Lords of Time - To Benedick Or Not To Benedick...

David Tennant as a guest at a convention, that’s a no brainer I hear you say! Well, yes normally it would be, but with me flying back from 5 days at Dragon*Con only a couple of days before hand I wasn’t overly sure what sort of state I was going to be in...

So, I arrived back in the UK on Tuesday morning with only about 30% of my voice and not feeling anywhere near 100%... by Friday I was feeling more with it and could actually maintain a conversation without my voice failing, as such Friday lunchtime I decided, why not, may as well go to Lords of Time, hey it’d be rude not too...

Getting to the Hilton around 7pm Liz and I picked up tickets on the door. What did surprise me was what number tickets we ended up with, I was Gold 54 (out of a max of 150) I had a feeling this could be a very quiet event...

The Greatest Show In The Galaxy – Well Was It?

We all know that claiming to be the best is always problematic... If you’re at the top the only place you can go is down, so when an event is called ‘The Greatest Show In The Galaxy’ (GSITG) it sets itself a pretty mammoth task...

GSITG was organised by a new events company called Treble Ace Events, and as their first show it first came on my radar when they announced a number of Star Trek guests (it also helped that the event was due to take place relatively locally to me in Peterborough).

After the initial guest announcements I gave the event website the occasional glance, slowly but surely more and more guests appeared... Before long there was a massive line up including some big and rare names! I have no idea how the Treble Ace team managed to secure all the guests but it really was an impressive list!

So, a week prior to the event I bit the bullet and order myself a ‘Fast Track’ pass and write out up my ‘must meet list’.

MCM Expo London Film and Comic Con and Memorabilia - Day One, Martha and The Doctor

My previous post got the moans and grumbles out of the way, now onto the event itself!

Expo and Memorabilia are two very different shows. Expo is all about anime, costumes and ‘free hugs’... Memorabilia is more of the classic signing event; they also differ a lot in how busy they are. Expo is manic (50K plus people) where as Mem attracts far less. Expo also seems to attract a younger crowd (well that’s how it felt to me).

The big draw for Memorabilia for me was Freema Agyeman, she’s never done an event before so this was an opportunity not to be missed. As there weren’t that many people at Memorabilia her queue wasn’t overly long (I’m done moaning about queues now). Freema was fab, she was really chatty and came across as really enjoying the whole experience. Now that she’s done an event I hope she’ll appear at more in the future.

MCM Expo London Film and Comic Con and Memorabilia – There’s Nothing Like an Organised Event...

...And this was nothing like an organised event.

The Doc and Babydoll

Now don’t get me wrong I was really excited about London Memorabilia, to put it simply Freema Agyeman was attending!

But before the good there are a few little moans I need to vent...

One: If you have 50,000+ people turning up to an event you need to have a well organised and managed queuing system... Expo have got most of it sorted, when you buy a ticket online it’s emailed to you and you print it off, simple.

Once you get to the event you ticket is scanned and you’re sorted... Well, not quite.

Once you’ve queued up to have your ticket scanned you then get to queue again to be given a wristband, here’s a really easy tip it you have lots of people scanning tickets (I think there were about 10) then make sure you have just as many giving out wristbands, if not you end up with a bottleneck...

An Evening With Gillian Anderson

Do you remember, back when you were younger, the first person that you bought a poster of? You know, the one that took pride of place in your room, the one that never was moved despite your changing tastes and moods? Yes, good. Then you’ll understand what I think of Gillian Anderson.

Gillian as Agent Dana Scully from the X Files

Back to 1993 (seems like another lifetime, well it was 18 years ago!) the X-files hit the screens and we were introduced to Agent Dana Scully.

To 11 year old me, Scully was the perfect woman, she was beautiful, had a strong character, was clever and was also a geek/nerd. She was my first celebrity crush for sure!

Roll on a few more years and times have changed, the X-files is no more and the Gillian posters had made way to more mature and minimalist room layout.

Then a couple of weeks ago I was told that Gillian was giving a talk at the Rose Theatre in Kingston and tickets were limited and only £6 each. How could I say no to that! (Thank you Sian so much for the spare ticket!)

