Shirt…

...Gets a Rory Deal

Day Two (Sunday)

Rising at 8am, Shirt got himself ready, then made his way down to the hotel restaurant where he filled up on the breakfast buffet included in the room price. There was no sign of any of the celebrity guests, so Shirt made his way back to his room to pick up his bag of items for signing, before making his way to the signing room, stopping to pay for two extra Arthur Darvill signatures and one for Christopher Benjamin.

The hall was just opening as he arrived, and fans were being shown which tables to queue at. Signing first would be Seventh Doctor & Ace, Sylvester McCoy & Sophie Aldred, and First Doctor companion, Carole Ann Ford. Shirt decided that Sylvester’s queue would probably get longest, so joined that one. This proved to be the wrong decision as Carole Ann Ford was first to arrive, and if Shirt had joined her queue, he could have got his item signed, and only been about five places further back in Sylvester’s queue. Sylvester and Sophie finally arrived and began signing items. Reaching the front, Shirt proffered his programme with autograph list and “Enemy of the Daleks” CD sleeve. Moving across to the next queue, a few minutes later he was getting Sophie to sign his “Forty-Five” CD cover. Joining the queue for Carole Ann, when Shirt was about five places from the front, Ms. Ford left the hall for a photo studio.

Shirt was about to curse his luck when two new signing guests arrived – Jago and Litefoot, Christopher Benjamin & Trevor Baxter. Large Endings’ representatives also appeared, flogging the ‘J&L – Series 1 Boxset’. Shirt already had his copy, and so joined the shorter queue, for Trevor, getting his signature on the boxset. Moving across, he slowly made his way towards Christopher, finally reaching the front where Christopher signed his boxset and Series 4 poster (which Shirt had forgotten the last time he met him – see CDS…Oh, The Horror of It All).

Carole Ann was still being photographed, and so Shirt popped into the merchandise room again. Lisa & Sarah were still signing, but now on the table was the “Stockbridge” CD that they had not had the previous day, as well as a sign stating “All 3 CDS for £30”. Appealing to David Richardson, Shirt was allowed to buy the third CD for £10, getting this signed by Sarah also.

Returning to the main hall, Carole Ann was back, and so Shirt joined a short queue and was soon getting his “An Unearthly Child” DVD signed. Carole jabbed at the other signature on the cover.

“Where did you meet Waris Hussein ?”, she asked.

Shirt was initially unable to remember, then stuttered something about “Invasion” a couple of years ago.

Returning to his hotel room, Shirt ensured that he had all his belongings, going down to reception to check-out. He again stowed his overnight bag with the concierge, adding his poster tube as well as he did not think he would need it again. On his way back, Shirt decided to buy a ticket for Arthur’s photo studio.

Back at the main hall, Shirt took the same seat as the previous day, and settled in for panels for the rest of the morning.

First up were Sylvester and Sophie, who as Sylvester had the previous year (see CDS…Do Not Go To The Ball) dispensed with the need for an interviewer, taking turns going out into the audience with a roving microphone for audience questions.

Next up was a panel that Shirt had been looking forward to – Christopher Benjamin & Trevor Baxter. The banter from “Hinchcliffe Horror” remained, with both mercilessly mocking the other. Christopher also expressed feelings for both Felicity Kendal and his “J&L” director, Lisa Bowerman, who sat at the back with Sarah Sutton, laughing and being embarrassed in equal measure. Trevor revealed that “Talons” is the only ‘Doctor Who’ that he has ever watched, but expressed a desire to be in the new series if only to lessen the gap with Christopher who has appeared in the series three times. Shirt viewed it as another win for Christopher.

Morning panels completed, and the compere quickly got up on stage to state that Phil Ford would be attending that afternoon, along with Justin Richards who would be on the Large Endings’ stall.

Shirt made his way for the first Photo Studio session that he had ever attended at an event. Quite a long queue had built up outside, and after a few minutes, Arthur went past, closely followed by the rest of the day’s guests for the ‘group-shot’. Ten minutes later, and said guests, save Arthur, having traipsed back past the queue to the ‘green room’, and the queue started moving quickly. After 15 minutes, Shirt was inside the room, stowing his bag on a side-table. The photographer had a set-script that he was repeating ad-infinitum:

“Can you step forward, sir/madam?”

“Look over here” [Click]

“Just wait there” [checks photo on screen on back of camera]

“Thank you very much”

Occasionally a second shot needed to be taken, otherwise the script was repeated. Shirt was reminded of a deleted scene from “Cruise of the Gods” in which Rob Brydon is driven mad by such repetition. Arthur seemed to be coping though.

Five minutes later, and it was Shirt that was being called up. Handing his ticket to the staff member, he strode over, Arthur shook his hand as he had all the others, Shirt stood beside him, Arthur placed his arm behind Shirt’s back, the picture was taken, checked, and Shirt moved off, retrieving his bag from the back of the room.

