Barking Signing - 12th September 2015

Today I took yet another trip to Barking Library for the 10th Planet Events signing session.

Barking Signing - 12th Sept 2015

Over the past few months the guest list has been slowly expanding to quite a lineup, only for it to shrink back down.
In the weeks prior to the event Nigel Betts, Wendy Padbury and daughter Charlie Hayes as well as Carmen Munroe have all had to cancel. In the end even Sharon Duce, who was scheduled to attend, failed to show up! Maybe they’ll rebook them for future events so we’ll get to meet them.

Last minute additions who did then show were David Bailie and Nicholas Parsons no less!

NICHOLAS PARSONS played Reverend Wainwright in The Curse of Fenric.
Best known for hosting Sale of the Century and Just A Minute, he was awarded a CBE in the 2014 New Year Honours List.


I was struck by how frail Nicholas seemed when I was getting my book signed. He didn’t appear how he comes across when you listen to him on Just a Minute. then again, he is 91, so it is fantastic he remains active and engaged.

Amusingly, given that he played a vicar in Doctor Who, he remarked that my River Song diary looked like a prayer book! When I pointed out it’s cover is like the TARDIS, he got the reference.

DAVID BAILIE played Dask in The Robots of Death and later played the Celestial Toymaker in the Big Finish Productions audios. Outside of Who he is well known for playing Cotton in the Pirates of the Caribbean series.


I had a nice little chat with David and I asked him a little about being in Robots Of Death and the weird face-paint make-up.

JOHN NETTLETON played Reverend Ernest Matthews in the Doctor Who serial Ghost Light.

Like Nicholas  John Nettleton also played a vicar in a McCoy era adventure.

It’s like they had a thing for vicars that year!

SHARON DUCE played Control in the Doctor Who television story Ghost Light.

After waiting around for ages, and the organisers sending scouts out to find her, Sharon was a big no-show for this event.
Let’s hope she just got lost rather than intentional didn’t bother to come.

TREVOR MARTIN played a Time Lord in The War Games and an alternative Fourth Doctor in Doctor Who and the Daleks in Seven Keys to Doomsday. He also provided the voices for several characters in the BBC Radio audio story The Paradise of Death and for Professor Capra in the Big Finish Productions audio story Flip-Flop.

I met Trevor at The Day Of The Doctors back in March, so I didn’t need to get his autograph today.

ROBERT ASHBY played the Borad in the Doctor Who story Timelash.

Robert was something of a dark horse when it came to his panel discussion. He revealed that during her time on Doctor Who, Lousie Jameson was his partner, so he would have to sit through the episodes when they were shown, and he’s get set-reports of the goings on behind the scenes!

PETER ROY is a British extra who has appeared in several eras of Doctor Who, from the 1960s to the 1980s. He has appeared in James Bond movies, Superman IV and even being a part of the Harry Potter Franchise.

Peter is one of those seasoned jobbing background artists that you’ve probably seen in a hundred films, but never noticed.

He explained how owning a police uniform got him most of his work, resulting in over 1,000 film appearances!

 Once the panel discussion kicked of, Nicholas became the more out-going persona we know from Just A Minute.
he recalled being in costume on location and a member of the public coming up to him to ask about booking the church hall for a event, before realising he wasn’t the right vicar!

Robert told us how he was up for the part of Avon, losing out to Paul Darrow - who he then appeared with in Doctor Who.
He also told us how he lost a lot of weight due to the awkward facial mask-up he wore for his appearance in Timelash. Covering only half his face it made eating very difficult.

Trevor had vivid recollections of preparing for the Doctor Who stage play. With such a challenging production the technical run-through dragged on for almost a week, compared to one or two days for a more conventional production.
Ultimately the run was cut short due to IRA bombs going off on The Strand close to their theatre. Audiences stayed away from the West End, and the play closed.
Very sad.

Who Cares? I don’t believe it!

This weekend was the latest event organised by Tenth Planet Events.

I've been regularly attending their conventions and signing days over the past couple of years, and thoroughly enjoyed them all. Always well organised, relaxed and well attended - I keep an eye on what's next in their calendar.

The convention this weekend was a charity fundraiser in aid of Denville Hall, a retirement home for members of the entertainment profession, part run by none other than Lalla Ward herself. A previous event for the same cause sold out before I got myself fired up to go, so I booked this one nice and early, snagging myself the unenviable ticket number 13!

The way things have panned out I've ended up with a big, last minute rush job to remake some costumes for a National Theatre stage production that's due to open in less than a week. More on that later. So having already worked to the small hours I dashed over to Slough for the convention as I really didn't want to miss the chance of meeting the guests due to attend.