Entertainment Media Show, Day 2 – Benedick meets Benedick (aka Matt meets David Tennant!)

So with day one of EMS completed and the series finale of Doctor Who watched it was time to put my mind to day two of EMS.

Why was day two so important, well unless you’ve been living on the moon you’d know that David Tennant himself was going to be there as a guest.

Benedick

Now call me a fanboy all you like, but for me this was epic and I have to confess I was very excited! However, I also had a dilemma... What do you wear to meet someone who you class as an icon??

I’d been pondering this very question from the moment that he was attending was announced. Normally for an event I’d simply don the 10^th Doctor suit and swan about as normal, but this was different, did I really want to meet David Tennant dressed at 10? How would he react and what would he think?

I asked the very question of what to wear to my Facebook Page and they replied with Ten but I still wasn’t really feeling it. I think the fact that the world and it’s mother (classic expression!) would be there dressed as Ten also didn’t really help, when I saw him did I want to be (or not be) remembered as just another Ten?

Entertainment Media Show, Day 1 – Has It Really Been Two Years?

Approximately two years ago the ‘Entertainment Media Show featuring Collectormania London’ (EMS) was simply known as Collectormania London, it was also the first convention event I ever went to so this event (in name rather than strict timing) was my 2^nd anniversary for being on the convention scene...

Why does this always happen to me?

Originally I was going to go for my standard 10^th Doctor look for this event, then the British weather intervened and we had an unseasonal October heat wave , so the Doctor gear was out and Benedick was in (complete with white paint!).

So Saturday morning Jemma was given the highly amusing show of me preparing to be Benedick, following on from Benedicks first outing at Glasgow (and another viewing of Much Ado About Nothing)  I’d got a better idea of how to apply the paint without having too many hand prints.

Wales Comic Con - Kate's Revenge...

The older I get the worse I get a judging distances... (Lincoln, that’s near Wales right?)

Having been at the Team Til Wedding the day before, Jemma and I had decided as we weren’t too far away we’d head over to Wrexham and give the Wales Comic Con a look, it was a new event for both of us and there were guests we both wanted to see.

As Lincoln was a little further from Wrexham than I’d originally thought we both had to be up rather early, which isn’t great when you don’t head to bed until almost 1am (I need my beauty sleep!!)

Collectormania Milton Keynes: Monday - It's oh so quiet...

So here we are, Bank Holiday Monday, the final day of C17, didn’t really want to get out of bed (again, was a theme for this event!)

Me with Stuart Milligan

Having got ready I was presented with a view of bad weather and a venue that seemed really empty, oh well. Onwards!

My plan for the day? Well to be honest I didn’t actually have one (apart from checking out of the hotel of course)... Having got fed up with the weather I decided to do something I hadn’t done in a long time, attend an event as me!

Yesterday I’d had my photo with Tony Head (yes Giles from Buffy!!) however I’d not been to get his autograph yet so that was first on my list of things to do. Jemma had tagged along with me and was dressed as Supergirl which did get a smile and the comment of “you must be cold!” to which Jemma sheepishly answered “yes” while wrapping herself up in her cloak. After seeing Tony, Jemma then decided it was time to change back into something a little warmer!

Collectormania Milton Keynes: Sunday - Spoilers Sweetie...

CM:MK Day two, Sunday and we all know what that means... Alex Kingston aka River Song! Being a Sunday, the event didn’t open until 10am which meant I was able to have a lay in, however even with the extra hour I still managed to oversleep!!

Me with Tony Coburn

Today in honour of River I was going for the Silence in the Library look, big hair, blue suit and black (with a hint of red) shirt and dark red (almost black) tie.

Showmasters knew how popular Alex Kingston would be so had a separate queue for her, people were already queuing when I got out of bed, would need a bit of time travel to ensure I got a good number VQ ticket...

With me still quietly praying for a day of no wind the doors opended and thanks to some good timing (timelord, timing... sorry, bad pun) I managed to grab myself VQ ticket 32 for Alex, result!

Knowing my photo with Alex was at Midday I spent most of the morning doing what I could to avoid any sort of breeze!!

Collectormania Milton Keynes: Saturday - Cardboard Cutouts, Death and Shakespeare...

