Shirt had a clash !! Not only was it London Film and Comic Con, but Seventh Galaxy were also running a signing with guest stars from several of his favourite stories on the same day. He therefore made the decision to make the long journey across London to move between the two events, drawing up a detailed schedule.

Having bought an ‘Earlybird Ticket’ and learning from previous years (see S...Let’s Meet Hitler, S...A River Runs Late, and S...The Gang’s All Mostly Here), Shirt arrived an hour before entry, despite there being no District Line between Wimbledon and Earl’s Court, but still ended up round the back of the hall in the queue. Spending the time listening to the latest Large Endings’ podcasts, Shirt felt a sense of growing excitement. The guest that he had specifically booked the ‘Earlybird Ticket’ for – Natalie Dormer, who he had wanted to meet for her role(s) in ‘Elementary’ [No spoilers here !!] – had cancelled two days prior to the event, but Shirt had decided to try again for the main gap in his ‘Companions’ book, Ms. Jenna Coleman, whom he had missed on two previous occasions (see S...Mission: Impossible (Girl) and C,E,Sc,A&S...It’s A Celebration !). A free ‘Sherlock’ panel had also been announced, with the chance of 300 attendees winning free autographs with the production team. Time moved very slowly, but the queue kept moving slightly forward, until finally at 9am, the queue moved swiftly towards the entry doors.

Less than five minutes later, and Shirt was entering the hall, giving up his ticket, and receiving a stamp on the back of his hand to allow readmission. Having checked the plan of the venue before leaving home, Shirt made straight for the area where Virtual Queuing Tickets were being given out, taking one for each of the three rarer ‘Doctor Who’ guests – Jenna, John Hurt and Bernard Cribbins, to give himself ‘options’ later. Looking at the ticket, he was pleased with his #165 for Jenna. A short distance away was a part of the ‘Sherlock’ living room set, including the door in front of which Shirt had been hugged by Louise Brealey (see S...Is Molly-Cuddled). Shirt took the opportunity to take several photos of it, before it was noticed by other attendees and became surrounded by others doing the same.

Shirt had three guests that he wished to meet before his dash across town, but none of them had yet sat down at their signing tables. He therefore moved backwards and forwards between the tables until finally Jemma Redgrave, ‘Kate Stewart’ in the new series, sat down. Shirt joined a short queue, and after about ten minutes, was paying for signatures on his ‘Series 7A’ poster and a photo of UNIT’s latest commanding officer. Having posed for a leaning-over-the-table photo with Ms. Redgrave, taken by a steward, Shirt moved off.

Next to arrive was Susannah Harker, whom Shirt wished to meet due to her performance in ‘Crucifer of Blood’, a 1991 TV-movie based on a play, which starred Charlton Heston as Holmes [Honestly !!!]. Shirt had bought it on DVD (Region 1) a few days before, and Susannah seemed surprised that Shirt remembered it.

“It’s one of my favourite ‘Sherlock Holmes’ films”, said Shirt in all honesty, informing her that the twist at the end, involving her character was not in the novel ‘The Sign of Four’ on which the play was loosely based. Next Shirt got her to sign his CD cover for her role in Large Endings’ Eighth Doctor-version of ‘Shada’.

Another awkward over-the-table photo, and Shirt was moving off, and looking at his watch.

The next person that he wanted - Adjoa Andoh, namely Francine (Martha’s Mum) Jones – had just sat down, but Shirt was aware that he needed to start his mad dash, if he was to be back in time to get a seat for the ‘Sherlock’ panel. Aiming for a 10am Underground train, Shirt’s progress back to the doors, was impeded by the large number of attendees, blocking all thoroughfares. Therefore, exiting the hall at 10am, getting his hand re-stamped, Shirt did not arrive at Earls Court Underground Station, until 10:10am, having missed his intended train. Catching the next one, and changing at Tower Hill to the c2c from Fenchurch Street station, after about 45 minutes, Shirt managed to arrive at Barking at about his intended time.

A quick dash from the station to the Learning Centre, and Shirt was paying for 4 autographs (with an extra one free).

