Shirt…

...Shipshape and Bristol Fashion.

Day Two – Sunday

Having stowed anything that he didn’t need for the second day of the convention in the hostel’s luggage room, Shirt checked out and made his way back to the convention hotel.

The first panel of the day was Louise Jameson (who kept promoting her upcoming convention despite it clashing with a Spirit Sinema event), followed by one-half of the ‘Bristol Boys’, Bob Baker.

These completed, Bernard Holley appeared to do a quick auction for two action figure sets (one featuring him as an Axon). Shirt decided not to bid, instead going next door to start queuing for autographs.

First up was John Ogwen, ‘Bostock‘ in ‘Revelation’, who signed Shirt’s DVD and video covers.

Next was Trevor Cooper, who signed a ‘Revelation’ DVD cover, as well as becoming the first signature on Shirt’s Series 8 poster, following his turn as Friar Tuck in ‘Robot of Sherwood’.

Bridget Lynch-Blosse, ‘Natasha’ in ‘Revelation’ hadn’t arrived yet, so Shirt moved on to Bernard Holley, getting him to sign Large Endings’ ‘The Feast of Axos’ and ‘Love and War’.

Moving up to the far end of the room, Shirt queued for Nicholas Pegg, getting him to sign his Series 7B poster (for ‘Day of the Doctor’ and ‘Time of the Doctor’), and was in the process of moving away, when he had a thought.

“Were you in Series 5 ?”, he asked.

“Which one was Series 5 ?”, asked Nick.

“The first Matt Smith one”.

“Yes – ‘Victory of the Daleks’ !”.

Shirt therefore returned to the signing table and got Nick to sign his Series 5 poster that he had brought for other guests later.

Barnaby then also signed the Series 7B poster, as well as the Series 8 poster for ‘Into the Dalek’.

Bob Baker had begun signing early, so Shirt got his ‘Underworld’ and ‘Nightmare of Eden’ DVD covers signed.

There still being no sign of Bridget, Shirt returned to the panel room to catch a panel with regular monster actor, Ruari Mears, who also lived locally. (‘They obviously just went through the Bristol telephone directory’ mused Shirt, thinking also of Bob & Elliot).

Returning to the merchandise room, Bridget had now arrived and signed Shirt’s DVD and video covers, but not until she had expressed disdain for a fan dressed as a Cyberman.

After another chat with IndyTimelord, Shirt arrived back in the panel room, Shirt caught the end of a live commentary on ‘Underworld’ by Louise and Bob, before it was again lunchtime.

Returning an hour later, Shirt enjoyed a panel with the ‘Revelation’ guest stars who were very diplomatic about working with Jenny Tomasin and Clive Swift.

Back in the merchandise room, Shirt queued up for Alun Raglan and Samuel Davies from ‘The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood‘, getting them both on a photo of them together, and Samuel on his Series 5 poster (having met Alun previously).

Next was Ruari Mears who signed Series 5 and 7B posters.

The final autographs of the weekend were from Louise Jameson, who signed Shirt’s ‘The Face of Evil’ DVD sleeve and her self-penned Large Endings’ Fourth Doctor Adventure, ‘The Abandoned’, before posing for a photo.

Leaving the merchandise room for the final time, Shirt enjoyed the final panel of the day, Barnaby and Nick, which covered both nu-Who and Large Endings. A final goodbye and Shirt was making his way out of the hotel and back down to the city’s waterfront and the Youth Hostel.

Having retrieved his luggage, Shirt sat on the waterfront, listening to Bernice Summerfield audio, ‘The Revolution’, guest-starring Sylvester McCoy and Nicola Bryant.

Making his way to the coach pick-up point, Shirt waited patiently. After about ten minutes, another passenger approached him.

“The London coach is late, yes ?”, he asked in broken English, “It should have come at 6.45 ?”

“No, it’s due at 7.10”, said Shirt.

“No, 6.45”, said the man, showing Shirt a piece of paper stating that he was booked on the 6.45 coach to London. Shirt read the paper carefully several times, before breaking the bad news.

“You are booked on the 6.45 coach today, but 6.45am. It went twelve hours ago, you wanted the 19.10 coach. They use the 24-hour clock. You’ll need to book another coach”.

Muttering to himself, the man disappeared in search of a computer to book himself onto another coach.

Five minutes later, another man approached Shirt’s ‘information point’, but he was booked with National Express and this was the Megabus stop, so Shirt pointed him in the direction of the coach station, being aware that the man was likely to get there too late to catch his coach.

Fifteen minutes late, the coach arrived, and Shirt clambered on, lying back in his seat to the strains of ‘Starlight Robbery’, as the coach sped home, leaving him to ponder another excellent Spirit Sinema event.

Back to Day One.

 [PL]