The 6.30am alarm woke me with a bump! (damned comfy Hilton beds!!) After dragging myself out of bed and beginning to get ready it was time to meet Team ‘Til (Tim and Laura) for breakfast. Take it from me the only way to start a convention day is with a cooked breakfast buffet!!

Susan, The Doctor and Death

Skip forward to 9am and I was fully ready and raring to go. I also couldn’t wait to see Tim’s and Laura’s outfits, they were coming as Death and Susan from The Hogfather and, well, they looked amazing!!

Now, I do have one major issue with Milton Keynes and that is the venue, this may sound petty but for me especially the fact it’s open to the elements makes it cold (which I don’t mind) but it also acts like a wind tunnel and to put it simply... wind is UN-FRINGE-FRIENDLY!!

Saturday turned out to be a day of random gifts, the first of which was presented to me by my fellow convention goers, a large flat box approximately 4ft by 2.5ft. To my amazement the contents of the box was.... me!!! Well not the actual me, but a lifesize cardboard version!!  JonJon (long story...) would now have a cardboard companion!!

Much Ado About Something...

It’s a quiet Monday night and I’m at home now fully recovered from my amazing weekend experience, to sum it up in four words: I met David Tennant!!

Now before I get into the whole of experience of Much Ado About Nothing I need to go back in time a bit (insert appropriate Doctor Who joke here...).  What you may (or may not) know is that I’m a lookalike, specifically a 10th Doctor lookalike and up until now I’d never managed to actually meet the man himself, despite several attempts in the last 18 months.

So, when it was announced that Catherine Tate and David Tennant would be taking to the stage as Beatrice and Benedict in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing it was an opportunity that could not be missed.

After doing battle with a crashing internet site and jammed phone lines I was able to book tickets, I confess I got a little over excited while booking and before I knew it I’d booked to go three times! I’d booked the final night (September 3rd) a Friday night in July and a night in May (20th) early on in the run.

Before long it was D-Day (or should that be DT-Day), I made it to London in good time and was at the Wyndham by 3.30pm. Once we’d scouted where the Stage Door was it was time to grab food and have a wander around Covent Garden (this did result in me buying both a flat cap and aviator style sunglasses, both of which are cool!).

Skip on to 7pm and it was time to open the theatre doors, we were amazed by how small the theatre is and how close we were to the stage. We’d got row M tickets and the view was perfect.

The show itself was amazing, really good and enjoyable to watch. I’m not going to go into detail about costumes or what happens as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t been to see it yet (I don’t know about you but I hate spoilers!). What I will say is that both David and Catherine are epic, they have great chemistry and play off each other really well. One of the true stars of the show had to be Dogberry, Master Constable of the Watch. Nothing is funnier than watching a Shakespearian fist bump accompanied by the word Boom! (Shakespearian Boo-ya?!?).

Merchandise wise there are three things to choose from, a David and Catherine poster (£10), a programme (£3.50) and copy of the script (£6.99), all are really good and well worth the cost.

When the performance came to an end it was time to shoot round to the stage door. By the time we arrived there were already a number of people there, the majority were all clutching their Much Ado programmes but there were also the expected collection of autograph hunters and eBay Dealers...

Nat and I managed to get near enough to the barrier to be in with a chance, there was then the wait until David and Catherine appeared, now there are a couple of advantages to being a fanboy (as opposed to a fangirl), namely I was tall enough to be able to lean in and get both Catherine’s and David’s autograph and get a few pictures as well. It was fab, I’d managed to see both of them and get the autographs I’d wanted, however this high point was cut short when I found out that Nat hadn’t been so lucky, she’d missed out on David, disaster!

It turned out one of the eBay dealers mentioned earlier had shoved a clipboard in the way so Nat had missed out, upon hearing this the decision was made to go back to London the next night, we would have our space on the barrier, and that’s exactly what we did!

Roll on 9pm the next night and we were back in London, and thanks to the friendly fans that were already there we got our space, it was at this point we also randomly spotted Alex Kingston (yes, River Song!) outside the restaurant near the Wyndham, we popped over and briefly said “Hi” she was really nice and quite stunning, she was in a hurry though as she had a taxi waiting so there was no time for a photo, oh well, Collectormania Milton Keynes next week!

