YMMV / Cabin Pressure

• Adorkable: Martin may be mostly insecure and sometimes nervously stumbling over his own words, but good-natured and a victim of bad luck. Just listen to him rattling off the Seven Dwarves in "Gdansk"! You just want to pick him up and hug him!
• Base-Breaking Character: Theresa. Some fans love her for being witty and a supportive and kind girlfriend to Martin while others dislike her, either because she sunk their ship, her presence unintentionally splitting up the MJN team, or because Martin dating (and ending up with) a foreign princess is far-fetched even within the context of a habitually near-bankrupt airdot. Or because they don't like her accent.
• Designated Monkey: Quite a few episodes have mild Downer Endings for Martin, (involving him being humiliated, losing money, or facing some other misfortune). For some reason, many fans feel the urge to wrap him in a blanket and comfort him rather than laughing at his chronic bad luck. John Finnemore seems somewhat surprised by this reaction. It might also be partly attributed to the difference in style between British comedy and that of other countries, given the international nature of the fandom.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In the 'Abu Dhabi' episode, Martin explains to Carolyn that he "can't just magic up extra fuel." Too bad Doctor Strange (2016) hadn't happened yet.
  • While playing an on-flight game in 'Fitton', Martin (played by Benedict Cumberbatch, from BBC's Sherlock, which hadn't been announced at the time) references 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'. Even better after series 2 of that show, as the context of the reference is removing one letter from books to make them different, and he changes 'Baskervilles' to 'Baskerville'... just as that show did for its adaptation of the story.
  • In "Limerick", the pilots and Carolyn play a game of evil-sounding names. One of them was Russell Crowe ("Soon you will rue the day you dared to cross... Russell Crowe," said in an evil voice by Roger Allam, who is famed for playing over-the-top villains.) Later, Crowe was cast as Inspector Javert in Les Misérables (2012). Guess who originated the role on the West End stage? Yep, that's right. It's Allam himself.
  • In 'Johannesburg', the plane is forced to land before they've even made it out of Spain. Carolyn asks if they've "found a hitherto undiscovered warp-drive button." Benedict Cumberbatch, of course, went on to play the Big Bad in Star Trek Into Darkness.
    • Another one from this episode: Arthur compared Martin to one of the guys from Top Gear (UK) (much to his disgust, before realising that Arthur actually means Top Gun). Cumberbatch, eventually, appeared on Top Gear (UK).
  • Stephanie Cole is going to be in an adaptation of "The Lady Vanishes," which was part of the Hitchcock game in "Qikiqtarjuaq."
  • In "Vaduz" there's talk about a dragon between Martin and Theresa. Benedict later played Smaug the Magnificent, a dragon, in The Hobbit.
  • In "Rotterdam", Douglas says Carolyn's attempt at an in-flight video sounds like "Queen Victoria recording an answerphone greeting". Six years later, Stephanie Cole would appear in an episode of John Finnemore's Double Acts as Queen Victoria, being persuaded to record a phonograph message.
  • When guessing the phonetic alphabet for J in "Limerick", Arthur's penultimate stab is "Julia" after being prompted with "Romeo and..." from Martin. He's right, after a fashion. Juliet is named Julia in some adaptations of the story, for example the German version of Romeo et Juliette: De La Haine a l'Amour .
• Genius Bonus: GERTI is a Lockheed McDonnell.
• In Name Only: The film Quest For Camelot mentioned in "Cremona" doesn't seem to have anything to do with Quest for Camelot (possibly because it wasn't released under that title in the UK). For one thing, it's live-action, but there's also the detail that "Excalibur" is apparently a Living MacGuffin (and turns out to be a vampire).
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Martin appears to be the fandom bicycle judging by the fanfiction (not helped by the fact that he is played by the very attractive Benedict Cumberbatch). The most popular pairing starts with Martin/Douglas, then Martin/Arthur and goes from there. There are a couple of Martin/Diego (from 'Johannesburg') fics, and Martin/Molly Hooper and Martin/Henry Knight are both becoming popular. Quite a few Martin/Tony Stark fics have spawned as well.
• Memetic Mutation: The coffee conversation between Martin and Arthur began making the rounds on the internet as a Sherlock meme, with Sherlock taking the Arthur role and John taking the Martin role. It's been passed around so much that that some Sherlock fans swear that they've actually seen it or believe that it's a deleted scene.