Moving to the concierge desk, Shirt managed to get his poster tube back, and retrieve his “Jago and Litefoot” boxset for Justin Richards to sign.

A queue had formed outside the main hall, as the next signing session featured Arthur’s only signing of the day. Shirt decided to join this, as he was still stuffed from breakfast. The 45 minute wait was broken by another fan outlining the reasons for guest cancellations, which may have been given out at the opening ceremony on Friday. Sophia Myles was filming her new role as a regular on “Spooks”, Sean Gilder’s wife was about to give birth, but it was unclear why David Troughton had pulled out, and was so guilty about this that he agreed to sign pre-orders. Phil Ford it seemed, had been forbidden to come by Gary Russell until he had finished a “Sarah Jane Adventures” script due on Monday, despite only living 15 minutes from the venue.

The hall finally opened, and the queue surged in. Staff members were trying to encourage people to join little queues, but unsurprisingly almost everyone made for the table where Arthur would be signing, leaving very small queues for Andrew Hayden-Smith, Nicholas Briggs, Ruari Mears, Ian McNeice, Phil Ford, Gary Russell, Carole Ann, Sylvester, Sophie, Christopher & Trevor.

Five minutes later, Arthur arrived, and began the gargantuan task of signing for the long queue that had formed. About ten minutes later, Shirt was at the front of the queue, where he handed over his “Companions” book, followed by a photo and his Series 5 poster.

“Do you want them all – ‘To Shirt’?”, asked Arthur.

“Book and photo, dedicated; poster, undedicated, please”, replied Shirt, thinking that Arthur seemed surprisingly upbeat.

Thanking Arthur, Shirt moved off, looking for Phil Ford.

Phil’s queue found, Shirt struggled to remove his Specials poster from the tube, as the price list the day before had stated that as with Gary Russell, extra items from Phil were free (and he co-wrote “The Waters of Mars”).

Reaching the front, Shirt got his “Dreamland” cover signed, and made to offer the poster.

“One item only, extra items cost”, said the staff member sat next to Phil.

“Oh, I was misinformed”, said Shirt leaving with his poster. He considered arguing, but was worried that he might be charged for his extra Gary Russell items the day before.

A quick detour to the payment desk, revealed that the price list now stated that extra items for Gary and Phil were £10 each.

Returning to the merchandise room, Shirt got Justin Richards on his “Jago & Litefoot: The Bloodless Soldier” CD cover.

Wandering into the ENC, Shirt managed to grab a quick late lunch, eating very little as he was still full from breakfast.

Returning to the main hall, Shirt found that Arthur was just finishing up with around ten minutes to spare, meaning that Shirt could have joined his queue later.

Taking his usual seat, the first session of the afternoon was another screening with live commentary. The guests being Phil Ford and Gary Russell, Shirt was unsurprised when the episode was revealed as “Dreamland”. Another witty forty-five minutes of banter, and the lights were being turned on again. Many attendees seemed to have never seen the episode before, and so the fact that the subtitles had accidentally been left on worked well. A question-and-answer session ensued in which neither revealed anything about the next two series of “Sarah Jane Adventures”.

Next up was Carole Ann Ford, who spoke about getting the role, “St. Trinians”, Richard Hurndall, and William Hartnell, with whom she seemed to get on better than most people.

The final panel was Arthur Darvill, who spoke enthusiastically about his time on the programme and his first experience of a convention. He also spoke about his involvement in several musical projects, but denied that he would be returning in the Series 5 finale. He also dealt very diplomatically with the obvious “What’s it like kissing Karen Gillan ?” question, describing the non-emotional nature of such scenes. He remained upbeat and so his attendance at future events looked more likely.

The other guests having gone, making a closing ceremony impossible, the event ended there, with the promise of a Bad Wolf 2011, but at a new venue.

Shirt made his way through heavy rain into the ENC, where he found former ‘Blue Peter’ presenter, Konnie Huq, doing a piece to camera for ‘The Xtra Factor’ (despite the Birmingham auditions not starting until the next day). Normally Shirt would have stopped to watch, but he was still annoyed at Konnie for getting engaged to television satirist, Charlie Brooker (‘I can be rude in a witty way about televison, marry me instead’ fumed Shirt internally when he found out). It was then on to the station, getting there far too early for his booked train. Having waited for around twenty minutes, the train came, Shirt found his booked seat, settling back to the strains of Parts 3 and 4 of “City of Spires”. As he sped along, Shirt mused on the weekend – the first and most recent companions, three other companions, ‘Jago & Litefoot’, two Doctors, two writers, two voice artists, two child stars, and two live screenings. It had been a good weekend, but something had been missing – was it the previously announced three new series guests ? No – it was Dufus, Bad Wolf just wasn’t Bad Wolf without him for Shirt. Let’s hope they can both frequent the new venue next year.

Go back to Day One.

[PL]