Stowing his bag on a chair, Shirt grabbed two DVD covers and walked up to the signing tables, where only William Russell had any sort of a queue, the signing having been running for almost an hour.

First up were stars of ‘An Adventure in Space and Time’, Claudia Grant (‘Carole Ann Ford’) and Jemma Powell (‘Jacqueline Hill’), who signed Shirt’s DVD cover next to Jamie Glover (see S...Day Four (In The Large Endings’ Hoose)). Moving slightly to his left, and Shirt was meeting ‘The Caves of Androzani’ guest-star, Barbara Kinghorn (‘Timmin‘). Special Edition DVD cover signed, and Shirt was swapping his covers for his Season 7A poster. This he got signed by David and Daniel Beck, the brothers who played the possessed Orderlies in ‘The Power of Three’, next to his newly acquired Jemma Redgrave signature.

Pushing the poster back into his cardboard tube, Shirt hauled his bag onto his back, and hurried back towards the station. Glancing at his watch, Shirt smiled that he had managed to meet five guests in ten minutes, and was now ahead of schedule.

Retracing his steps, Shirt made his way back to Earl’s Court, where 50 minutes later, he found a queue five or six people deep attempting to gain entry to the main event. However, Shirt entered a different hall, that for the comic guests (after security had squinted at his rapidly fading stamp), and joined a gigantic queue for the ‘Sherlock’ panel, in a hall that was begin to get very hot. Knowing that there was seating for 2,000 in the ‘Super Stage’, Shirt was not overly concerned whether he would get in, and when he finally did, being given a raffle ticket (Pink #190), was in a row halfway back.

The panel was being led by Mr. Quarrelstick, and featured Steven Moffat, Sue Vertue and Mark Gatiss. Having been forced to repeat the anecdote about how they came up with the show, a pattern emerged, with the response to any question about future plans being met with “You’ll have to watch Series 4”.

“They should print that on a T-shirt”, commented Mr. Quarrelstick.

Time having run out, and there still being a large number of unanswered questions, it was time for the raffle. Mr. Quarrelstick pulled a ticket from a bowl which indicated which 100 attendees could get Sue’s autograph, followed by another range for Steven, and a third for Mark. Shirt’s ticket was not in any of the drawn ranges, so he exited the hall via a door that did not seem to have stewards on it, so did not get his stamp re-applied. Outside the hordes still appeared to be queuing, and some did not seem to have moved an inch.

Luckily on his arrival two minutes later the stewards at the other hall could just about see the remnants of the old stamp, and so let Shirt in again, restamping his hand with a clearer stamp with the event’s logo on it.

The majority of guests, including Jenna and Adjoa, were on lunch, but Shirt went to an area where a ‘Young Adult Literature Convention’ (YALC) was taking place. Six of the authors present, wrote stories for the DW 50^th Anniversary collection ‘Eleven Doctors, Eleven Stories’, but Shirt found that due to their popularity, the queues were all too long for it to be worth his while joining them. On his return to the signing areas, he found that Adjoa was back from lunch. Therefore, joining a small queue, Shirt struggled to get his Series 3 poster out of the tube. Reaching the front, Shirt first got Adjoa to sign a photo of the Jones clan (sans Leo) from ‘Last of the Time Lords’, then his poster. Asking for a photo, Adjoa insisted on getting up and coming to the side of the table for the photo to be taken.

Walking a short distance, Shirt saw that Jenna’s sign, indicated that she would be back from lunch in ten minutes, and was signing 1-250. (John Hurt in the next section was up to 500, indicating a double work-rate). Shirt therefore joined the queue, which went into a small tented area, and snaked backwards and forwards on itself. In front of him was a young boy, seemingly with his elder brother, who was very excited about meeting Clara. Eventually the queue started moving, as Ms. Coleman arrived and began signing. On reaching the payment desk, and assisting the pair in front, by confirming that the photo the small boy wanted was from ‘Death Comes to Pemberley’ not ‘Doctor Who’, Shirt paid for one autograph. The queue moved swiftly, and Shirt spent much of the time pondering on the photo being held by the German fan behind him (with a post-it note indicating that the fan’s name was ‘Rowlf’). This photo depicted ‘Jenna’ in PVC clothing in front of a bar, and she appeared more ‘busty’ than Shirt remembered her being. In fact the photo reminded him of ones that he had seen of Nicola Bryant on e-Bay which were clearly the actress’ head superimposed on a model’s body.

