Shirt...

...Benson !! Benson !!! BENSON !!!!

‘Spirit Sinema’ were holding a Cult Publishers’ Expo at the Cinema Museum in Kennington. Attending alongside ‘Spirit Sinema’ guests, would be representatives from Large Endings, Celestial Traveller, and other cult book publishers, including one that was responsible for a large number of Sherlock Holmes pastiches. The event was free, and so Shirt saw an opportunity to get signatures on his CD sleeves from both Large Endings and Celestial Traveller with limited outlay.

Finally finding said Museum, Shirt made his way upstairs and to the Large Endings’ stall. Sorting his covers out, Shirt first passed a pile to John Dorney, who having struggled to find a pen, signed them all. Next up was Andrew Smith, who happily signed “The First Sontarans”. Having noticed that Andrew had signed ‘To Shirt’, John took the covers back, and dedicated his autographs as well. Next along was Marc Platt who signed covers from throughout his involvement with Large Endings, including the two Geoffrey Bayldon Doctor adventures. Just as Marc was finishing signing, Peter Anghelides arrived, to be told that he had just missed his panel downstairs. Peter it seemed had been told the wrong time. Having got his breath back, Peter signed Shirt’s “Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre” cover. Shirt then moved away, not having bought anything from the stall.

The next stall was Celestial Traveller, with David Benson promoting their ‘The Scaryifyers’ audios. Already owning the first four adventures, Shirt took the opportunity to purchase the fourth (the last featuring Nicholas Courtney) and the fifth (the first featuring David Warner). Whilst David and the other man on the stall struggled with the cellophane on the CDs, Shirt produced the covers for the first four adventures, and David slowly signed his way through them all. Stowing the covers in his bag, Shirt then produced the ‘Iris Wildthyme – Series 2’ boxset to be signed by David who appears as Panda, her companion. Having come up with a quote to go with Katy Manning’s ‘Ecky Thump’, namely ‘Bear ? Bear ?’, David signed the box next to Katy. Thanking David, Shirt moved away to the stall for XM Publishing, which featured Luke Kuhns, who had a recently published collection of Sherlock Holmes short stories, and Roger Johnson, editor of the Sherlock Holmes Journal. Getting Luke to sign a copy of his book, ‘The Untold Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’, Shirt then got both men to sign his previously purchased copy of ‘Sherlock’s Home: The Empty House’, a book written to raise money to save Undershaw, Conan Doyle’s former home in Surrey, which both men contributed to.

Returning to the Large Endings stall, Shirt decided to purchase the ‘Iris Wildthyme – Series 3’ boxset, which he then carried over to David Benson at the Celestial Traveller table. He insisted on signing all three CDs individually, concerned that his signature would rub off the shiny box. He and Shirt then had a long conversation about his continued involvement in the West End smash “One Man, Two Governors”, a matinee of which meant that he had to rush off after his panel. Shirt had had mixed thoughts about the production when he saw it, but was interested in what David had to say about being told not to improvise as much, in a play that portrays itself as mostly improvised. Returning to the Large Endings table, Shirt got into conversation with Andrew Smith.

“What’s been your favourite Large Endings release recently ?”, asked the writer.

“I’ve really enjoyed the three recent Sixth Doctor ‘Lost Stories’” said Shirt in all honesty.

Andrew then spoke at length about revisiting his original script, and how he had had to make slight changes now that it was set after “The Two Doctors”. He also spoke about how the only mention of the story on the internet prior to it being announced as being in audio production, had been in a piece of fan fiction, which referred to its storyline and even correctly named the alien race involved.

Shirt then took the opportunity to get Andrew to sign his copy of ‘The Eighties’.

The last person that Shirt wanted to meet was Paul Magrs, who was launching a new range for Celestial Traveller, but who would not be arriving for 45 minutes. The new range was ‘Vince Cosmos: Glam Rock Detective’ starring Julian Rhind-Tutt, but picking up one of the pre-release copies on sale, Shirt noticed that David Benson was one of the guest stars. He therefore purchased what he was told was the first copy ever sold, and approached David for a third time, who happily signed the glossy packaging, even remembering Shirt’s name (presumably getting concerned that Shirt was stalking him).

Moving downstairs to a small panel room, Shirt was in time for a panel with Angela Douglas who was promoting her Spirit Sinema-published book. Unsurprisingly the panel concentrated on the book, the ‘Carry On’ films, and on her two marriages (but not what it was like being Mrs. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart). Her second husband was sitting two seats along from Shirt and was allegedly a playwright, but Shirt did not recognise him. Next up was the Celestial Traveller panel, with David Benson, one of the two writers of the ‘The Scarifyers’, and Paul Magrs. Both their main ranges plugged, and the other writer of ‘The Scarifyers’, who was sitting next to Shirt, encouraged to take part, but refusing due to shyness, the panel came to an end, and Shirt returned upstairs with his copy of ‘Vince Cosmos’ to wait for Paul. He arrived a few minutes later, and happily signed the CD case, as well as two Large Endings’ releases, ‘Horror of Glam Rock’ (Shirt was sensing a pattern) and ‘The Zygon Who Fell to Earth’. Moving to other end of the table, Shirt got the non-shy ‘Scarifyers’ writer to sign his CD covers also.

Having got all the signature that he wanted, Shirt made his way out of the Museum, back to Elephant and Castle tube station, and wended his way home, laden down with new audios to listen to, and an evening's Barn Dance with Chalky, Tigger and family to prepare for.

[PL]