Dufus & Shirt...

...May Day, May Day !!!

Having spent the previous evening experiencing an ‘Impromptu Tavisode’ and meeting the lovely Pearl Mackie, it was time for the main course as far as Dufus was concerned – namely another audience with GOD (or Tom Baker, if you prefer) at Spirit Sinema's 'May Signing Spectacular'.

Dufus and Shirt therefore made their way to Clapham Junction, and found themselves crammed onto a platform with a multitude of rugby fans on their way to Twickenham for the play-offs. The train they wanted was displaying as being delayed and so Shirt attempted to come up with a variety of other routes, until it became clear that the delay was only 7 minutes, and none of the rugby fans would be cramming onto the train.

Alighting in Chiswick, they made their way to the church hall, scouring the surrounding streets for any sign of a lost deity.

The queue was the longest Shirt had ever seen prior to the doors opening on a Spirit Sinema event, and they were about three-quarters of the way back.

After about ten minutes, the doors opened, and the queue slowly moved in. On reaching the entrance hall, they managed to dodge past all the people browsing the various Tom photos on offer, and register for the event, both being given a free ‘Mindwarp’ print.

Inside the signing hall, the queue for autograph vouchers was still quite small, whilst people were still selecting their photos. However, there was bad news that First Doctor nearly-companion and Seventh Doctor guest star, Jean Marsh would now not be attending.

Having both paid for far too many autographs, they moved off, just in time to hear one of the stewards declaring “Please collect a virtual queuing ticket for Tom from me”.

They therefore both managed to get low-numbered tickets, despite how far back they had been in the initial queue.

The first batch of tickets were called, comprising ten people. Looking at their tickets, it became clear that they would be in the third batch. They therefore took the opportunity to meet David McKail, Sergeant Kyle in ‘Talons of Weng-Chiang’.

Chancing another guest, they both met Nicholas Fawcett, who appears as the Technician at the start of ‘The Two Doctors’. DVDs signed and photos taken, finally their numbers were called, and the two joined the short queue for Tom, just behind Smithers, their acquaintance of the previous evening. One of the stewards then had fun hiding Smithers’ poster-tube, before he had a moment’s doubt as to whether a friend had wanted the poster dedicated or not.

Entering the side-room, two minutes later Shirt was placing his ‘Terror of the Zygons’ DVD cover in front of Tom, which was swiftly signed, meaning that Shirt moved off, allowing Dufus to get three Fourth Doctor covers signed. Photographs with the great man were to be later, so they returned to the main hall.

The next three guests were all from ‘The Daemons’ and so making their way round the room they got first Alec Linstead (Sergeant Osgood) , then David Simeon (Alistair Fergus), and finally John Owens (Thorpe), on their ‘The Daemons’ DVD sleeves, as well as photos with all three (two had Sherlockian connections, but Shirt couldn’t remember which two). John also gave them both a black-and-white 6x4 photo showing rehearsals on ‘the green’.

Having met all the morning guests, they waited around, until an announcement that photos with Tom would be in 20 minutes time. Dufus and Shirt therefore took the opportunity to go up the road to get some lunch. Returning to the hall, they had just enough time to eat the majority of this, prior to their numbers for Tom being called again.

Entering the side-room, there was a production line with cameras being handed to several stewards who then passed the appropriate one onto a colleague who had been tasked with taking the photos, as each person went to sit down next to Tom.

Dufus and Shirt slightly confused matters by wanting both photos on Dufus’ camera.

Photos taken with Tom, and they retrieved Dufus’ camera and finished their lunch.

Promised for the afternoon were four stars of ‘Mindwarp’, Patrick Ryecart, Alibe Parsons, Gordon Warnecke, and Lord Kiv himself, Christopher Ryan. On re-entering the main hall, Shirt was delighted to find a large model of Lord Kiv sitting on chairs behind the desk labelled with Christopher’s name.

First up was Gilbert Wynne from ‘The Krotons‘, who signed Dufus’ DVD cover.

Next was Christopher Ryan, who signed both their prints (both now hoping for a Nabil Shaban signing to complete the set) and Dufus’ DVD cover, before posing for photos holding Lord Kiv’s hands.

Moving along, Alibe Parsons also signed their DVD covers, followed by Gordon Warnecke who signed Dufus’ (Shirt having previously met him).

There being no sign of Patrick Ryecart, they joined a queue for sixties-designer, Alexandra Tynan (who designed the Cybermen) who was the autograph included with entry. Having previously met her on two occasions, Shirt got a Cyberman photo signed for Dufus.

Next up, was Geraldine Alexander, Areta in ‘Vengeance on Varos’, who signed Shirt’s ‘Vengeance: Special Edition’ DVD cover, and the covers of both editions for Dufus.

There was still no sign of Patrick Ryecart, for whom some attendees had been queuing for over 45 minutes. Shirt was beginning to experience serious deja-vu, having been at two previous events where Patrick had been advertised and not attended, without sending any apologies.

They therefore waited for a further fifteen minutes, at which point the organisers declared that refunds would now be given for autograph vouchers for Patrick.

Dufus and Shirt queued up, exchanging their voucher and vouchers respectively for banknotes.

[Shirt had had two red autograph vouchers, due to wishing to get his ‘The High Life’ DVD signed also, which he exchanged for a £20 note. Less than 24 hours later at another Spirit Sinema event with Peter Vaughan, he gave them back the £20 note and was given two red autograph vouchers in return]

Leaving the hall, they made their way back to the station, and then onto Shirt’s, where they rested for a short time, before making their way to spend the evening with Chalky and Tigger playing ‘Doctor Who: Lego Dimensions’ (but not before a close-shave due to turning right at a no-right-turn junction).

Having parted from Chalky and Tigger, they mused on an excellent weekend, as they wended their way back to Shirt’s obeying all traffic signals.

[PL]