• One-Scene Wonder: Caroline's brother-in-law, in 'Helsinki' has about three lines at the end. Two of which are utterly side-splitting.
  • Tommo in 'St Petersburg' gets an awful lot of comic mileage out of "Yup."
• Periphery Demographic: Cabin Pressure is a fairly gentle and traditional Radio 4 comedy, Radio 4's audience being memetically middle-aged, middle-class and terribly English. Presumably thanks to the presence of Benedict Cumberbatch in the cast (as well as the program being good enough to sustain a devoted following, of course), the show has attracted quite a fandom on the notably international, all-comers, young people jamboree that is Tumblr.
• Retroactive Recognition: Benedict Cumberbatch became a global superstar during the middle of Cabin Pressure's run thanks to Sherlock. By the recording of the final episode, tens of thousands of fans were vying for one of only 200 tickets available for the taping.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The scene in 'Qikiqtarjuaq' where Martin, being pushed to breaking point by Douglas's behavior and the attitude of the week's jerkass customer, outlines his crappy living situation to Carolyn; living in an attic, barely surviving on what little food he can scrape together, having been in student lodgings so long he's apparently seen as part of the furniture for the revolving generations of lodgers. He sounds close to the edge of tears by the end of it.
  • A Tearjerker in Hindsight occured in Zurich. In Paris, Arthur said, "Cross my heart and hope to die, terrapins tickle me if I lie." It seemed like a typical Arthur moment... Until Gordon used that very phrase when he was blatantly lying and manipulating Arthur, to his son's face, to get GERTI back. It sounded like part of a memory in Arthur's childhood, one that father and son shared, when Gordon still loved his child. The way Arthur screamed for Martin and Douglas, and when he said Douglas would fix everything, was heartbreaking. In St. Petersburg, even though Arthur knew Gordon was "alright", he still tried desperately to please his father by getting him a gift. In Zurich, after this moment, Arthur's trust in Gordon completely broke down. He's devastated. Douglas Richardson managed to be a better father figure to Arthur than Gordon ever could - Douglas is relentless in mocking Arthur's ineptitude, yet Arthur trusts him unwaveringly, and even at one point thought he might be magic. Is that not what a child would expect of its father?
• At one point Arthur mentions that he can't think of anything to tease Douglas about. In a moment of uncharacteristic honestly , Douglas bitterly rants about how his life has gone off the rails — he's a co-pilot in his fifties with four failed marriages. Under the snark, Douglas is a very sad man.
• Theme Pairing: Both Martin Crieff and Molly Hooper (from Sherlock) are rather unfortunate in many aspects of their lives and overdue for something nice to happen to them. There's also the fact that Molly pines after Sherlock, who's played by Benedict Cumberbatch, the same guy who played Martin Crieff.
• The Woobie: Martin, mostly due to his luck or lack thereof.
  • Most obvious in 'Qikiqtarjuaq', 'Fitton' and 'Limerick' — aside from the fact that Martin had to retake his CPL seven times, with even his own family not believing he'd manage it, he also has to live in the tiny attic of a student house, and because Carolyn doesn't pay him for being a pilot, his only monetary income is the jobs he takes as a stupidly cheap man-with-a-van which he has to fit around his MJN flights.
  • A passenger makes him cry in 'Boston.'
  • Arguably Arthur in 'St Petersburg'. His frantic attitude and desperate desire to please his father are completely out of character, and even Martin and Douglas notice it.
  Martin: What’s he like then, Mr Shappey?
  Douglas: I don’t know, I’ve never met him either, what’s he like Arthur?
  Arthur: Ooh he’s er ... he’s er ...he’s er ...
  Douglas: Good lord, Martin, I think you’ve broken him.
  Arthur: No, no, no it’s just that he’s er ...he’s er ...
  Douglas: I think – I think what we may be witnessing here is Arthur attempting to describe something with an adjective other than “brilliant.”
  Arthur: Yeah, n-n-no I wouldn’t say he was b-b – I mean obviously everyone’s br- – no, he’s not brilliant. He’s er ...he’s alright.
  Martin: God.
  Douglas: Yes.
  Martin: He must be awful.
  • Even Carolyn at the end of 'Douz' and 'Helsinki', when first she admits she's nearly broke and runs MJN Air at loss so she doesn't have to feel like 'a little old lady' and second when she crumbles under her sister's verbal attacks.

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