Dufus & Shirt...

...Look Who's Back (And It's About Time !)

With Special Guest Appearances by Chalky, Tigger, Lupine, Enigma, Scooby & Alfie.

It had been a long gap (almost four-and-a-half years), but Dufus was back to attending signing events. The double-header of a new Spirit Sinema event and Tigger’s birthday meant that a trip down from Scunthorpe was called for. Arriving on Friday night, having driven for hours through driving rain, Dufus was not fit for much more than watching the India Fisher-narrated ‘Celebrity Masterchef’ final.

The next day, covers were gathered, and the two drove down to the nearby station, parking in the car park, with Shirt just having enough time to explain to Dufus how the Oyster Card that he was lending him worked before the train pulled in. The first port of call was ‘The What Shop’ as Dufus had never visited their new premises. Arriving there just after eleven, Shirt left Dufus to browse, attempting to absent himself from discussions about exactly what Dufus could or could not afford. Dufus’ rifling through racks of T-shirts to find one in his size drew the attention of Helen A, who greeted him as an old friend, and seemed to be surprised that it had been over ten years since he had last graced her establishment. Final decisions made – a ‘TARDIS timeline’ T-shirt and mug, Issue 1 of ‘Doctor Who Comic’ and few other small items – and Dufus was paying for his purchases, admiring the new design of the What Shop bags. Shirt paid for a copy of ‘Doctor Who Adventures’ that he had not bought when his subscription had been cancelled, and the two made their way back to Upton Park station.

“Oh, I forgot to ask who they were getting for their Titan Comics Day next month”, Shirt admonished himself, before adding “What am I talking about, it’s almost certainly Lee Sullivan”.

Back at London Waterloo, there was a brief moment of indecision as to whether they had time to pop to Naughty Asteroid before catching a train to Chiswick. In the end, Shirt decided that they shouldn’t chance it, and so quickly visiting a cashpoint, they got onto a train due to leave a minute later. Sitting back on the train, they worked out how many of each colour autograph vouchers they needed for the Spirit Sinema signing.

There was a brief delay due to woman trespassing on the tracks at Barnes Bridge, but soon they were arriving at Chiswick station, and following another attendee over the bridge. Dufus then had a few problems tapping out with his Oyster Card, meaning that others got a head-start. Walking down the long road, they eventually found the turn-off they needed, but on the corner they passed an elderly couple were scrutinising their ‘A-Z’. The husband looked like a cross between Father Christmas and Del and Rodney’s Uncle Albert, but Shirt was struck by a previous comparison – ‘like a cross between Christopher Benjamin and Chalky’s Dad’ – realising that the man was Christopher Robbie, ‘Revenge Cyberleader’ and ‘Karkus’, whom he had met at a previous Spirit Sinema Cyberman-themed event (where he had also met his idol, Clive Merrison) four years before, who was one of that day’s guests also.

They therefore turned back.

“Where are you looking for ?”, asked Shirt, knowing the answer.

“Where you’ve just come from”, replied Christopher, noticing Shirt’s Capaldi T-shirt.

“No, we’re just on our way there. Feel free to follow us”, said Shirt.

A procession then formed, with Shirt striding out, leading the way, occasionally calling back encouragingly to the others, Dufus and Christopher walking together and chatting awkwardly, and Mrs. Robbie taking up the rear. Eventually Mrs. Robbie peeled off from the line, stating that she would see her husband there.

Turning into the side-street, Shirt walked up to the door of the hall, where one of the organisers was standing, presenting him with Mr. Robbie.

Shirt handed over the confirmation e-mail for him and Dufus, being given two Spirit Sinema catalogues and two ‘Free Autograph’ vouchers for Dick Mills. Moving into the main hall, they joined a long queue to buy autograph vouchers, with many people not knowing how many they needed, and one attendee asking for something that didn’t seem to be allowed. Finally Shirt was getting his vouchers, and prompting Dufus with the numbers he needed of each colour.

It had reached the official start time, and around a third of the guests had arrived. Dufus and Shirt therefore joined their first queue, for Deborah Watling. Placing his ‘Web of Fear’ cover in front of her, and handing over an autograph voucher, Shirt asked “Can you sign it to Shirt, please ?”.

Looking up at him, Deborah asked “We haven’t met before, have we, Shirt ?”

“Not for a very, very long time”, responded Shirt, before realising that there were too many ‘very’s in that sentence, attempting to save the situation by adding, “I look much older, but you look just the same !”.

Cover signed, “under Dad”, and Shirt was moving off.

Two items signed for Dufus, and he was joining Shirt, who needed to avail himself of the facilities.

Dufus therefore joined the queue for their former walking buddy, Christopher Robbie, and ‘Revenge of the Cyberman’ DVD cover signed, asked for a photo to be taken by the steward of him with his new friend.

Shirt having rejoined him, and directed Mrs. Robbie to her husband, they decided to wait for the queue for Tony ‘Roy Evans’ Caunter to go down, and so joined the queue to the side-room where Dick Mills and Terrance Dicks were signing (but not before Dufus had bought a photo for Dick to sign). The queue moved slowly, but after a short while, Shirt was handing over his ‘Doctor Who: Sound Effects’ CD (which had only arrived in the post the day before) and his beloved ‘The Eighties’ hardback. Moving along to Terrance, Shirt got his ‘State of Decay’ DVD sleeve and ‘Beyond the Ultimate Adventure’ CD sleeve signed (Terrance’s muted response to the latter, possibly explaining why there have been no other Dicks-authored Large Endings audios).

