Shirt...

...On The Sixth Day.

Despite attending Large Endings’ Day 1, 2, 3 & 4, Shirt had missed ‘Large Endings Day 5’, due to failing to book a ticket quickly enough after the announcement that GOD (or Tom) would be present. Therefore, he booked early for ‘Large Endings Day 6’, which would again be in the hotel in Slough.

Making his way to London Paddington, despite there being no trains from Shirt’s home station, he spent the 15 minute journey from there to Slough listening to the latest Large Endings podcast.

On his arrival, the man who had been sitting opposite him on the train also made for the taxi rank.

“Are you going to LE Day ?”, he asked Shirt.

Shirt having confirmed that he was, they agreed to share a taxi, there being no celebrities around.

After a ten minute journey, Shirt was entering the hotel and queuing up to register, getting his registration pack with wristband and convention programme. Moving to a nearby table, he bought autograph vouchers for three Seventh Galaxy guests, Matthew Waterhouse, Siobhan Redmond (the LE Rani) and Ellis George (Courtney Woods from Series 8).

Having got an idea of the lie of the land, and having used the facilities, Shirt took a seat at the back of the panel room. A glance through the timetable indicated that LE Watson, Richard Earl, would also now be attending. At 10am, Nicholas Briggs bounded onto the stage, announced that David Warner would not now be attending, and encouraged everyone to check the pile of flyers for LE productions on their chair, as one had his signature on, indicating that you had won a prize. After two minutes and no-one finding it, Nick came into the audience to the chair where he had put the signed flyer, which had no-one sitting on it, handing the leaflets to the boy sitting on the next chair, winning him a ‘The Fourth Doctor by Gareth Roberts – Volume 1’ boxset.

Returning to the stage, and Nick introduced the first guest of the day, Sylvester McCoy. After a brief chat about audios, ‘The Fiveish Doctors (Reboot)’, and mainly ‘The Hobbit’ (“Oh were you in ‘The Hobbit’, Sylvester?”, said Nick in his best Colin Baker impression), both men came out into the audience with microphones, seeking and answering questions.

Panel completed, and Shirt decided to go and get his paid-for autographs first.

Moving to a room away from the main convention area, Shirt found Janet Fielding and Ellis George signing. Extracting his Series 8 poster and the precious ‘Companions’ book (Shirt deciding that at least two trips in the TARDIS and two consecutive stories merited companionship), Shirt stepped up to Ellis, getting both signed, the former next to Samuel Anderson and the latter next to Jenna Coleman. As Ellis was doing a Photo Studio later, photographs were not allowed, so Shirt stowed his items and moved off to the reception area where two other Fifth Doctor companions were signing.

As he arrived, several fans were getting both Matthew Waterhouse and Sarah Sutton on the DVD from the 50^th Anniversary boxset that features ‘The Fiveish Doctors (Reboot)’.

“I’ve never seen it”, commented Matthew.

“Oh, you really must”, said Sarah, “it’s so funny and so touching”.

Shirt placed down his ‘Fifth Doctor Boxset’, getting it signed by Matthew.

Moving off to a map of the convention, Shirt struggled to identify where the room that Siobhan Redmond was signing was located.

Asking a member of the crew, he was directed to a small room on the other side of the reception area, where there was a queue of one for Siobhan.

However, by the time that Shirt had located his ‘The Rani Elite’ cover (dropping all his other covers on the floor for the first of many times that day), the queue had grown to five people.

Reaching the front, Shirt out the cover down, which Siobhan signed with a smile, before shaking Shirt by the hand. Due to a later photo studio, Shirt could also not get a photo with her.

Paid autographs all got, Shirt moved back to the area outside the panel room, which was again very busy, as it was both selling all the LE CDs and acting as the signing area for LE guests. Having browsed the stalls, Shirt purchased the newly released ‘Gareth Roberts Fourth Doctor Adventures’, ‘The Romance of Crime’ and ‘’The English Way of Death’, and ‘Dark Eyes 3’, due to several of its guest stars being present at the event.

Having opened the cellophane on his purchases, Shirt added his new covers to those he already had, and made for his first LE guest.

This was John Banks, regular LE voice artist, and Inspector Lestrade in the LE Sherlock Holmes series. A pile of SH covers, as well as few others signed, and Shirt had a question.

“Are you in ‘The Romance of Crime’?”, he asked, “There’s a photo of you inside the cover, but you don’t appear on the cast list on the back”.

Having confirmed that he plays a number of small parts in it, John signed the cover.

“Can I have a photo ?”, asked Shirt, having widened his ‘Photos with Holmes’ and Watsons’ album to ‘Photos with SH stars’.

Photo taken by the fan behind Shirt in the queue, and he was moving on to the next guest, David Sibley (voice of LE villain ‘The Eminence’).

Cover signed, including one from ‘Dark Eyes 3’ – ‘Rule of the Eminence’, and Shirt was moving along to Tim Treloar, who is LE’s recast Third Doctor. However, it was for his previous guest appearances in other LE audios (including as the Lord President in ‘Dark Eyes’) that Shirt wished to meet him.

Six more signed covers and Shirt was moving along to Alex McQueen, the new LE Master.

“Hello you !“, Alex greeted utilising his character’s catchphrase, adding “I’m Alex !”