‘That’s not really Jenna’, mused Shirt, ‘I doubt she’ll sign it !’

Reaching the final curve of the ‘snake’, Shirt managed to extricate his ‘Companions’ book from his bag, and take a quick photo of Jenna.

Then he was finally there. Handing over the precious tome to Jenna’s steward, along with the autograph voucher (which also had his name on), Shirt watched as Jenna signed the ‘new series companions’ section ‘To Shirt’, with a smile.

Picking up his book (which now had its sixtieth companion signature), Shirt moved off, reaching the exit just as Jenna addressed Rowlf.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I can’t sign that. It’s not me !!”

Rowlf looked confused, but Shirt was hurried out (with a smug grin on his face) by a security officer before he could see what happened next.

Returning to the YALC section, Shirt found that there was no queue for Andrew Lane, author of the ‘Young Sherlock Holmes’ books, getting him to sign three YSH books, a ‘Lost Worlds’ book (Professor Challenger’s grandson), and his story in the ‘Further Encounters of Sherlock Holmes’ book.

“At last a story featuring the adult Holmes”, commented Andrew, adding “My publishers don’t know I did this one !”

Gathering up his books, Shirt made his way through the packed hall, whose temperature was rapidly rising. In fact Shirt decided to pop into the facilities to splash some water over his face. This proved ineffective, as due to the hot air hand dryers, the toilet was even hotter than the hall, and Shirt ended up more sweaty than he started.

Shirt then decided to look at the dealer stalls, buying nothing from any of them (save a Dalek activity book for 50p) until he reached the Large Endings’ stall, staffed by the lovely Lisa Bowerman, David Richardson, Matt Fitton and Ian Atkins (Paul Spragg’s former apprentice, who has succeeded his ‘master’). Lisa greeted Shirt as an old friend, whilst he pretended to remember which ‘Jago and Litefoot’ boxsets he needed. Finding nothing else that he wanted to buy, and having taken a copy of the latest ‘Vortex’ from Ian, Shirt picked up Series 6 and 7 of ‘Jago and Litefoot’ from in front of Lisa.

“Do you want me to sign them ?”, asked Lisa, already knowing the answer, so producing a small pair of scissors to open the cellophane.

“Yes, just stop threatening me with those scissors”, joked Shirt.

Boxsets opened, and Lisa was signing them as instructed, on the back, making small talk with Shirt as she did so.

“You look hot !”, commented Lisa.

Shirt momentarily believed that all his flirting over the years had finally worked, but a droplet of sweat moving down his forehead, and dripping down in front of his left eye, snapped him out of his reverie, as he realised what she meant.

“Yes, some air-conditioning wouldn’t go amiss !”

Paying David Richardson for the newly-signed boxsets, Shirt then got Matt Fitton to sign covers from his stories from ‘Dark Eyes 2’ and ‘Charlotte Pollard: Series 1’.

“Have you listened to them ?”, asked Matt, managing to misspell his name on one of the covers.

“No, I’m halfway through both boxsets, and am just reaching your stories”, responded Shirt.

“Always leave Matt’s stories to last”, commented David.

To prevent a scene, Shirt then got David to sign his ‘Mervyn Stone: The Axeman Cometh’ CD cover (in which David plays a small, but vital role).

Moving off, Shirt made his way to one of the photo-studios, which was hosting the restored TVM TARDIS console. Paying £5, Shirt had a photo taken operating the controls.

The heat in the hall having become unbearable, Shirt made his way out of the hall for the final time, catching a train from West Brompton to Clapham Junction, and then home, musing on a successfully, if sweaty day.

[PL]