Shirt…

…Ice Cold Without Alex

Introduction

It was Collectormania time again, and so Shirt made his way to Milton Keynes stadium, this time by train, as the temporary bus station had moved back to its old location, some distance from the free buses to the venue. He had booked to go on the Saturday, but some exciting guest announcements for the Sunday, including River Song herself, Alex Kingston meant that he decided to go two days running, having found a good deal on the train fares.

Saturday

Shirt made his way to Milton Keynes Central train station from London Euston, listening to the latest Large Endings’ release “Kiss of Death”, the second story of the second season of the newly-reunited Tegan/Turlough/Nyssa/Fifth Doctor team. Managing to find the appropriate stop for the free bus, ten minutes later Shirt was making his way (slowly) to the stadium.

On arrival, Shirt did his usual trick of walking around the entire stadium to check where everyone was signing. A sign indicated that Jason Watkins (Herrick from “Being Human”) would not be arriving until 1pm, so Shirt joined a queue for Dean Lennox Kelly who played William Shakespeare in “The Shakespeare Code”. The queue was long and moved slowly, due to Dean chatting away animatedly to each person, whilst decrying missing ‘Football Focus’ to sit in a freezing cold football stadium, without any alcohol to sustain him. He shared a large number of humorous anecdotes, meaning that no-one particularly minded waiting, as they were all laughing along with him.

Shirt finally reached the front, paid his money, and placed down his “Series 3” poster for Dean to sign, which he did, adding ‘Will.I.Am’ after his signature. Rolling up his poster, Shirt moved off before struggling to force the poster back into his tube.

Having ninety-minutes to waste before Jason Watkins was due to arrive, Shirt spent his time in the dealers room (where he bought a sealed box of ‘Torchwood’ Trading Cards), and in going to a nearby supermarket to buy lunch. Arriving back at the signing area at 12.50pm, Shirt joined the queue that had already formed. At about 1.30pm, the small figure of Jason hurried past with a couple of security guards. Three minutes later and the queue began moving. Fifteen minutes later and Shirt was at the front of the queue, paying for two autographs, Shirt picked up a photo of Herrick strangling Nina from the penultimate episode of Series Three, which Jason happily signed. Shirt then placed down Large Endings’ audio “The Key 2 Time: The Destroyer of Delights”.

“Oh, I played the ‘White Knight’ in that, didn’t I ?”, asked Jason.

“The ‘White Guardian’”, corrected Shirt, deciding not to explain the significance of the role.

Jason signed the cover, and Shirt departed having taken a quick photo, after telling him how much he was enjoying his performance in Series Two of “Psychoville”.

Shirt then made his way to where the free bus picked up, and ten minutes later, caught a bus back to the station, glad to be out of the freezing stadium, in good time for a train back to London. Wending his way back across London, and popping into a local Sainsury’s to buy a cheap copy of “The Seeds of Doom” on DVD, Shirt readied himself for more of the same the next day.

Sunday

Shirt’s plan to make an early start the next day was scuppered by a lack of trains from his local station very early on Sundays. Therefore, later that he had wanted, he crammed himself onto a train from London going to Manchester, crammed full with Manchester United supporters who had attended the previous evening’s Champions League Final. Alighting at Milton Keyne, Shirt just missed one of the half-hourly free buses. Several buses arrived labelled ‘Kingston’, which two young girls thought might take them to Alex (Shirt was just confused until he found that there is also a Kingston just outside Milton Keynes), but it was the full half-hour before he finally made his way to the stadium, which was as cold as the previous day.

Rushing to find Alex Kingston’s signing area, Shirt was given a virtual queuing number of 651. However, as the numbers were only up to 50 after an hour, Shirt was not hopeful. He then made his way to where members of the cast of “Only Fools and Horses” were signing. First up, Shirt got Patrick Murray (Mickey Pearce) to sign his “The Only Fools and Horse Story” book. Having previously met Roger Lloyd-Pack (see D&S…Make Fools of Themselves), Shirt decided to forego him, despite his cyber-creator role in “Doctor Who”. However, with his recently acquired copy of “The Seeds of Doom”, Shirt decided to meet John Challis again (having met him on a previous occasion with Richard Briers), and get his cover signed.

Leaving a group of ‘fools’ looking for the advertised Paul Barber (who it turned out had cancelled at the last minute), Shirt made his way to a signing area where several minor parts from the “Harry Potter” films were signing. The one that interested Shirt was Guy Henry, who played a Death Eater in the final two films, and who was recently better known as Henrik Hanssen in “Holby City”. However, it was his first television part that interested Shirt, the title character in Granada Television’s “Young Sherlock” series of the 1980s.

Guy seemed surprised when Shirt proferred his Region 1 DVD boxset of “Young Sherlock”.

“Haven’t seen that for a long time”, he commented, before he and Shirt chatted about only one series being made.

“Can I have a photo with you ?”, asked Shirt.

A steward took the photo, and Shirt moved away.

Returning to Alex Kingston’s signing area at around 12.15pm, Shirt found that she had reached 150, and had gone for her photoshoot followed by lunch, and would not be returning until 2pm. Following a swift calculation, he realised that it would be unlikely that his number would come round by 6pm when the event finished. Anyway, the time was such that even if he stayed, he needed to find something to pass the time. Realising that a free bus was about to depart, Shirt charged outside, just catching it, and ten minutes later was back at Milton Keynes Station where he just missed a train to London.

Being aware that Lupine was over for a visit from Finland, and was seeing Chalky and Tigger that afternoon, Shirt ‘phoned Chalky.

“I can be at your house in about two hours, what time is Lupine coming ?”

Having confirmed that Lupine would still be there at that time, Shirt made his mind up, and went to wait for the next London train, giving the idea of meeting Alex Kingston up as a ‘bad job’.

Finally boarding a train, which was very overcrowded, he slowly made his way back to London, and then wended his way to Chalky and Tigger’s, whilst listening to the third volume of Large Endings’ “Short Trips”. Arriving Shirt was pleased to be greeted by both Lupine and Enigma (who had popped over to see the Finnish visitor). Cue an afternoon of ‘catching up’, meaning that Shirt was pleased with his decision to come back, rather than spend hours wasting time in Milton Keynes on the slight chance of meeting Professor Song. There’d be other chances to meet Ms. Kingston, and Shirt would try harder next time. Maybe they’d get her for the forthcoming London Film and Comic Con.

[PL]