Dufus & Shirt...

...On Thin Ice.

Having decided to attend Whooverville 10 in Derby at the very last minute, Shirt managed to negotiate a half day off from work on the Friday, making

his way up to Newark, being met at the station by Dufus after work. The evening was spent in devouring a supermarket pizza, gathering up items for signature the next day, and in watching a M&B Third Doctor and TARDIS that Dufus was selling on eBay, suddenly rocket up in price.

Having eaten breakfast, they at about the agreed time, and this time Dufus paid attention to his car’s sat-nav. However, this meant that they entered Derby from a different direction and could not find how to get to the car park that they had used the previous year, having instead to go into the expensive multi-storey.

Shirt again led the way to the venue, and having queued briefly for their tickets at the box office, they went up two floors to the main convention area. Popping into Cinema 2 where the first autographs were happening, they sat down in the second row of the queue, the first signers not having started. After around ten minutes, the fan next to Dufus asked, “Where’s Martha’s mother?”. Dufus was initially confused as she was clearly sitting at the second of the signing tables. However, it may have been that her closely cropped hairstyle had fooled the fan. After another five minutes, they were ushered forward to join a short queue for the first three guests.

First up was Series 10 guest star, Nicholas Burns (from ‘Thin Ice’) who signed both friends’ Series 10 posters. Shirt then struggled to swap his Series 10 poster with his Series 2 poster, getting Adjoa Andoh to sign this (she had already signed his Series 3 poster) whilst Dufus got his Series 3 boxset signed. The final guest was David Warner who signed Shirt’s ‘The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield: Volume 4’ boxset, and a Fourth Doctor Adventure for Dufus.

At this point, Dufus popped back to the car with both poster tubes as both had got all the signatures that they wanted on the posters inside, whilst Shirt browsed the stalls in the merchandise area. On Dufus’ return they moved into the main stage area, The John Hurt Cinema, in time to catch a panel featuring ‘Rose’ guest star, Mark Benton. It seemed that he had been a last minute replacement in the part, Mackenzie Crook, having been double-booked, and Mark having worked with RTD (and Eccleston) on ‘The Second Coming’ being thought of when recasting. He also spoke enthusiastically about ‘Shakespeare and Hathaway’ (with ‘Bad Wolf’s, Jo Joyner), the second series of which he was about to start filming.

They then remained in their seats for an informative panel with Nicholas Burns, who spoke about ‘Nathan Barley’, ‘Benidorm’ and working with Peter and Pearl.

Returning to the autograph room, they quickly managed to get free autographs from Paul Cornell – ‘Bernice Summerfield: Treasury’ for Shirt and the Series One Boxset for Dufus. They then joined a short queue to meet first, monster actor, Jon Davey, Mark Benton who signed Shirt’s Series One poster, Dufus’ Series One Boxset, and a ‘The Booze Cruise’ DVD boxset for Dufus’s girlfriend. The final guest was Michelle Ryan who signed a photo for Shirt and Dufus’ Specials Boxset.

Outside the signing room, they joined a short queue for sponsored guest, Brian Croucher, with both getting ‘The Robots of Death’ signed. Dufus then posed for a selfie with Blake’s 7’s second Travis.

Returning to the merchandise stalls, Shirt bought a copy of ‘The Daemons of Devil’s End’ from its director, Keith Barnfather, getting him to sign the cover, as well as his video sleeve for first production, ‘Wartime’. Keith handed the DVD sleeve along to be signed by Sam Stone and David J. Howe who were at the Telos stall next door. Shirt then also got Sam to sign the two Sherlock Holmes short stories that she had had in collections over the past few years, before posing for a photo taken by Dufus.

It was decided to drop off any excess items at Dufus’ car and get some lunch. Lunch was in Metro Sandwich Bar again, and on their return to the Main Stage, they were just in time to watch the end of a MDW panel. This was followed a presentation by Jon Davey of all the roles, monster and extra, that he had appeared in, followed by Adjoa Andoh. It was then time for Brian Croucher, who made his interviewer earn their money, before Sophie Aldred (a late replacement for the previously announced, Angela Bruce) took to the stage. Ending by talking about her recent excursions into interviewing on recent Mythmakers releases (Nicholas Briggs being very busy on Large Endings’ business), this side-stepped neatly into the next panel, Keith Barnfather talking about Reeltime Pictures productions.

Panel completed, and following a very unnecessary ‘sketch’ about the recent multi-Doctor signing-fest that was London Film & Comic Con’ (from 'We Sound Familiar', the group previously known as ‘The Ish Doctors’), the final event of the day was the drawing of the raffle, which again seemed to have almost unlimited prizes. However, the comedy group learning from the previous year, read the tickets out in quick succession.

Returning to Dufus’ car, having tried to identify how to get to the cheaper car park a few months later when they returned to Derby for ‘Big Finish Day 2018’, they sped back to Dufus. The evening was spent enjoying a Chinese meal at the nearby ‘Paddyfields’ restaurant.

Dufus dropped Shirt back at the station on Sunday lunchtime, having packed up the M&B TARDIS. As he wended his way home, Shirt mused on an enjoyable, if organised last-minute, weekend.

[PL]