Shirt...

...Does the Honourable Thing At The Double

It was time for the Spring London Film and Comic Con at Olympia. Several WHO-related guests had been announced, including Clare Higgins, head of the Sisterhood of Karn. Pre-order tickets for entry at 11am had sold out, and so Shirt had to buy the more expensive ticket for 9am entry. Arriving at the venue almost exactly at 9am, Shirt was directed into an empty hall, where at the far end was the queue into the event, which was about five people deep. No sooner had he joined the queue, then it started moving, and five minutes later he was having his ticket scanned and entering the convention hall. Finding that the majority of signers were in the upstairs hall, Shirt made his way up there, finding where the WHO guests were signing (their desks currently empty), and taking a virtual queueing ticket for Nick Frost.

After a quick wander round the stalls, Shirt returned ten minutes later to find that Clare Higgins had begun signing. He therefore joined a short queue, and five minutes later was getting his Series 9 poster signed by her. A brief posed photo taken by the fan behind him in the queue, and Shirt was side-stepping to Sophie Aldred, who signed his copy of ‘The Light at the End’.

Moving to the other end of the hall where ‘Star Wars’ X-wing pilots were signing, Shirt joined a queue for Jack Klaff, wanting to meet him for some non-sci-fi roles. A number of SW posters signed for those in front, and Shirt was paying for two autographs. First was his ‘The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes’ video cover, in which Jack appears as the Honourable Philip Green opposite Jeremy Brett in “The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax ” (along with Michael Jayston).

Having signed the cover, Jack decided to enlighten Shirt with an interesting piece of trivia.

“I’m the only person to ever play the same ‘Sherlock Holmes’ character on both television and radio !”.

Shirt responded by placing down his second item, the cassette sleeve for the Clive Merrison collection that includes “The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax”, in which Jack is again the Honourable Philip Green.

Philip was momentarily fazed by this, but then proceeded to regale Shirt with how he had been asked by the ‘Sherlock Holmes Society of London’ many years ago to give a talk on his unique double.

“They obviously enjoyed your performance on television, and so thought of you when casting the radio version”, ventured Shirt.

Philip agreed with this, and then posed for a photo with Shirt, who couldn’t pass up the chance of a photo with a double Honourable.

Shirt then wandered around the upstairs stalls, in a more leisurely manner, identifying items that he might purchase later, after comparing prices. He also picked up a promotional pen and badge for the second ‘Sherlocked’ convention, which was to be held in September. Moving to the downstairs hall, Shirt browsed the stalls there, until finally he reached an area where SW stormtroopers were signing, one of which, Mickey Lewis has also played several minor parts in Series 7. Extracting his Series 7A poster (to represent ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ in which Mickey is a Dalek and a ghost), Shirt stepped up, getting Mickey to sign between his fellow Asylum Daleks, Barnaby Edwards and Nicholas Pegg.

Returning upstairs, Shirt found that a Missy Action Figure which he had seen at £20 had now been sold. However, he managed to purchase the first two stories in the BBC Audio ‘Winter’ quartet (‘The Gods of Winter’ & ‘The House of Winter'), as well as ‘Silhouette’, an unabridged reading of the 12th Doctor, Clara and the Paternoster Gang novel, by Strax himself, Dan Starkey, all for £20.

Shirt decided to forego meeting Santa (in the person of Nick Frost), baulking a little at his £25 price, given the length of his queue, and the likelihood of his being unable to either have a conversation or a photo with the great man. He therefore left the convention hall, and walked around two sides of the building to get back to Kensington Olympia station.

Shirt therefore made his way home, via detours to a ‘West End Theatre’ display at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and Naughty Asteroid, musing on another morning’s hi-jinks.

[PL]