Sadly it would seem this event has been plagued by a spate of last minute cancellations. I was hoping to meet the Meldrews (Richard Wilson and Anette Crosbie themselves) but neither are now attending - so I'll avoid the obvious 'I don't believe it!' puns which were flying around all day after the news broke.
On top of this William Russell and Janet Fielding have both had to drop out.

Replacing them has been Hammer Horror damsel Madeline Smith and iconic villainous actor Julian Glover. He's a very welcome signature in my book, given the wealth of productions he's been involved from Doctor Who to James Bond and Star Wars.

Due to the fairly steep ticket price of £100, attendance was distinctly down, with only 80 convention goers turning up for the chance to meet the remaining guests.

Of the dozen or so guests that are coming, I only need a quarter for my autograph book, as I've met the rest or they are not Doctor Who names.

First up was a group photoshoot with all attending guests - well those who had turned up at this point. I'm not big into endless individual photos with actors, aside from a few special stand-out opportunities (the Meldrews would have been one), but a shot with a dozen makes it a worthy memento of the days event.

Back row: John Leeson, Jenny Hanley, Alexander Siddig, Lalla Ward, Richard Dawkins, Richard Franklin.
Front row: Simon Fisher Becker,Garrick Hagon, Sylvester McCoy, ME!, Deborah Watling, Claire Bloom and Carole Ann Ford

Now that was over it was time to hunt a few autographs.

Companions Carole Ann Ford, and Lalla Ward are already in my book, but I took the chance to get Lalla to sign opposite my Tom Baker page, joining Louise Jamison and John Leeson.

I took the chance to get Lalla's husband Richard Dawkins, who as well as being a renowned scientist, had a cameo appearance in The Stolen Earth in 2008, despite not being a Doctor Who fan!

Sylvester McCoy, John Leeson, Richard Franklin and Garrick Hagon are all in my book from previous events ranging from Gallifrey One in LA to Timey Wimey in Brighton.

Alexander Siddig and Jenny Hanley were of less interest, but we're absolutely charming to speak to, so I got Alex since he was in Torchwood.

This left Claire Bloom, Deborah Watling and Simon Fisher Becker, all of whom I needed.
Getting Deborah completes my trio of all Patrick Troughton's companions, which alongside my complete Peter Davison page makes my book feel like it's filling up at last.

Once we had all obtained our autographs, it was time for a charity auction in aid of Denville Hall. One of the star items was a TARDIS siege cube, signed by Perter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman and Steven Moffat, who donated it having sat on his desk. It sold for £500!

There were a lot of Big Finish CDs on offer, as well as signed photos and the occasional script.

The afternoon was given over to various panels and interview sessions, but given the work I have on at home I decided to make a sly exit and head back to finish the job in hand.

The job I had been asked to do was to rework two curious shaped fitted jackets made in Lycra and neoprene - not the best fabrics to tailor such garments from.

They are for Tweedle Dee and Teeedle Dum in Damon Albarn's reimagining of Alice In Wonderland, called Wonder.land. It's all very high tech - if I say the concept is the rabbit hole is now the Internet, you'll get the idea.

The jackets had gone through some design changes, and there was less that 48 hours for me to knock them into shape ready for the opening of the show at Manchester's Arts festival next weekend.

Suffice to say it was hard work, but the costumes were ready in time - just!

A few days later I was amused to see a report on Wonder.land on BBC Breakfast, as well as follow up stories as the production opened to mixed reviews.

BBC News - Damon Albarn on Alice in Wonderland

BBC News - Damon Albarn's musical will be 'a little controversial'

After a two week run in Manchester, it will transfer to the Olivier theatre on the South Bank in November, by which time I imagine they'll iron out a few of the problems they had.

BBC News - Damon Albarn 'disappoints' with Alice in Wonderland musical

Perks of the blog - part two

Just had a great day out celebrating all thing Sylvester McCoy at the BFI.

You maybe aware that each month the BFI has been screening a Doctor Who adventure - and since this is July, the Seventh Doctor was in their sights.

Chosen to represent his era, Remembrance Of The Daleks was showcased with both Sylvester and Sophie in attendance.

Due to unpresidented demand the ticked for the past few screenings have been allocated by a ballot system, and unfortunately I missed out - or so I thought.

A few weeks ago one of my clients, Tom Nichols, who has a small business hiring out Daleks and TARDISs for event, got in touch to ask if I was going to the BFI screening. It turned out he had offered to display his Special Weapons Dalek in the foyer, and had received the promise of a couple of tickets in return. A spare was on offer - would I like to come? WOULD I??

