Dufus & Shirt...

…Good Greif !!!

GARETH	DUFUS	STEPHEN	SHIRT

To celebrate the recent releases of two “Doctor Who” related CDs both featuring stars from its sister show “Blake’s 7”, the WHAT shop organised a double header of Gareth Thomas (Blake, and co-star of Large Endings’ “Dalek Empire” series) and Stephen Greif (Travis, and guest star in Large Endings’ Fifth Doctor audio “Primeval). Being a fan of both series, Dufus was keen to attend, and Shirt was keen to accompany him, if only to get his “Storm Warning” cover signed. Chalky decided to stay at home, due to the fact that he could get said items from Eleventh Galaxy, and even get an extra signature on “Dalek Empire”. Also it was a Sunday, and as a lazy schoolteacher, couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed.

The day started unlike most such jaunts, as due to Dufus finding a wild party going on at his home on the previous night, had spent the night at Shirt’s, forcing the genial host to move into the guest bedroom, and so the two of them started off together. Luckily, Dufus had taken note of Shirt’s request that he not walk around the house in any state of undress, and so a repeat of the Weston Horror (see C,D,S….Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside) was avoided. The two friends then drove to Dufus’ home, parked the car, and walked to Sutton station, where normality was returned, in that they had just missed a train, and the next one wasn’t due for half-an-hour.

It then started raining (HARD). “Hurrah !”, said Dufus, “we’re going to have to queue outside in the rain !”. “Like they’ll be a queue”, said Shirt thinking of both the majority of WHAT shop signings, and a previous “Blake’s 7” signing at the Hollywood Superstore where only around 20 people turned up. Shirt then briefly considered doing a joke about the rain and the fact that they were on their way to meet Travis, but decided against it. The indicator board, indicated that the train was running late (“Typical”, exclaimed Shirt), and it finally arrived just under 10 minutes late. Arriving at Victoria, our friends were pleased to find an absence of signs saying that engineering work was taking place (“Maybe, I misread them the other week”, said Shirt). However, reaching the platform, the intercom confirmed that there was no District Line between Bromley-By-Bow and Plaistow.

After a brief discussion of options, it was agreed that they would use the Jubilee Line to get to West Ham, then use the replacement bus service to Plaistow, and then rejoin the District Line for 2 stops. This worked surprisingly well, and the whole journey from Victoria only took just over an hour. Coming out of the station, Shirt noted a lack of queue outside the shop for the second time in three days. However, on entering a small queue (sheltering out of the rain) of around six or seven people was revealed. Picking up the CDs, they joined the queue (but not until Dufus had spent five minutes umming and ahhing about a Harlequin Miniatures box-set).

The queue moved reasonably quickly, and the two men seemed in fine humour. