Shirt...

...Season Nnnnnnninenteen !!

It was time for Spirit Sinema’s first event of the year, their Season 19 Signing Spectacular, delayed from the previous year due to the late release of the Blu-Ray boxset. The late announcement of Anthony Calf (who has a brief role in ‘The Visitation', but a larger one in ‘Empress of Mars’) meant that Shirt decided to book last minute to meet the ‘New Tricks’ star. Dufus decided to come down on the day as the event had not sold out and tickets were available at the door, seemingly due to two other events featuring four of the Doctors taking place on the same day (Peter, Colin & Sylvester at Leicester’s ‘Science of the Timelords’, and TOM doing an impromptu signing of ‘Scratchman’ at Naughty Asteroid). However, after around half an hour of his journey, he suffered a puncture which put paid to that plan. It was therefore a lone Shirt who made his way to the Chiswick church hall, handing over the printout of his payment, and being given a Series 19 art-print. Buying the requisite autograph vouchers, Shirt moved into the hall.

The signing had been running for around ten minutes, and there were short queues at all the signing tables. Shirt first joined a queue for David Summer, a Terileptil in ‘The Visitation’, getting him on his DVD cover. Next was Richard Seager who played V3 in ‘The Robots of Death’.

“I’m the one who struggles with Leela”, Richard proudly told Shirt, signing his DVD sleeve, whilst also displaying his original ‘Robots’ scripts and call-sheets which he had recently found in his loft.

Anthony Calf had just arrived, and so having made sure that he had safely stowed all his covers, Shirt joined his queue. Being in both classic and Nu Who, and his being very chatty, Anthony’s queue moved slowly, but as he was the final person that Shirt needed in the first signing session, Shirt was not bothered by this.

Finally reaching the front, Shirt managed to remove his Series 10 poster from its tube, where it was signed with a flourish by Anthony. He then posed for a photo with Shirt taken by a steward.

Having lots of time to waste before the second session of autographs, Shirt decided to look at the Spirit Sinema sales table. Alongside ‘Dad’s Army’ DVDs and a large number of 1970’s Annuals, they were also selling off a large number of publicity photos, presumably left over from other events. Flicking through, Shirt was excited to find a number of ‘Sherlock’ images all featuring the lovely Louise Brealey. As the photos were 3 for £1, he selected three, then came across a photo of Colin Jeavons as Inspector Lestrade in the Granada Sherlock Holmes. Paying £1.50 for all four photos, Shirt stowed them in his bag, and decided to use his 50p change (having checked it wasn’t the newly-minted Sherlock Holmes one) to buy a muffin for his lunch.

Leaving the hall, Shirt made his way to the usual nearby supermarket to buy the rest of his lunch, which he proceeded to eat sitting on the wall outside the church. Lunch consumed and he went back inside to get warm.

Eventually it was time for the second signing session. First up was Margot Hayhoe, who as well as being Assistant Floor Manager on ‘The War Machines’, ‘Fury from the Deep’ and ‘The Ambassadors of Death’ , was also the Production Manager on ‘Logopolis’, ‘Castrovalva’ and ‘Snakedance’. Shirt therefore got her to sign his precious ‘The Eighties’. Next up was Steve Ismay, regular supporting artist in the 1980’s who also signed ‘The Eighties’, as well as ‘Earthshock’ in which he plays a Cyberman. Shirt then got a photo with him.

Looking at the other queues, Shirt decided to join the one for David Banks, 1980’s Cyber-Leader, who also appeared as Holmes on stage. The queue moved quite quickly, and soon Shirt was placing down the CD sleeve for ‘Hour of the Cybermen’, his recent return to playing the Leader for Large Endings. Cover signed (with EXCELLENT under his name), he then posed for a photo (to add to Shirt’s ‘me with Holmes and Watson’ collection).

The queue for David’s Cyber-Lieutenant, Mark Hardy, was by far the longest, so Shirt decided to join a much shorter one for Jaleh Alp (the ill-fated Frankie in ‘Arachnids in the UK’), who signed his Series 11 poster. Next up was writer, Eric Saward, responsible for both ‘The Visitation’ and ‘Earthshock’ in Season 19. Eric did not seem to be very happy to be there, and seemed to be struggling with signing. However, he signed Shirt’s ‘The Visitation’ DVD sleeve and ‘Slipback’ CD sleeve, before a photo was taken of the two of them.

Mark Hardy was the only guest that Shirt still needed, so he joined the queue, which moved even more slowly that Anthony Calf’s had earlier. However, finally Shirt was getting Mark to sign ‘Hour of the Cybermen’ (with YES LEADER ! after his name), and posing for a photo.

Making sure that he had all his items, Shirt left the hall, striding out for the Underground station. As he travelled home, he mused on a fun first signing event of the year.

[PL]