Anyway, long and short of it if I helped set up I’d be welcome, so I was more than happy to lend a hand.

I also suggested taking the Dalek to the original filming location for its scenes, which were done barely three streets from the BFI. Tom hadn't made the connection in his mind, so jumped at the idea.

We met up at Windmill Walk underneath the railway bridge where the Dalek factions have their pitched battle. Tom had the Dalek in bits in his transit van, and it only took a couple of minutes for us to manhandle it together.

We had some fun getting some great pictures of the Dalek in situe, and a number of slack-jawed passers by also grabbed a few shape too.

It was amazing to see it on the very spot where 25 years earlier it had been trundling along, obliterating Daleks as it went.

We then drove over to the BFI, where we were welcomed by security and shown where the Dalek was to be set up.
Tom was very easy going about it, and was happy for it to sit there unattended for the duration of the afternoon as a talking point and photo opportunity for everyone passing through. Some ropes were supplied to cordon it of, so all was good.

To our surprise we were welcomed into the green room. Sylvester and Sophie soon arrived, Sylvester with a cat on his ankle and wearing a kilt! He had recently had surgery on a troublesome foot, and trousers were too difficult to put on.

Before too long it was time to take our seats, which for me were the best I’d ever had at one of these screenings - in the centre block, almost dead central, only half a dozen rows back.

The episodes were broken up by a couple of interviews with guests, the first of which was John Leeson, best known for his voice of K-9, but he also provided voices for this story too.





He can be heard as the Dalek Battle Computer (when you think it is Davros, but turns out to be the little girl) and later he is the continuity announcer who introduces he next episode of Doc.... before being cut off.

There was also an interesting discussion with Mike Tucker who worked in the BBC visual effects department during the McCoy run, and now is effect supervisor on the current series.



Finally, long term member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Dick Mills, filled us in on how the department worked down the years; how new equipment made things easier, but harder to be imaginative with.



The main interview session was between Sylvester McCoy (who was asked to keep his knees together in his kilt by a member of the front row), Sophie Aldred and writer Ben Aronovich.



There were some great tales of how both leads got their parts; of how the script was written; how Ace became a regular companion over a brief guest appearance; how the series was cancelled; and of Sylvester’s return in the tv movie.





All in all it was a great day!

I just want to say a BIG thank you to Tom Nichols for letting me tag along and help him set up the Dalek - and for getting me into a screening I thought I had missed out on!

Revenge of the Invasion of the Aussies

Had a great day today, meeting up with a couple of forum members who were in the UK from Australia.

I’ve previosuly met up with Bob Mitsch, Ian Cummins, Jonathan from Paris. This time it was the turn of Mark Ferris, who last year did a run of replica five and Six Shirts, and is known as linxthesontaran. He has also made a SUPERB replica Dalek ala The Chase (see below).

He is currently half-way through a one-year trip to the UK, and has been living and working in Harrogate in Yorkshire. We had been hoping to meet up sooner, but travelling costs down to london and back can be prohibitive, especially on a tight budget.

Time Quest 2 - episode two

This entry is the fourth part of my write-up regarding the Time Quest 2 event held on the 12th to 14th March 2010.

The full story can be read across the following entries:

1. Time Quest 2 - the prologue

2. Ressurrection Of The Locations

3. Remembrance Of The Locations

4. Time Quest 2 - episode One

5. Time Quest 2 - episode Two

You can also read Bob Mitsch’s review of his trip:

The Locations of London

Tom Baker & Time Quest 2! (pt 1)

Time Quest 2! (pt 2)

Yesterday was great fun, and it was good to finally meet some online friends as well as the guests at the event.

This morning kicks off with two of the Doctors: Sylvester McCoy doing his stage talk; and Peter Davison doing his photocall.
Since the photocalls are relatively quick – plus having a Gold Ticket, it means I get to queue-jump in front of any Silver or Standard ticket holders, I opt for this first.

Peter is a charming guy, and very pleasant to meet (see right).

I then quickly nip into the stage talk, to discover a bit of a shock. It’s not quite the stage talk I was expecting. To my surprise Sylvester is in a mobility scooter as he has a hip injury (see left), and rather than being ON the stage he is driving his scooter up and down the aisles taking questions from the audience.

It soon developed in controlled chaos as Sylvester returned to the front down the side aisle, running over everyones toes as he went! He was a weapon!