10.30pm arrived before we knew it (chatting to the very nice, fellow fangirls Heather, Brittany, Tamara, Ellie and Leanne helped). We had our space on the barrier and had a great experience actually being able to chat to both David and Catherine, get autographs and the best bit was being to get a photo with David as well.

David and Catherine were really nice, they were both chatty and laid back, they were really great and it was a real pleasure to meet them.

As a weekend it’ll take a lot to top! Oh the life of a fanboy...

Me with DT

Spring Memorabilia, Day 2 - Did I Ever Tell You How I Got Barrack Obama Elected?

With Day 1 of Memorabilia drawing to a close it was time to head off to the hotel. Our base for the night was Corley Services just off the M6, I’m not sure the people there were quite expecting the 10th Doctor to saunter through the building, it did result in a few confused looks!

Me with John Levene

The hotel was really good and I recommend staying there to anyone who is at the NEC, it’s cheap and only 10 minutes from the venue. A relaxed night of chatting about the day followed with us retiring to our rooms at around 9 as we were just knackered!

Sunday morning came as a bit of a shock to the system! My alarm failed to go off due to a software glitch with the iPhone as a result of the clocks changing!!

This meant being a bit more rushed than planned, oh well, not the end of the world...

My day started before I even got to the NEC, while getting some fresh air a van pulled up in front of me and a chap jumped out and asked if his son could get a picture with me. The young lad was highly autistic so it was really nice to get a reaction from him.

Being close to the venue the drive should have been fairly easy, Tim took lead in our little convoy, however it appears that his sense of direction was slightly lacking on this occasion and we had a little detour around Birmingham...

Me with Holly (again)

With the aid of my SatNav be finally landed at the NEC, during the walk from the car park to the hall we were stopped by Storm Troopers doing spot checks from Rebels. Tim went slightly pale when they asked him to open his autograph folder to inspect for rebel documents... (The main reason being he had my signed pictures of Kyla Cole and Holly McGuire in there). When the Troopers can across these pictures comedy ensued with them being declared contraband. Eventually we were allowed to continue on, with Tim looking very embarrassed!

Day 2 went slightly down hill when we found that Craig Charles wasn’t able to attend, but for me the day was all about one person, the always lovely Nicola Bryant.

For those of you who don’t know (where have you been?!?) I have a well know liking for Nicola, basically I think she’s amazing and it’s always a pleasure to see her. She’s just really nice, but anyway more on that later!

Me with Nicola Bryant

After the customary post arrival cup of tea it was time to go and see some guests. First port of call was John Levene, after the comedy encounter with the snake on day one he was rapidly shaping up to be “Guest of the Weekend”.

John didn't disappoint, he was friendly and really good fun. Within a few seconds of meeting us he had insisted on straightening my tie, well the Doctor has to look smart.

The tie straightening lead to John regaling us with a great story involving Barrack Obama of all people! It goes a little something like this...

"During the elections Barrack was on stage giving a speech and I (John) noticed his tie was crooked, being a firm believer that how you wear your tie reflects on you as a person I had to take action. 

"I phoned the studio and explained who I was and that the tie defines the man. After a few moments of convincing them this wasn’t a joke I pleaded that Obama’s aid sort out his tie. 

Shortly after this he went off for a break and to my relief when he returned to the stage his tie was perfect! He then proceeded to finish his speech to thunderous applause. 

If Daleks can fly then I can have wheels!!

As a result I think I did my part to ensure that he was elected!"

After having a relaxed wander around the various dealers tables and resisting the temptation to spend lots of money it was time to visit the Fantom Films area and with that see Nicola.

First off I picked up a copy of the Mervyn Stone Mysteries by Nev Fountain (if you get chance give them a read, they are rather good!). Then it was time to see Nicola, now, I’ve met her a fair few times now (she knows me by name).

For this encounter I’d brought with me the Peri figure for her to sign, while there I also picked up one of her limited edition ‘Vanity Mycroft’ pictures as well (Vanity is a character from the Mervyn Stone books, Nicola had done a shoot as that character and was also signing them under that name).

