Dufus
& Shirt…
…Are Valiant T(w)o The End
‘Spirit Sinema’
were having a convention in
‘That’s close to Dufus’,
thought Shirt.
It was therefore agreed that they
would both attend, and that Shirt would take advantage of Dufus’
hospitality after an eighteen-month hiatus.
Shirt therefore left work early and
made his way across
Arriving at Meadowhall
on time and having half-an-hour before his train left, Shirt managed to run
along the overbridge into the shopping centre and
made his way at speed to the food court where he managed to get some fast food,
before dashing back to buy his ticket, eating the food on the platform. The
train to Worksop chugged in, and Shirt managed to manhandle his luggage into
the overhead rack. Forty minutes later, the train reached Worksop, and as Shirt
walked along the platform, Dufus appeared from the
car park (having been contacted by Shirt ten minutes before). Five minutes
later and they were at Dufus’ home, and Shirt was
dumping his bags in the spare room, which seemed remarkably tidy. In fact the
whole top floor looked very tidy, and Shirt was pleased that he did not have to
clear a space on the floor to sit or create a bed.
The evening was spent in exchanging
‘Alien Armies’ cards, watching “Benidorm” with Dufus’ mother, giving Dufus his
signed Rodney
Bewes photo and in
catching up. Having chatted for a long time, they finally retired to their beds
just after midnight – Shirt deciding to risk sleeping on the two-seater sofa.
Rising at the agreed time, Dufus and Shirt checked their items for the event, printed
off directions to the car park described in an e-mail sent out by the
organisers, eat breakfast, and made their way to Dufus’
car. As they motored towards the M1, Dufus attempted
to be ‘cool’ again
by playing his recently bought ‘Jessie J’ CD. The
journey was going well, and they made it to the City Centre without incident.
However, despite having previously lived in Sheffield for three years, as when
they had travelled to see Anthony Ainley (see CDS…Pretend
to Be Northern), Shirt’s directions around town
proved ineffective. Having missed a turning and finally found somewhere to turn
around, they found the right road by accident, pulling into the multi-storey
car park that was the target of their quest. Shirt took the ticket for
safe-keeping, and they strode off looking for the convention venue, ‘The Circle’. Having wandered around for about ten minutes, they
looked at the e-mail again which stated that the car park was ‘nearby’ not
‘next-door’ as Shirt had believed. He also then remembered that it was supposed
to be near City Hall, which he realised was on the other side of the main road.
Having crossed the road, and walked down the first turning, they found the
venue almost immediately.
Joining a queue in the beginnings of
rain, they waited patiently to get into the venue and get their convention
packs. The queue moved slowly, but eventually Shirt was giving their names to
the organisers, and being given two packs, which came in brown paper bags. The two of them then confused stewards with their extra autograph
requests and photo-buying, all compounded by their lack of the right money.
This finally sorted, and they moved to the merchandise area being run by ‘Universe
10’, where Dufus bought an “End of Ten” books, whilst
Shirt ummed-and-ahhed over a pristine “The Eighties”
hardback for £5, to replace the battered dust-jacket on his multi-signed copy.
Shirt also picked up a voucher from reception to get half-price parking at the
car park.
Moving into the panel room, they found
some seats, and looked at their convention programmes and schedule. Shirt made
a half-hearted attempt at the provided wordsearch to win five ‘Spirit Sinema’
audios, but having only got two of the prize-words, was pleased when the first
panel began. First up was the bundle of energy that is Katy Manning, who proved
to be her usual mad manic self, whether talking about ‘Sarah Jane Adventures’,
‘Large Endings’ audios or the recently departed Nicholas Courtney. She also
seemed very surprised to learn that the day was Saturday not Sunday, believing
that she had an appointment the next day which was now not for two days. Her
telephone kept ringing, but Katy remained stolid and did not answer it. Having
answered a few questions from fans, the panel ended and Katy moved to the back
of the hall to the Photo Studio. Dufus and Shirt, however, moved outside to the
signing tables, and Terry Molloy who had no queue. Covers signed, Shirt having learnt his lesson and referring to “no extras”, and
the two moved to get items signed by Joseph Lidster and Simon Guerrier. These
items also signed, they joined the slowly growing queue for Katy who was still
in the Photo Studio.
Eventually Ms. Manning appeared, and
the queue began moving slowly, very slowly. This was mainly due to Katy
gabbling on to each fan as she signed, and posing for photographs with
everyone. After about half-an-hour, Dufus and Shirt
finally reached the front, but not before the fan in front had seemingly been recognised by Katy.
"Have we met before, luvvie ?", asked the mad one.
"No, but you met my Dad in the Seventies, and we look alike."
"That must be it", said Katy, seemingly not joking.
Shirt was first, getting a DVD cover and Iris Wildthyme audio cover signed. Moving off, Dufus was getting his items signed, but not until he had
reminded Katy of the
incident. Dufus posed
for a photo with Katy taken by the steward, and moved off to join Shirt. The
queue for Katy was now ridiculously long, and Dufus
and Shirt were glad that they joined it when they did.