Story-wise he was enormously entertaining, recalling Dimensions In Time as Don’t Mention In Time, as he hated it! Except for working with Louise Jameison – he couldn’t work out why, while putting on a lecherous expression . . .

He also remembered his time working on the Movie with Paul McGann, telling us that they are the same height, but they put Paul on a box to make his taller for the iconic photocall (see left).
He also told of how he liked the costume they gave him – without the question-mark pullover which he thought was ‘obvious’. Ironic really since he revealed the question-mark umbrella had been his idea!

The similarities between his current predicament and Davros were not missed on him either. He was a good sport!

Working Sylvester hard, he was then straight into the photocall (see right).

But I must say that Bob had enormous fun at the photocalls, and his picture with Sylvester is way better than mine! (see below).

By the way, Bob’s hat is sporting a screen-used red hanky . . .

Yet again, the photocall with The Doctor (Sylvester) clashed with another Doctor on stage, this time Colin Baker (see left). His style is much dryer than the rest, and although entertaining is more grounded and factual.

After a bit of a break it was time for Janet Fielding to take to the stage again, this time with Peter Davison as her foil.
I say it this way round, since she was such good value for money. She clearly knew her stuff and everything that happened during her time on the show, but she shows it little reverence or respect! And she shows Peter even less so!

A highlight of the talk was when an audience member brought up the subject of Matthew Waterhouse and his up-coming memoirs, which met with derision on stage. The pair of them had stories to tell of Matthew and his in-experience of acting, and how he gave acting lessons to Richard Todd (an actor of some 50-years at the time) during Kinda.

They also recalled how Matthew saw himself as the ‘senior’ member of the cast! The was a reason: since he had joined the show before any of his co-stars.

Janet was constantly ribbing Peter – mainly because he was a man! Her constant inferred insults by suggesting other guest stars were really great actors was not missed on Peter!

We then all queued up for the Colin Baker photocall. It was during this that the stand-out moment of the weekend occurred.
Bob was in full Six costume, and a couple of other cosplayers in Doctor costumes were closeby in the queue. A passing attendee spotted the perfect photo and asked for them to pose (see left). At that very moment Colin Baker passed by en route to the photocall, and spotted the camera and set-up. He cheesily beamed a wide smile and Bob grabbed him to be in the photo. What no-one noticed was that Sylvester, still in his mobility scooter, was in the background using the stair-lift and was peeking over the edge at them. He then raised his hat and beamed an equally comical smile!
I so want to see that picture!

So, Colin eventually reached the photoshoot room and the queue started moving. When my moment came to step next to Colin, he recognised my costume and made a nice comment about it.

The photocall continued with a chance for anyone who missed Janet Fielding the previous day.

During all this Michael Jayston had started his stage talk, which was more of a traditional format with an interviewer asking questions and leading the conversation.

Michael Jayston has had a long and distinguished career on tv, having done a lot of classical drama, as well as Doctor Who (playing the Valeyard in The Trial Of A Time Lord season).

He is also very well known for doing voice-over work for commercials, and the interviewer had a special request for him to say “Gold, from St. Ivel”, the tag-line to a long running campaign (see left).

Michael was very modest about his voice, but recognised that it had been an asset to him, recalling the long list of audio books he has recorded, including P. D. James and John le Carré.

There then followed a nice long lunch break before the days group photocall (see below).

All in all it has been a fantastic weekend: meeting new friends; putting faces to online friends; meeting so many Doctors; autographs; photocalls – and all in just a couple of days!

Remembrance Of The Locations

This entry is the fourth part of my write-up regarding the Time Quest 2 event held on the 12th to 14th March 2010.

The full story can be read across the following entries:

1. Time Quest 2 - the prologue

2. Ressurrection Of The Locations

3. Remembrance Of The Locations

4. Time Quest 2 - episode One

5. Time Quest 2 - episode Two

You can also read Bob Mitsch’s review of his trip:

The Locations of London

Tom Baker & Time Quest 2! (pt 1)

Time Quest 2! (pt 2)

On the Thursday before Time Quest I took Bob Mitsch on a whistlestop tour of some choice locations around the easterly side of central London, followed by the westerly side the next day.

The first tour was aiming for Butler’s Wharf, the warehouses used in Resurrection Of The Daleks. The second tour was steered towards the Cole Hill School seen in Remembrance Of The Daleks – in reality now a community centre in Hammersmith.

We arranged to meet at Liverpool Street station, and was joined by Edward Miller, a McCoy fan who in the spirt of the tour was in near full costume. I say near full because he was missing the question-mark pullover – but not for long, as I had been asked to bring along his one from the recent Group Buying that Bob had been running.