Me with the stunning Kyla Cole

Having dropped the books and Peri figure back at the car and also watching the Garrison/Reel Icons Parade it was time to wander again. One of the random stands that was there was a young chap who was doing balloon models, plate spinning and other ‘circus style’ activities. One of these was ‘a peddle propelled wheel thing’ (I have no idea what it’s called). I was issued the challenge of a) making it go forward, b) making it go backwards and then to do it at speed. I managed it, but I’m still trying to work out how I didn’t break my neck!!

As you may recall on day one I’d had a picture with Kyla Cole and Holly McGuire, I wasn’t happy with my picture with Kyla so decided to go back and get another, as I was having a picture with Kyla it seemed only fair to get another one with Holly as well.

As I may have mentioned before Holly was really nice, really chatty and a pleasure to meet (but that’s enough of me dribbling on about her for one review!!)

Weekend Travellers: Me, Jemma and Tim

Time was now marching on and the event was beginning to wind down, so 3pm we decided to call it a day. The final things to do were to say goodbye to John and confirm his position as ‘guest of the weekend’ and the final thing was to go via Nicola and say goodbye, much to Tim’s and Jemma's annoyance this quick visit ended up as a 15 minute chat ending with them both texting me to hurry up!

We ended with a few snaps outside the venue with some friends and with that it was time to head back to the car for the drive home....

Overall a really good event and great fun, I’ll definitely be going again!

Spring Memorabilia, Day 1 - Models, Snakes and Sgt. Benton...

It’s been a few months since my last event and as such a few months since I last wrote a review, my typing fingers feel a bit rusty, but here goes!

Prior to Memorabilia I was indecisive (to say the least) about if/when I was going. It started as just the Saturday and then just the Sunday, but after much deliberation and (lack of) planning ended up as both days.

Scarecrow 'meets' the Doctor

Having only decided to do both days the week prior to the event meant booking a hotel was not an easy task, after spending a good deal of time going through the available places laterooms.com we finally decided to stay at the Corley services just off the M6. Hopefully this wouldn’t be a decision we’d later regret...

Being a last minute decision to go also meant that normal convention group was smaller than normal. Our travellers for this trip would be myself (as the 10th Doctor), Tim (as the 11th Doctor) and Jemma (as our Companion).

Having had a disorganised Friday night I hadn’t packed a bag so ended up doing packing at 6.30am on the Saturday morning (I do not recommend this!!). Luckily I wasn’t the only one having a disorganised morning; Jemma overslept and was only woken when I called her at 7.15 to see if she had any concealer!!

Smith and Joneses

Skip on to 10.15 and we arrive at the NEC. With a display of perfect timing both Tim and I arrived in the car park at the exact same time. (Timing, Timelord... there’s a joke there somewhere...)

Neither Tim nor I have much experience with how MCM events like Memorabilia work so the first plan of action was to get our bearings and see where everything was. I have to confess the pre-paid entry tickets work a treat. Book online, have the ticket emailed as a .pdf, print it and take it with you. No need to worry about postage, easy!

One thing that did confuse us was how the photoshoots work, some were advertised at fixed time and others appeared to be on request, I also wasn’t overly taken with the fact that the only proof you had that you’d paid was a raffle ticket with the person’s name written on it, I kept worrying that I’d lose it somewhere.

Tim getting Dirk Benedict's autograph

While at the photo area we also had out first disappointment of the weekend, Brian Blessed had been forced to cancel his appearance due to a family emergency which was a real shame as both Tim and I were hoping to meet him (He is a true legend!!).

Most of the morning was spent wandering round, catching up with old friends and making some new ones. Jemma was patiently waiting for her photo session with Russell Tovey. While Jem was waiting for her photo session Tim and I decided to give Dirk Benedict a visit. It was at this point we came across the concept know as a ‘smiley ticket’. As a concept it works, but what we couldn’t get our head round was why only have this for a couple of guests? Surely all or nothing would be a better idea?

The queue for Dirk Benedict seemed never ending, but there was good reason for this. Dirk was enjoying himself and spending a lot of time chatting to people and making it into an experience rather than a quick encounter, I'm a big fan of guests like that.

