, she’ll see how brilliant you are now. And even if you weren’t brilliant before, you’re trying now. Isn’t that what matters?”

Douglas chuckles again, spinning the ice around his fresh juice. There’s a hurt to Arthur’s voice, just a subtext, but one that Douglas can read clear as day: I’d love to forgive my Dad if he ever showed me he was worth it. And knowing Gordon Shappey, having Arthur’s absolution means more than he thinks. 

“Yes,” says Douglas. “I suppose it does.”