Bob did show us all up by arriving in full Tom Baker costume, resplendent with scarf and jelly babies!

First stop on our tour took us past the GPO Post Office Tower (now the BT Tower) which is just off Tottenham Court Road. This was seen in The War Machines way back in 1966 (the year I was born - showing my age there!) We then took in Bedford Square, which is where The Doctor lands the TARDIS for that episode (see below).

From there we walked to Forbidden Planet, the largest sci-fi bookstore in London. I used to go to it when it was just a single store on Denmark Street, a short walk away, but now after a couple of changes of premises, they have settled on a large two-floor store on Shaftesbury Avenue.

Bob was like a child in a sweetshop: everything was new and exciting, and little of it available in the US (see right). He bemoaned the lack of such memorabilia in America, but as Ed and I reminded him, it is a British show after all!

After prising him away from the DVDs, books, comics, toys, models . . ..  .  we took a quick fly past Soho, where many of the fabric shops I get my materials from are located.

The other side of Soho brought us out at Piccadilly Circus, site of another original period Police Post. Here was also hooked up with a friend of Ed’s who joined us for the rest of the tour.

UPDATE
When I conducted this tour I thought there were only two surviving Police Posts in London.
I have since discovered that there are a lot more.
You can read about all of them under
Eleven TARDISES For Eleven Doctors

We then took a shortish walk down to Trafalgar Square to see where the Daleks had trundled around in Dalek Invasion Of Earth. We found the exact spots used, and after getting some minor abuse from a group of boiler-suited workmen (‘Look out: Daleks!’ isn’t massively original guys, though more appropriate than they thought!).

We had some fun taking pictures around the square (see right). I just love the way Bob plays tot he camera!

We then took a shortish walk down to Westminster Bridge and the Houses Of Parliament, where more Daleks took a sightseeing tour, not dissimilar from our own . ..

We then hopped on a bus to take us up Victoria Street and jumped out around Westminster Cathedral. Opposite this is a road called Palace Street, that leads to Buckingham Place. Bob was keen to see this, especially Number One Buckingham Place, which had been used in 1967 as the exterior of Number Six’s London house in The Prisoner (see right).

A walk to Victoria Station then took us by tube to Earl’s Court. Situated the Earl’s Court Road, just outside the station, is the only full-sized Police Box in London, though it is a rebuild, not a period one. Unveiled on 18th April 1996, it was supposed to be the first of a wave of new boxes across the capital, but the plan never got past this initial site.

We then took lunch – just as well as it had started to rain! By the time we finished the rain had eased and we were back on the tour, this time just a short tube ride from Earl’s Court station to Ravenscroft Park, just beyond Hammersmith. This is where the old school used in Remembrance Of The Daleks is located.

But before covering that, I will just show you some other locations from the same adventure we visited the previous day.
Despite being set around the Shorditch area of London (which is East, not far from the Liverpool Street area where we met up this morning) the locations used are actually all over the place!
The cemetery is in Willesden Green (North London); the Totters Lane junk yard is located in Kew (South West London); the Cole Hill School is near Hammersmith (West London); and the back streets where the Daleks have a battle involving the special-weapons Dalek is actually near Waterloo (on the South Bank of the Thames).
So, just after seeing the Globe Theatre, we had taken a dip into the streets used. It was odd to think the Daleks had been here . . .

Just around the corner is where The Doctor and Ace hide in a workman’s tent from a patrolling Dalek (see below).

Meanwhile, back in Hammersmith . . . .
We found the school easily, to find little had really changed on the outside, and the street opposite where the TARDIS landed also looked little different.

We were a little nervous about just walking into the centre, as we were not sure what sort of reception we might receive. However, a caretaker was walking his dog and he was perfectly happy for us to go around the back where the playground is located, site of the Dalek shuttlecraft landing.

The way the episode is cut together, you think the playground is through the entrance in the wall, but it is actually around the other side of the building.
The archway leads only to the doors where the soldiers build their sandbag gun position.

Lastly, we worked out which window The Doctor ab-sails down from to get to the Dalek shuttle.

We then headed back towards Liverpool Street Station to get to the Convention venue, but not before taking in one last location, one which Bob had been dying to see, though at first I did not think there would be time.

BBC Television Centre is located on Wood Lane in West London and had been where a number of the colour stories had been recorded. The building is synonymous with the BBC, and is regularly seen as the glamourous epicentre of tv production. The reality is that it is just a massively building, surrounded by tight security, so unless you have a pass or reason to go, there is little to see.

It ticked one last box for Bob, so he was over the moon!