Shirt…

…Has His Plumbing Inspected.

KATY	SHIRT	BECCY

Seventh Galaxy had announced another double-header - antipodean mad-woman, Katy Manning, and New Series guest-star, Beccy Armory (little blue-faced plumber Raffalo in “The End of the World”). Only Shirt was interested in attending, the other two having had enough of Ms. Manning in recent years. And so he slowly made his way to Seventh Galaxy.

As both guests were signing photographs, the queue was not as long as some weeks. Having picked up the requisite photos, Shirt joined the queue. Whilst waiting for the signing to start, he began reading the FSX Special that he had just purchased, settling in for the long-term, it’s not as if the signing would start on time at 12pm !

At 11.56am, the queue started moving, much to everyone’s surprise. It moved at a slow pace, but when the first few people emerged stating how chatty Ms. Manning was, the ‘mystery’ was solved. That said, 45 minutes later, Shirt was entering the shop.

“Two personal items”, Poppy told him, “Or £5 for each additional items”.

Shirt joined the small queue by the signing table. Katy was happily chatting away to anyone and everyone, whilst Beccy just looked shell-shocked at her signing companion.

“You’re starting at the deep-end of DW signings with me !”, Katy told her.

Shirt silently agreed.

Beccy decided to attempt to win Katy over by complimenting her on her DW costumes, as seen in the many photos that fans had brought for her to sign. One comment – “You can’t go wrong with boots” – endeared her even more to Shirt.

The man in front paid for an extra item, unfortunately Katy took a dislike to the photo, stating that she hated it. However, she agreed to sign it, putting the phrase “Do I look bothered” before handing it back. Suddenly a thought seized her:

“Did I put your name on it ?”, she asked.

“I don’t know, I’ve got new lenses in”, replied the fan, holding the photo right up to his face, squinting at in a perfect impersonation of Mr. Whisky. To hurry things along, both Shirt and Beccy told Katy that she hadn’t.

“Should have gone to Specsavers”, both Katy and Beccy told the man.

The photo dedicated, the man moved off, and Shirt placed down his bought photo, as well as DVD covers for “The Claws of Axos” and “The Green Death”. Katy happily signed the first two items, but looking at the “Green Death” cover, asked:

“Who’s signed all over my face ?”

“Stewart Bevan”, stuttered Shirt, after a short pause.

“No wonder I never married him”, responded Katy, explaining to Beccy about their brief engagement.

Beccy seemed unsure whether to laugh or be supportive. To save her blushes, Shirt moved along to offer his photo, Series 1 publicity poster and “The Shooting Scripts”.

“Have we met before ?”, asked Beccy, smiling enchantingly as she signed the items.

“I promise that it’s not me that you’ve seen hiding in the bushes opposite your house”, joked Shirt.

Beccy laughed at this, and still trying to place him, asked if Shirt attended a lot of non-WHO signing events. Shirt told her ‘no’, and Ms. Armory posed for a photo.

Leaving the shop, Shirt wasted some time in London, before making his way to Naughty Asteroid, where the authors of the new Tenth Doctor novels were doing a signing. Unfortunately, the posters indicated that Jacqueline Rayner was ill and would not be attending. There also seemed to be a lack of any queue, despite the signing being due to start in 10 minutes.

5 minutes later, two people formed a queue, and Shirt joined on behind.

Another 5 minutes later, and Justin Richards & Stephen Cole arrived, sat down, and two minutes later were signing Shirt’s books, and two that Dufus had asked him to buy. These completed, Shirt got a few of his other Richards and Cole books signed, before wending his merry way to Chalky and Tigger’s home for a evening of videos.

[PL]