Me and Holly McGuire - 'That photo'

After a quick (and not brilliant) lunch, it was time for the Dirk Benedict photoshoot. This for me would be my second little niggle of the day. The photo area was kinda disorganised, after waiting for a good while and multiple queues beginning to form I decided that action was needed, how do you ensure that you’re at the front of a queue? You form one of your own!!

The photo itself turned out rather well (despite me being sceptical to start), it’s just a shame we had to wait so long for it to happen, not that I'm complaining...

After the photoshoot it was time to visit the Kyla Cole and Holly McGuire. I’ve never met a glamour model before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. There are a number of stereotypes of what models are like, but I’m happy to say that in their case they weren’t true.

Kyla was really nice and truly stunning to look at and Holly was a real laugh. When we posed for a picture Holly turned to me and asked “Are you The Doctor?” this took me by surprise so I instinctively answered “Yes”. While this was happening Jem was in the process of taking a picture, the result? A classic picture of us staring into each others’ eyes; which was just asking for a comedy caption.

John Levene - Legend!!

One of the things I really liked about Memorabilia was the fact there were loads of different things there. It wasn’t just guests and trade stands (don’t get me wrong I love the guests and enjoy wandering round the traders). There was also British Wrestling (which looked good!), Robot Wars (oh the memories!) the Evel Kinevel Museum (a piece of history) and also The Tropical Rainforest Roadshow...

Now the last thing I expected to see while walking round the event was a stand with animals from the Tropical Rainforest. Unknown to me Jemma isn’t overly fond of snakes and had never touched one before; this was something that I felt needed to be remedied.

Spider...

While introducing Jemma to the snake John Levene appeared, it turns out he has a fear of snakes as well! So it was time to convince him to touch one as well, the look on his face during this encounter was absolutely classic.

How to overcome fear, face it head on.

In addition to the snake I took the opportunity to hold a few creatures I’d never encountered before. A Tarantula was first up, followed by a Scorpion and finally a pair of hissing cockroaches. It’s amazing how such small creatures can cause a crowd of people to take a giant step backwards!!

With that and another cup of tea, it was time to call an end to day one of Memorabilia, time to head to the Hotel and get ready for day two...

The Entertainment and Media Show, Day 2 - Tim's Everywhere!

Once again I was up at 6am (I really need to cut down the amount of time it takes me to get ready in the morning!!!). A quick breakfast and we all met in the hotel reception for 8am.

Multiple Man (JonJon and Tim)

Tim had promised us a new outfit for today and it was going to be something special. Today he would be multiple-man......

To manage this, Tim introduced us to a new member of the group, Jonjon!! A cardboard cut-out of Tim, a brilliant idea!!

Jonjon had a very interesting day, being photographed with loads of different people and ending up in all sorts of places, he even ended up with his own thread on the Showmasters Forum, but that’s another story.........

Anyway, on with day two of Collectormania. Today was Doctor Who day with three Doctors (Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann) and Katy Manning in attendance.

As I am a bit of a Who fan (actually that’s not really a surprise is it?!?) the first thing we all did was went to see the Doctors and Katy. Jemma and Nat were very excited about seeing Paul McGann, I’d only seen him two weeks prior at Dimensions so had a quick chat but didn’t get an autograph for myself.

Upstaged by your own double!

Katy Manning was on great form as always, I’d already seen her the week before at Memorabilia and she spotted me in the queue. When I got to the front she gave me a hug and a kiss, she also wanted to know if she could adopt me!! I had to smile at one comment she made “I see you so often sweetie, people will begin to talk”.

Keeping with the Doctor Who theme it was now time for the Katy Manning photoshoot, as I’ve already mentioned Katy is always really huggy so the picture turned out really well.

Next up, I went over to see Michael Biehn (Hicks in Aliens), he didn’t seems overly awake, but was still fairly chatty, it my picture at the desk he looks half asleep. Luckily in the professional picture he looks far more with it.

The Doctor and Jo Grant (Me and Katy Manning)

Being Sunday today was quiet compared to the day before which in a way was quite good as the queues weren’t too long for any guest.