Having got his Dick Mills photo signed, Dufus rejoined Shirt, and they made their way back to the main hall, where Dufus got Robert Ashby to sign his ‘Timelash’ cover, in which he plays the Borad. Shirt had met Robert previously, so just took the photo.

“He looks like a slightly swarthy version of your Dad”, Dufus told Shirt, wishing to continue the ‘he looks a bit like ___’s Dad’ started by Shirt referring to Christopher Robbie thus.

Michelle Collins not yet having arrived, they decided not to join the short queue already at her signing table, and instead joined the slow moving queue for Tony Caunter, which snaked out into the hall’s garden area, due to Tony’s insistence at chatting away to everyone. Shirt continued looking through the building’s windows to the road outside, and seeing one of the organisers welcoming a blonde woman who had just got out of a car, hissed to Dufus, “It’s Michelle Collins !!”.

They therefore side-stepped, joining her much shorter queue, and two minutes later, Michelle was sitting down at her table, and signing.

Five minutes later, Shirt was first, getting her to sign the cover for the Large Endings’ audio-version of the RTD-penned New Adventure, ‘Damaged Goods’.

Michelle was just asking the steward next to her, whether her Corrie co-star, Sean Gallagher, had ever done a signing. The steward was unsure, but Shirt was able to help.

“He did one just after ‘New Earth’ had been on television, at a shop in Barking”, said Shirt, glancing at the small dog in Michelle’s bag behind her.

Dufus then took a photo of Shirt being squeezed by Michelle, before getting his Series 3 box-set and a photo signed, with Shirt returning the favour by taking his photo with Michelle.

Returning to Tony’s queue, which had reduced, they finally met the final guest of the first session (neither having brought anything for John ‘The Gravis’ Gillet to sign), with Shirt getting ‘Enlightenment’ and Dufus ‘Colony in Space’ signed by him. Both posed for photos taken by the other (Tony having been in the Geoffrey Whitehead/Donald Pickering SH TV series, meaning that Shirt wanted a photo).

Retracing their earlier steps (but sans the Robbies) they entered the nearby supermarket to buy a late lunch. Returning to the hall and eating their food, sitting on the wall, both agreed that it was ‘just like old times’. As if to prove this, Dufus also decided that he needed a few more autograph vouchers, and so having purchased these, they re-entered the fray for the second signing session.

They began with Terence Wilton, who signed both their ‘Invasion of the Dinosaurs’ covers, before moving over to the other side of the hall, and Michael Kilgarriff.

He signed Shirt’s multi-signed ‘Attack of the Cybermen’ DVD, apologising for the tremor that he has in old-age, before posing for a photo (he’s a Merrison guest star).

Next up was Dufus, who placed down an unsigned ‘Robot’ cover.

“It’s a virgin !”, exclaimed Michael. Dufus was about to put him right, but suddenly realised that he meant the cover. (Shirt also considered making a ‘Kilgarriff speaks the truth’ joke, but thought better of it). Photo taken of Michael with Dufus, and they were again moving off. Shirt briefly considered approaching Toby Hadoke, who was just getting a Michael Kilgarriff autograph, to ask for a photo, but again thought better of it.

Joining a queue into the side-room, they sorted covers, Dufus managing to avoid dropping everything, by getting Shirt to hold various things whilst he sorted himself out. On entering the room, no-one seemed to be queuing for Carmen Munroe (formerly of ‘Desmonds’) who appeared in ‘The Enemy of the World’, so Dufus briefly moved out of the queue, got his cover signed, and rejoined behind Shirt (Carmen was not allowing photos). Soon Shirt was meeting Milton Johns (a man who seemed perfect for a role in an SH dramatisation, but Shirt couldn’t find such a credit online), who signed Shirt’s ‘The Android Invasion’ cover, before revealing that he lives near to Chalky and Tigger. Photo taken by the steward, and Shirt was moving off to a nearby bench, whilst Dufus got three DVD covers signed, and also posed for a photo.

Returning to the main hall, Dufus got Paul Jerricho on a DVD cover, before both joined the queue for Adrian ‘He was the Doctor all the time’ Gibbs, ‘The Watcher’ in ‘Logopolis’. DVD cover (Shirt) and video cover (Dufus) signed and both were getting their photo with this ‘Other Doctor’ (Shirt’s Doctor-count now being at 20). The final guest of the day was Robert Jezek, who signed the friends’ ‘Battlefield’ covers, with both also getting a photo (Shirt having realised that he didn’t have a photo of himself with the voice of Frobisher).

Leaving the hall, they made their way back to the Station, stopping briefly to dispose of the waste from their lunch, and to both buy an additional drink. Sitting back on the train, they mused on the day’s events, with Dufus resolving to accompany Shirt to the upcoming ‘Large Endings Day 7’.

With minimum of fuss, they made their way back to Dufus’ car, briefly making a detour to pick up birthday cards for Tigger (Shirt finding a card design that he and his family had been looking everywhere for for Dufus’ recent birthday, not realising that he had originally seen it in a shop on his local high street).

Driving to Chalky and Tigger’s, Dufus was reunited with Lupine, and later with Enigma and Scooby (He also met Alfie, but as this was for the first time, it wasn’t really a reunion). Enigma cried on seeing Dufus again, for the first time since Chalky and Tigger’s wedding ten years before.

“Dufus always make women cry”, commented Chalky, “but it’s not usually with joy”.

An evening of catching-up, Tigger’s wonderful cooking, and the inevitable round of ‘Whoonu’ completed, and they were all posing for a photo taken by Alfie.

Chalky, Dufus & Shirt (& Enigma, Lupine, Tigger, Scooby & Alfie) were back together again – roll on the next adventure !!!!

[PL]