Returning to the panel room, they were
just in time for the start of Terry Molloy’s panel. Terry spoke enthusiastically
about ‘The Archers’, his time as Davros, and the
problems of acting behind a mask. He had also been presented with the
“Resurrection” Davros Action Figure, which he seemed
to think was a good representation of his version of the Dalek
Creator.
It being 1pm, they decided to pop out
and get some lunch. They were surprised that not only had Katy Manning’s queue
still been there when they left, it was still there when they got back
half-an-hour later.
Back at the event, there didn’t seem
to be any queues for the three guests from “Warrior’s Gate”, their tables being
hemmed in by Katy’s continuing queue. However, when the guests arrived, the
organisers called forward anyone who just wanted those guests and not Katy, so Dufus and Shirt were first in the queue for Clifford Rose. Dufus was first:
“Three of my autographs”, he said,
placing down the autograph sheet.
“You get two free autographs”, said
the steward confused.
“He wants five in total, three extra”,
added Shirt helpfully.
‘Secret Army’ and ‘Kessler’ boxsets, as well as ‘Warriors Gate’ DVD and video sleeves,
and ‘The Scapegoat’ audio cover, signed, Dufus took a
photo of Clifford and moved off to meet Kenneth Cope. His video and DVD sleeves
also signed, and Shirt followed him two minutes later.
Kenneth was just finishing signing a
“Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)” photo for Dufus, and happily posed for a photo with him. Shirt got
his two covers signed, and the two moved to David Weston (who for some
inexplicable reason, Dufus kept referring to as Bill
Weston [a Hollywood stuntman] – maybe it’s something about people called David).
Covers signed, (once David had found a
space due to Clifford’s large signature) and they joined a queue for Sophie Aldred. Katy had just finished signing, and dashed past to
get a taxi.
Dufus
and Shirt were about fifth and sixth in the queue, when Sophie came through
from her Photo Studio. She began happily signing, and soon Shirt was getting
her to sign two audio covers and a “Battlefield” DVD cover.
“Ben Aaronovich
signs so large”, commented Sophie as she struggled to find somewhere to sign.
Having made a contribution to
Macmillan Nursing in memory of Nicholas Courtney, Shirt got his photo taken with Sophie and moved off.
Dufus having got his items and photo
then rejoined Shirt, and they managed to get autographs from a youthful-looking
Roy Spencer before going back into the panel room to hear the end of Sheila
Steafel’s panel, Shirt having finally purchased the additional copy of “The
Eighties”. Sheila’s being the final signature that they needed, Shirt waited
outside in the queue whilst Dufus listened to the “Warrior’s Gate” panel.
Sheila finally emerged, and Shirt got her on his video and DVD of the Dalek
films. Dufus then came out and joined the short queue, whilst Shirt saved him a
seat in the panel room, sitting behind Yorkshire's biggest David Tennant fan.
On his return, Dufus was found to have
also bought Sheila’s autobiography, which dealt with her marriage to Harry H.
Corbett. The “Warrior’s Gate” panel continued with questions about ‘Secret
Army’, the ‘Carry On’ films and acting in general, and all three seemed proud
of their ‘Doctor Who’ connection.
The final panel of the day was Sophie Aldred, who again spoke enthusiastically both about her
television stories and her audio adventures. She also seemed excited about the
recently announced “ACE” DVD boxset, although she
admitted that she did not know which stories would be included. However, she
expressed disappointment at the fate of ‘Dorothy’ described in “Death of the
Doctor”. The panel ended with a quiz about her time on the programme, which she
scored very highly on. The day ended with a raffle drawn by Sophie, in which
controversially two attendees both won twice. The wordsearch
competition seemed to have been forgotten, and with the promise of ‘Valiant 3’
the same time next year, with ‘old Sixy’ Colin Baker,
the event came to an end.
Returning to the car park, due to
using the wrong payment machine, they found themselves stuck on the wrong floor
of the car park. Waiting until there were no cars coming, they ended up having
to run down the ramp to the next level. Finally reaching Dufus’
car, they stowed their bags, and made their way around Sheffield City Centre,
and back to Worksop and Dufus’ mother, with no wrong
turns. Their evening was spent eating a Chinese takeaway, on Dufus’ wheezing computer, on managing to get photos from Dufus’ camera to appear on his television to show his
mother, and in Shirt giving Dufus his built-up Christmas
and Birthday presents.
The next morning, after posing for a
photo for Shirt to digitally add to a Sherlockian-themed
photo of the rest of the gang that he had taken on his birthday a fortnight
before, Dufus drove Shirt to Meadowhall,
due to their not being any trains from Worksop until lunchtime. Parking as far
away from the interchange as it could have been possible, they finally reached
the stop, where after ten minutes the coach arrived. Dufus
kept an eye on Shirt’s luggage whilst he boarded, and waved him off. As he sped
homewards, listening to the excellent ‘Peri and the Piscon Paradox', Shirt mused on another splendid weekend with Dufus. When was ‘Valiant 3’ again ?
[PL]