Before Lucy and I headed off to lunch we went and saw Chris Judge (Teal’c from Stargate). Chris was really nice, as dedication on his autographs he was putting ‘Indeed’ which I (and any Stargate fans reading this will also) found amusing.

After lunch it was time for the Chris Judge photoshoot, this unfortunately made me slightly late for the Doctor Who talk, this meant I ended up sitting towards the back of the seating area, which mean that taking any photo’s was a nightmare, but nevermind. The talk itself was really good; everyone was on good form and had some amusing stories to tell. It was also the first time I’d seen Paul, Colin and Sylv doing a talk together, they played off each other really well.

Catwoman and The Doc, now there is a crossover...

Once the talk had finished I went back to see Katy and get her to sign the picture of me and her. I forget what Katy, Lucy and I were chatting about but the result was an awesome dedication “With love to Matt a good lookin’ fellow indeed”.

By this point in the day, I think it was around 3pm we were all getting quite tired. For some reason the day seemed to be dragging a little, there just seemed something missing. I just couldn’t put my finger on what it was, may have been the larger venue or the fact the some big guests had pulled out, I’m hoping that the next event in March will have a better feel to it. I really enjoyed the event but it just was missing the wow factor (in my opinion).

So feeling tired and having met everyone we wanted to and looked at all the trade stands Lucy and I decided to call it a day at around 4pm. The less said about the train journey home the better..........

And with that it marked the end of my first year on the convention circuit, what a year it’s been!

The Entertainment and Media Show, Day 1 - A year on the circuit...

Being the anniversary of my 1st event Collectormania London (or whatever it’s now called....) holds special meaning for me. Would it live up to my memory of my first event or would I be looking back through rose tinted spectacles. Weellllllll, let’s find out.........

With the late announcement that Philip Glenister and some others had cancelled I was feeling slightly down about the event before I’d even got there, but I wouldn’t let it get me down.

Lucy and I arrived at the Putney Bridge Premier Inn at around 4pm on the Friday, once we were checked in there was only one thing to do.... Bar!

Once there we met up with ‘Team Til’ (for those of you who don’t know, Team Til consists of Laura, Jemma, Nat and Joanna and of course Mr Tim Ingham, aka Sao Til, think back to series one of Tonight the Night and all will become clear), a night of amusement then ensued with many bad jokes, but there was a big disappointment – The Premier Inn had got rid of their Pool Table, Disaster!!

So, onto the day of the event, the alarm went off at a truly ungodly hour (about 5.50am), we met for breakfast at 7am and, to be honest, the food wasn’t great. By 8am everyone was ready to leave, it was also time for the unveiling of Tim and Laura’s first outfits of the weekend, today they would be Gambit and Rogue – Epic, just epic!

A relatively short, cold and uneventful train journey later, we arrived at Olympia, due to the weather the entrance had been moved so queuing would be indoors (result!!). The doors opened at 9am and the event kicked off, time to work out where everything is, get our bearings and buy some autograph vouchers.

Me with Mercedes McNab

The next plan on the agenda was to check what times the various talks and photoshoots were so we could all make sure we were in the right place at the right time. With the day planned out the next order of business was a cup of tea.

The first guests we went to see were the cast of Ashes to Ashes, they were slightly surprised to learn they were doing a photoshoot and a talk; they were even more surprised when the time of their talk was moved from 5.30pm to 10.15am.......

For the Ashes talk we managed to get ourselves on the front row (well, the row behind the gold only chairs, which remained empty). The talk itself started slowly, for the first time ever I asked a question!! Someone had to be first, so it may as well have been me.

Overall the talk was good with all 6 of the Ashes guys being on good form with a few good stories, Micky B did a great job of running round as compare as well which was needed. It did also make me smile when a few Doctor Who comments were send it my direction.

Michael Barber

Now it was time for walk round, there was a reason for this, track down Sonila Vjeshta (one of the Vampire Girls from S5 of Doctor Who). Sonila was lovely and I had a picture with her at the desk as she wasn’t doing a photoshoot.

Next on my list of people to meet was Mercedes McNab (Harmony from Buffy), she was really nice but it was obvious she wasn’t feeling at all well, she was happy to do pictures at the desk but without flash.

