merindab:

Okay look, I like Cabin Pressure too, and I find it hilarious. And I got there via Sherlock too. But I get so tired of the “oh no (teenage) girls are showing up for the thing, will they even know how to behave?”

“We recorded live and there was a pretty good take-up for tickets. But the third series was post-Sherlock. Suddenly the audience was 90% female, mostly under 25 and they were queuing round the block. It was like Beatlemania. I was worried they just wanted to be in the same room as Benedict and that this would throw things off, but I was completely wrong. They listened and laughed at the other characters as much as they did at Martin. I suppose the sort of teenager who decides Sherlock Holmes is their idol is the sort of teenager who’s going to enjoy Cabin Pressure.”

Like, maybe they listened to your show because of Benedict. But then maybe they also fell in love with it. Maybe being female and under 25 means that you can like a thing for more than one reason like any other human being.

Not to mention that there are plenty of Sherlock fans of all ages and gender identities.

The same shit happened when Benedict did Hamlet. “Oh no there are teenage girls in the theatre, will they even know how to behave?”

Yes. And also teenage girls are not a monolith, nor are they subhuman.

I’ve watched/listened to plenty of things because I liked an actor in it. Sometimes the thing is good, sometimes it’s not. Quit assuming that if teenage girls like a thing it doesn’t have value, or that teenage girls automatically ruin everything. Or that teenage girls only like something because they find someone hot.

‘Suddenly it was like Beatlemania’ – how we made Cabin Pressure