Shirt...

...Is Game For A Laugh

Almost by accident, Shirt came across the event in an e-mail from Ticketmaster – “The Game Is On – An Afternoon with Mark Gatiss and Friends”, to be held at the Criterion Theatre (next to the bar where Watson ran into the friend who introduced him to Holmes). Hoping that at least one of the ‘friends’ would be ‘Sherlock’-related, Shirt booked a ticket, already only a seat high in the Dress Circle being available. A few days later it became clear that all the ‘friends’ were ‘Sherlock’-related, namely Steven Moffatt, Sue Vertue, Louise Brealey, Rupert Graves, Una Stubbs, Andrew Scott, and – most excitingly – Martin Freeman.

The day of the event arrived. Having seen almost all there is to see of Louise Brealey two days before in a production of “The Trojan Women”, Shirt was in a ‘Sherlock’-frame of mind. Even the late cancellation of Andrew Scott did nothing to dent his enthusiasm. Making his way to the theatre, he picked up his ticket, and hung around in the bar area (surrounded by a large number of young girls in deerstalkers), until the doors were opened and Shirt found his way to his seat. The lack of a programme meant that Shirt had nothing to read, and so had to make do watching everyone slowly making their ways to their seats.

Eventually the event started with some-time Large Endings’ guest star Ian Hallard (who is also Mark Gatiss’ partner) speaking about the work of the London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard, for whom the event was a fundraiser. Keeping this brief, he then confirmed Andrew’s non-attendance and that Una’s filming commitments meant that she would also not be attending. Getting off quick after joking that Martin had cancelled too, he introduced Mark, who strode onto the stage with a clipboard.

Having made a few jokes about his first ‘friend’ being the head of parking for Westminster Council, he introduced the first two guests on his ‘Parkinson’esque show, Steven and Sue, putting on a pair of thick-rimmed black glasses to squint at the questions submitted by fans by e-mail.

The first question was about the homoerotism in ‘Sherlock’, and it seemed (against everyone’s expectations) that the dinner conversation in the first story had been entirely Steven’s idea, and was inserted to get the episode to length, despite Mark’s warning “that’s going to be all that anyone talks about”.

Sue also reassured the attendees that they will continue making the show as long as everyone involved wants to continue. With the combined wit of Steven and Mark, the auditorium was soon rocking with laughter.

Steven and Sue having shifted chairs, next up was Louise Brealey (Shirt almost didn’t recognise her with her clothes on) who spoke about the ‘fun’ of filming in a Merthyr Tydfil morgue. She was also asked about working with three handsome actors – Benedict, Martin & Andrew – which caused Mark to throw down his clipboard in mock disgust at not being named as handsome. Louise also revealed that she was wearing two skirts as one of them was so itchy. Next up was Rupert Graves, who confirmed the story of his running away to join the circus, but clarified that at the age of 16 he gained a job as an apprentice clown via the Job Centre. He and Mark also engaged in jokey banter around the amount of slash fan fiction about their two characters.

The final guest was Martin, getting used to speaking to large crowds prior to the release of the first “The Hobbit” film, and the associated fandom. He also admitted to having only limited knowledge of the Sherlockian canon prior to taking the role, as well as speaking about his chemistry with Benedict. As a seasoned comedy performer, the hilarity level increased still further.

After a short interval, all the guests trooped back out, and questions were taken from the auditorium. These included the usual “favourite scene” and “favourite story”, as well as enquiries about Watson’s red pants, whether anyone else auditioned for Mycroft (seemingly not), and Martin revealing that he has refused to do any crossover episodes with other shows (as it “would cheapen the product”), even if for charity such as ‘Comic Relief’ or ‘Children in Need’.

“Children in Africa may starve to death, but at least Martin Freeman will stick to his guns”, commented Mark.

Mark then exited, and returned with a green velvet-suited stage dummy (presumably from “The 39 Steps” which is usually on at the Criterion), which he sat on his knee, and used to answer e-mailed questions for Andrew who had sent answers by e-mail, in an exaggerated impression of Andrew’s voice. Mark also made the dummy grope him throughout, causing hilarity on stage and in the auditorium.

Discarding the dummy backstage, a few more questions were asked, before the panel were asked for their “favourite Reichenbach survival theory”. In response, Mark got Ian to pick something up from the dressing room, before giving his best Benedict impression – “Goodbye John” – stepping off-stage to retrieve the item – a can of Red Bull – flicking it open and drinking deeply (“Red Bull gives you wiiings!!”).

This brought the event to an end, and Shirt traipsed out, joining a long queue to buy a poster of the event, which due to guests being unable to stay for a signing, was pre-signed by a random selection of the guests. The queue moved swiftly, and soon Shirt was paying for the poster (all profits to LLGS), which on unrolling it outside proved to be signed by Mark, Martin, Steven, Sue & Rupert. Shirt was pleased with this, knowing that he was likely to meet Louise again.

Having got a ticket for the recording of a pilot featuring Sandi Toksvig and Susan Calman, Shirt made his way to the Soho Theatre, a short distance away, where after another short queue, he was again hanging around in a bar area (but with no deerstalkers this time). A fun evening rounding off a hilarious afternoon, and Shirt was wending him way home, musing on one of the most hilarious conventions that he had ever attended.

[PL]