Shirt…

...And the Lady.

Spirit Sinema had announced the first appearance of Michelle Ryan (‘Planet of the Dead’s Lady Christina de Souza) at a signing event, their May Signing Spectacular. Keith Drinkel who had been announced for their last event, was also to be present. Both Dufus and Shirt booked tickets, but unfortunately due to illness Dufus was unable to travel down for the event, so Shirt wended his way to Chiswick alone. He left plenty of time, as the first event of the day was a Michelle Ryan photo studio (with no table photos were being allowed later), and he needed to travel from the Clapham Junction platforms which also ran trains to Windsor, the location of that day’s Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Arriving around ten minutes before the doors were supposed to be opening, Shirt joined the longest queue that he had ever seen at a Spirit Sinema event. However, the queue was soon moving, and Shirt was handing over his confirmation e-mail and being given a sample disc of ‘WHO-TALK’, the day’s free gift. Buying his autograph vouchers and a photo studio voucher for Ms. Ryan, he walked into the main hall, where some guests had started signing. Following the signs to the Photo Studio in a side room, Shirt found no queue, and was able to hand over his voucher and simply step-up and stand next to Michelle for two photographs (one landscape, one portrait) to be taken.

“Everyone’s dressed so smartly”, commented Michelle, putting her arm around Shirt, who was dressed in his usual dark-blue shirt and black jeans combo.

Returning to the main hall, Shirt managed to extricate his ‘Series 3’ poster from his poster tube, and placed it before Richard Cant, who played Kathy Nightingale’s grandson in ‘Blink’. As he signed, Shirt marvelled at how much he now looks like his late father, Brian ‘Playaway’ Cant. This decided Shirt to have a photo with Richard.

After a brief rest in the sun on the chairs in the hall garden, Shirt joined the queue for Michelle Ryan’s autograph, which was already snaking outside and out of the hall. After around twenty minutes, with the fan behind Shirt constantly panicking that he might not get to meet regular supporting artist, Derek Martin, despite there being over an hour until he was due to stop signing. However, eventually he reached the front, handing over two autograph vouchers, and placing down his treasured ‘Companions’ book (having decided that Michelle counts as a companion). Having signed the open page, Michelle looked to see what the tome was.

“It’s the ‘Companions’”, explained Shirt, “I get classic series companions to sign the front, and new series companions, the back”, before adding “You’ve got to have a system”, like a proto-Harry-Hill.

He then proffered his ‘Specials’ poster, which was dutifully signed by Michelle.

Moving off, Shirt changed his mind about getting June Page (Keara from ‘Full Circle’) in the later session, and used another of his autograph vouchers to get Frances White’s autograph on a photo of her as Miss Flood from ‘May to December’, and a photo with her.

Shirt now had a long time to wait, particularly as he was not meeting Katy Manning, and not participating in any more photo studios. However, he bought a couple of DW-themed badges, and spent a short time sitting in the sun again, until stewards shouted that an ‘Eastenders’ group photo had been added to the sessions, having just realised that they had Michelle Ryan (Zoe Slater), Michelle Collins (Cindy Beale), Derek Martin (Charlie Slater) and Ellen Thomas (Claudette Hubbard/ Grace Olubunmi) all present, at which point he decided to see if his photo with Michelle was ready (it was) and go and get some lunch.

Returning to the hall, Shirt had another brief rest, before the afternoon signing session began. Sitting outside again, he noticed Keith Drinkel on his phone, describing the accident on the way that had led to his missing the last signing. The morning signers were still at their tables, and so there was a brief delay until the afternoon guests could be seated. When the sessions began, first up was the aforementioned Keith Drinkel, who signed Shirt’s ‘Time-Flight’ DVD cover, and posed for a photo (he’s in three Clive Merrison radio Holmes episodes).

The final person that Shirt wanted was Peter Caulfield, who played the blue-skinned Dahh-Ren in ‘Oxygen’. However, there was no sign of him at the table where he supposed to be signing. Despite this, Shirt joined the queue at his desk, which slowly got longer as other fans found themselves only needing Peter. The time was spent in watching Katy Manning being her usual scatty self (signing an hour after she should have finished) and in listening to the fans behind him moan about Series 11 even though it had not been on yet, and almost no details had been released about it. As time dragged on, Keith Guest (Marshman in ‘Full Circle) at the next signing table offered to colour his face in with a blue Sharpie and sign on Peter’s behalf.

Finally a steward came to state that Peter was ‘5 minutes away’, and ten minutes later, Peter entered at a run, and began signing. Five minutes later, and Shirt was getting his ‘Series 10’ poster signed by Peter and posing for a brief photo.

Exiting the hall and picking up a CD with both his Michelle Ryan images on (which should have been £1 but was free as the printed off photos were slightly too red), Shirt made his way back to the station, and via Clapham Junction home. Having managed to unpack his bag and have a brief sit-down, whilst catching up on the events of the Royal Wedding that were happening when he was meeting Ms. Ryan, Shirt left for his evening’s entertainment – Robert Powell and Liza Goddard in ‘Sherlock Holmes: The Final Curtain’ at the Rose Theatre in Kingston. Dufus was supposed to have been accompanying him, so Shirt felt a little pang of disappointment to be going on his own. Catching a bus, and listening to ‘Ghost Walk’ on the journey, he was soon in Kingston and making his way to the theatre.

After a couple of hours of pleasant Sherlockian entertainment (click here to read my review), and Shirt was making his way to the Stage Door of the Rose, hoping to increase his ‘people who have played Holmes’ count (this was Robert’s third time playing the Great Detective) and adding to his only ‘Mary Morstan’, Amanda Abbington. Already there was someone who had seen the play earlier in the week, but had missed the stars at the Stage Door then, being partly blind and therefore failing to recognise them on their exit. Shirt agreed to tell him when Robert and Liza came out. They were then joined by a family wanting to meet Robert.

After a short wait, Liza came out, and Shirt was momentarily unsure that it was her, but moved himself and his new friend towards her. The family were first, getting Liza on their programme, and then Shirt got the father to take a photo of him with Liza after she had signed the inside of his programme. He then took a photo of the other fan with Liza, taking a second when he was unhappy with the first.

After a few more minutes of forced chatter with his new friend, Robert exited. The family swooped on him, getting him to sign their programme and have a photo taken with the mother and daughter. Shirt was next, getting his programme signed and a photo taken by the father, who stated that he had to rush off (but Shirt didn’t want his photo taken by someone partially sighted). However, after Shirt had taken a photo of the other man with Robert, they all stood talking until Robert’s cab came.

Shirt made his way back through Kingston to the bus-stop, and wended his final way home to the strains of the conclusion of ‘Ghost Walk’. It had been a good day, but not the same without Dufus. Still Michelle Ryan had been announced for two other events in the next few months, maybe they could meet her together at a later date.

[PL]