Following on from Mercedes I wandered over to where Carl Weathers was based (“it’s Apollo Creeeeed!”, this became a meme for the weekend!!), it was a very formal meeting, but definitely worth it!!

While on the subject of Carl Weathers, after another tea stop it was time for his photoshoot, Tim joined me in the queue, we both weren’t sure what the shoot would be like, be is a big named guest, would it be seated, formal or what... When we got to the front of the queue we were pleasantly surprised to find he was really good fun and doing all sorts of various poses, the most popular to being the handshake from Predator and a boxing stance (it’s Apollo Creeeeed!), both Tim and I went for the Predator handshake, although neither of us are really bulky enough to pull it off properly!!

There next photoshoot I had was with Mercedes so to pass the time until then we went to see Alice Krige (Borg Queen from Star Trek), we had to fight the urge to ask if the Borg run on Vista or Windows 7. Alice was chatty and good to talk to, a really nice guest.

Rogue, The Doctor and Gambit

Onto the Mercedes McNab photoshoot, I’d managed to get to almost the front of the queue which was good, I was also hoping for a hugging picture, which standing in the queue chatting the Robert ‘King of Photoshoots’ Sterry I had a phone call from Jemma, she was stuck outside as there was a rumoured fire in the Pizza Express in Olympia. A slight moment of confusion then arose as no alarm sounded but a quiet tannoy announcement asking everyone to leave; everyone completely ignored this, at which point the event staff started moving people towards the exits. When we got to the exit we were then turned round and told to go back in.

The whole episode did make me wonder what would happen if it had been a proper fire as opposed to a burnt pizza.....

To top it off when we got back to the Mercedes queue we’d gone from the front to the back! From seeing Mercedes earlier it was clear she wasn’t feeling well, after as few minutes we were told that she was unable to continue with the shoot and it may take place later. I was now feeling very glad I’d got a picture at the desk!

Me with Mason Kayne (young Gene Hunt)

So, with no photoshoot to do we decided now would be a good time for some lunch. On the way over to the cafeteria we bumped in Michael Barber (Ashes to Ashes), Nat and Joanna ended up chatting to him, he then did something I hadn’t expected, he took out his camera and asked me for a photo!!

With lunch out of the way it was then time to see if Mercedes had recovered enough to do her photoshoot, luckily she had but you could tell she wasn’t feeling great, but all credit to her she got through all the pictures and was chatty and did poses for people. She really impressed me as she was on good form despite feeling ill, a great guest who I’d like to see again (she was meant to be back on the Sunday but wasn’t well enough to attend).

After seeing Mercedes it was time to go and see the Ashes to Ashes cast. First up was Mason Kayne (young Gene Hunt), he was there is the costume from the show which I thought was really cool. While chatting to him, I had a flashback from earlier as he also asked me for a picture!! Mason was easy to chat to and really nice, almost forgot to get him to actually do an autograph for me (that’ll teach me for getting carried away chatting).

Having finished chatting to Mason and also getting Micky B’s autograph it was time to go and support Jay and Richard in the Cosplay Skit Competition. I’ve never watched a skit comp before so it was a new experience....

Jay did a short comedy intro and then sang the Ghostbusters theme (he was dressed as a ghostbuster so it made sense), Rich then went next and did a short piece as Capt. Jack which worked quite well and culminated with him running off with a member of the audiences video camera which I found highly amusing.

One of the other skits worth a mention was done by Charlie (dressed as Alex Drake), it was a Alex monologue which summed up the entire plot of Ashes which was really good.

Charlie was awarded second place and Jay was the winner, the cash prize he then donated to charity which I thought was a great gesture.

The day was now beginning to come to a close so we headed back to the Ashes guys and I finished getting all their autographs and pictures with each of them. The Ashes guys (Mason Kayne, Michael Barber, Steve Mason, Steve Munroe, Jack Walters and Rikki Gann) were all really friendly and good to chat to, absolutely brilliant guests.

With that, feeling quite tired we all headed back to the hotel for an evening sitting in the bar and reminiscing about the day we’d just had. A truly epic day!