Covers for his three appearances as the Master – in ‘UNIT: Dominion’, ‘Dark Eyes 2’ and ‘Dark Eyes 3’ – were signed, along with Sixth Doctor Lost Story ‘Paradise 5’.

Having failed to get a photo with the new Rani, Shirt was clear that he must get one with the new Master, and so again another fan was volunteered to take it.

Moving off, Shirt stowed his covers, before getting Andrew Smith to sign ‘The Brood of Erys’ (Shirt's copy of 'Mistfall' not arriving in the post until two days after), and guest star, Phil Mulryne to sign ‘Psychodrome’. Going outside for a brief breath of air, the small room being very hot, Shirt sorted out his covers for the two main LE guests, Lalla Ward and Louise Jameson.

Therefore on his return to the signing room, he joined a very long queue, which was for both ladies.

This moved very slowly, and completely blocked the main entrance to the panel room. As he waited, Shirt squinted at a sign on the wall next to Louise which seemed to say ‘Six Items Each’. However, on getting closer, he saw that it actually said ‘Sir Richard Earl’ (Shirt’s refusal to wear his glasses for long-distance triumphing again), and the (non-knighted) actor was sitting below it.

The fan two in front of Shirt, slapped down a pile of about fifty LE covers in front of Louise, who began steadily signing them. Shirt’s confusion (and annoyance) over the number of covers increased when the covers suddenly stopped being for Leela stories, instead being for stories that did not feature Louise in any capacity. Finally with around fifteen covers remaining, he felt Shirt’s angry eyes burning into his back, and retrieved the rest of the pile, making his apologies then leaving.

Shirt took the opportunity to get Richard Earl to sign his ‘The Judgement of Sherlock Holmes’ boxset, but then it was his turn to meet Louise, getting her to sign ‘Fourth Doctor Adventures’, ‘Gallifrey IV’, ‘Jago and Litefoot’ and ‘The Worlds of Doctor Who’.

Picking up his items, Shirt moved along to Lalla Ward, putting down ‘Gallifrey IV’, 'The Worlds of Doctor Who' and the Gareth Roberts’ covers, whilst he found his other covers for her to sign.

Just as he had reached Louise, the third ‘Gallifrey’ regular, Sean ‘Narvin’ Carlsen had arrived, having been told to get there for 12pm, and so Shirt side-stepped, getting ‘Gallifrey IV’, ‘Dark Eyes 3’ (in which Narvin also appears) and some main range covers signed.

There was not enough space on the front of Shirt’s ‘The Natural History of Fear’ cover, due to the doodles done by Jim Mortimore, and so Sean had to sign it on the back.

It was lunchtime, and Lisa Bowerman had gone to lunch, but Shirt managed to get Scott Handcock on several Benny covers in her absence.

Everyone was going to lunch, so Shirt took the short walk to the parade of shops and the newsagents where he bought some lunch, and used the ‘National Lottery’ pen to mark off his list of signatures.

Returning to the hotel, everyone was still on lunch in the signing area, so Shirt moved into the panel room for the end of a ‘Dark Shadows’ panel.

Next up, was the ‘Sherlock Holmes’ panel with Nicholas Briggs, Richard Earl, John Banks, (director) Ken Bentley, and (sound designer) Martin Montague. They bantered about the process of making the adventures, and all paid tribute to the absent Jonathan Barnes, who had written all the new adventures.

Between panels, Shirt managed to get John Dorney to sign several covers, and Matt Fitton to sign ‘Dark Eyes 3’. Jan Chappell was also now signing, and Shirt got her to sign ‘Warship’. Next to her was Cavan Scott, who signed all Shirt’s offered covers (there being an Iris Wildthyme one that he couldn’t find, which was discovered at home later, caught up inside another one).

Lisa Bowerman was back at her table and as ever greeted Shirt as an old friend.

“Shirt ! You weren’t at the last one of these”.

Shirt explained about the ‘Tom-Baker-factor’ meaning that he had been unable to get a ticket.

‘The Highest Science’ and a few other covers signed, and Shirt was moving back into the panel room.

The next panel was Janet, Sarah and Matthew, which displayed an insight into how recording days probably go, with Janet and Matthew arguing and Sarah attempting to act as peacemaker. Janet was also indignant at not being asked to be in ‘Dark Shadows’ when both Matthew and Sarah have. Sarah, meanwhile, was completely confused why the two two-part stories in the ‘Fifth Doctor Boxset’ were housed in four CD cases rather than two.

Exiting the panel room, Shirt managed to accost Nigel Fairs, who had played Watson in a Sherlock Holmes play that he had seen the previous year, getting him to sign covers and the play’s programme, as well as posing for a photo with Shirt, again taken by a random stranger.

The final panel that Shirt attended featured Siobhan, Alex, Tim & David, and focused on playing villains, playing previously established characters, other acting work, and obviously the Large Endings’ lunch.

Deciding to forego the final ‘Gallifrey’ panel, Shirt made his way out of the hotel, and decided to walk the 25 minutes back to the station as he had the previous year.

Settling down on the train back to Paddington, Shirt mused on a very enjoyable, if exhausting day, and on the prospect of the forthcoming ‘Large Endings Day 7’ which promised Colin Baker, India Fisher, Yasmin Bannerman & Lisa Greenwood.

[PL]