History Radio / CabinPressure

** Arthur is attempting to learn the phonetic alphabet so Martin and Douglas quiz him whenever he pops into the cockpit. On one of those occasions, he spouts a series of names that includes Milly, Molly, and Mandy in that exact order, which references the children's book series ''Literature/MillyMollyMandy''.
--->'''Martin:''' ... ''no'', Arthur, the phonetic alphabet version of the letter M is ''not'' "Muh". It's ''Mike!''\\
'''Arthur:''' Aagh!... I was close, then!\\
'''Martin:''' In comparison to "Molecule" or "Literature/MillyMollyMandy", yes!

* MistakenForPrankCall: When Princess Theresa of Liechtenstein first calls MJN in "Vaduz", Martin is convinced the caller is one of Douglas' friends on a wind-up. Douglas insists this isn't the case and takes the phone... operating under the assumption that ''Martin'' is responsible for the prank call and tried to throw him off by answering the phone first. One quick Google search and they are both suddenly a lot less sarcastic...

* [[spoiler:Fully subverted in the finale when it's revealed that, by replacing all of the plane wiring with gold, Gordon inadvertently made the plane significantly heavier and more difficult to fly.]]

* EldritchAbomination: The picture of Goofy that Arthur paints on the side of Martin's van is variously interpreted as "an evil hippo", the Nachzehrer (by Theresa) and "some kind of demon".

There are two pilots: First Officer Douglas Richardson (Creator/RogerAllam), the good one, and Captain Martin Crieff (Creator/BenedictCumberbatch), the safe one. The attendants are Carolyn Knapp-Shappey ([[Series/WaitingForGod Stephanie Cole]]), who owns the airline as part of her last divorce settlement, and her well-meaning, if dim, late-twenties son Arthur (John Finnemore).

['''''*EXPLOSION, ALARMS*''''']\\

* SillyAnimalSound: Martin and Arthur are driving a baggage cart 20 miles across the Spanish countryside to fetch a plane mechanic, singing '[[CountingSong One Man Went to Mow]]' to pass the time. Arthur replaces the 'woof woof!' with 'wooah wooah!' ("That's what French dogs say") because they're abroad. On the return journey, the plane engineer adds Spanish versions of Silly Animal Sounds to the mix.
-->'''Martin:''' "Carolyn, Douglas, this is Diego: a fine engineer, a useful light baritone, and a man with an inexhaustible knowledge of how Spanish animals go. Diego, do your Spanish cockerel."\\
'''Diego:''' "Quiquiriquí!"\\
'''Martin''' "...yep, that's my favourite one."

-->'''Martin''': Ooh, how about 'Peterborough to -\\

-->'''Martin''': Ooh, how about Peterborough to -"\\
'''*EXPLOSION, ALARMS*'''\\
'''Douglas''': "''CHRIST!''"

--->'''Douglas''': [...] I think you’ll find that I am the supreme commander of th... ''(trails off)''\\

* InsistantTerminology: Carolyn sometimes refers to Martin and Douglas as "drivers", possibly because she thinks calling them "pilots" makes them sound too important.

* ProductDeliveryOrdeal: In "Ottery St. Mary", after [[ButtMonkey Martin]] twists his ankle, he has to call in for help from [[TheDitz Arthur]] and [[TheAce Douglas]] to assist his removal van company in moving a piano from a house in Fitton to a pub in the titular Devon village. However, due to Arthur's stupidity, they end up failing to pick up the address of the pub in the first place, and then Arthur accidentally [[TheKeyIsBehindTheLock locks the keys in Martin's van]], so they have to use their airplane to fly to Devon, after which they have to push the piano all the way from the airfield to the pub.

** In "Ipswich", Martin tries mentioning he has an inner-ear abnormality during the swim test, which requires him to wear ear plugs while swimming. It comes up again in another test. Turns out he faints if he gets dizzy.

*** Returns in "Timbuktu", when Douglas manages to guess Arthur's associating it with a cockatoo, but not with his friend, Tim Buckley. ([[Webcomic/Ctrl+Alt+Del No]] [[Musician/TimBuckley relation]].)

* AlphabeticalThemeNaming: The 26 episode titles go through the alphabet from Abu Dhabi, Boston and Cremona to Xinzhou, Yverdon-les-Bains and Zurich.

** Douglas' scheme in "Kuala Lumpur" (to make Martin think Carolyn had [[spoiler:shut down his secret bar, when really she'd been a regular patron before he found out about it]]) relied on Arthur being such a BadLiar that Martin would realise [[spoiler:the bar had been set up again, Martin calling Carolyn ''and then immediately regretting doing so'', and Martin picking up on his hint to give her the one bottle filled with apple juice.]] He knows his colleagues inside-out, does Douglas.

** In "Helsinki", Arthur explains he always wanted to go to said city because of the name. A few episodes later, in "Kuala Lumpur", he expresses a desire to go to that city, and Carolyn icily cuts in to inform him that if it's for the same silly reason (this time, thinking that it's got something to do with koalas and oompa-loompas), she will be upset. And it is.

* ButNowIMustGo: [[spoiler:Though Carolyn has enough money at the end of "Zurich" to pay Martin a proper salary, he nevertheless moves on to Swiss Airways to continue his career.]]

*** Back in "Edinburgh" Carolyn referred to Arthur's mysterious attraction to " bossy pony club types with Alice bands and stupid names". The PreviouslyOn for part 2 of "Zurich" is Arthur on the phone to a girl called Tiffy who does dressage.

* DescriptionCut: "Douz" has Martin taking control of GERTI from Douglas, about to land her in strong headwind, insisting he can manage it. The scene then skips ahead to Carolyn reciting how epically he failed to do so (two go-arounds and he nearly crashed the plane).

* EpicFail: MJN Air is required to take a safety test during "Ipswich" and it goes badly. ''Really'' badly. It starts with Arthur being asked to take the lead, and managing to misinterpret the instructions to hold the belt of the person in front of them to include himself as well. This means the four get lost in a mock-up of a plane, until Martin passes out due to a medical condition. Then Arthur decides to take his smoke hood off (because this is a mock-up of a plane that is on fire, and therefore filled with ''actual'' smoke. Hence the smoke hoods). Slightly more impressive is that neither Carolyn or Douglas noticed they were going around in circles for four minutes.

* FrenchJerk: The corrupt air traffic controller in 'Douz', who siphons off GERTI's fuel supply (leading to the air conditioning switching off) and parks four vehicles around the plane until he is paid the exorbitant fees he has charged them for their time at the airfield, which are also the exorbitant fees for the last plane he stranded there (the passengers and crew of which MJN was sent to pick up).

* FunWithAcronyms: MJN is revealed in "Fitton" to stand for "My Jet Now", a name chosen after Carolyn won GERTI in an acrimonious divorce. [[spoiler:In "Zurich", the reborn airline is christened "OJS" for "Our Jet Still".]]

* HollywoodToneDeaf: John Finnemore can sing just fine. ''Arthur's'' singing is frankly painful (as heard in "Fitton", "Ottery St Mary" and "Zurich").

* LampshadeHanging: Third series episode "Newcastle" features a different actor playing Martin, owing to Benedict Cumberbatch being off sick. (In the two preceding episodes, his voice is noticeably croaky, to boot.) In a lampshade-heavy ColdOpening presumably written at the last minute, the other three cast members have a conversation about what would happen if one of MJN's two pilots were to call in sick. When the recast Martin enters the flight deck, Arthur comments that he's looking extremely well, but Douglas claims he looks exactly the same as always.

* PopCulturalOsmosisFailure: In "Abu Dhabi", Martin seems to think that Cpt. Ahab (of ''Literature/MobyDick'' fame) and Cpt. Bligh (of RealLife and ''Film/MutinyOnTheBounty'' fame) are friends of Douglas' from Air England, and that [[Literature/TheCaineMutiny Cpt. Queeg]] is something Douglas made up. He eventually cottons on that they're fictional characters.

* SillyAnimalSound: Martin and Arthur are driving a baggage cart 20 miles across the Spanish countryside to fetch a plane mechanic, singing '[[CountingSong One Man Went to Mow]]' to pass the time. Arthur replaces the 'woof woof!' with 'wah wah!' ("That's what French dogs say") because they're abroad. On the return journey, the plane engineer adds Spanish versions of Silly Animal Sounds to the mix.

* SmallNameBigEgo: Martin's elder brother Simon is almost venerated in his family because he works for the council. He's almost InnocentlyInsensitive more than anything though, and his mother informs Martin that Simon is incredibly proud of his young brother even before he realised he was a pilot.

'''Douglas''': Arthnold Manercatsirman. That's an unusual name. Tell me: is it made-up?

* SillyAnimalSound: Martin and Arthur are driving a baggage cart 20 miles across the Spanish countryside to fetch a plane mechanic, singing '[[Music/CountingSong One Man Went to Mow]]' to pass the time. Arthur replaces the 'woof woof!' with 'wah wah!' ("That's what French dogs say") because they're abroad. On the return journey, the plane engineer adds Spanish versions of Silly Animal Sounds to the mix.

* SillyAnimalSound: Martin and Arthur are driving a baggage cart 20 miles across the Spanish countryside to fetch a plane mechanic, singing 'One Man Went to Mow' to pass the time. Arthur replaces the 'woof woof!' with 'wah wah!' ("That's what French dogs say") because they're abroad. On the return journey, the plane engineer adds Spanish versions of Silly Animal Sounds to the mix.

** In "Ottery St. Mary", a piano version of "Film/ThoseMagnificentMeninTheirFlyingMachines" is playing as Benedict reads the end credits instead of the usual "Overture to Music/RuslanAndLudmilla." When Benedict/Martin finishes reading, Douglas starts singing the chorus, joined by Arthur and Martin.

'''*EXPLOSION, ALARMS*'''

** St. Petersburg goes from word games to an impending crash and sirens going off.

** Subverted in 'Rotterdam', with the two Martins: Martin Crieff, the pilot, and Martin Davenport, the actor hired to play a pilot in the MJN safety film.

** MJN seem to encounter a variety of these, largely as passengers, including Hamilton Leeman, [[SmallNameBigEgo Hester McCauley]], Yves Juteau, Carolyn's sister Ruth and her nephew [[BrattyHalfPint Kieran]], and more notably, regulars [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob Mr. Birling]] and [[ArchnemesisDad Gordon Shappey]].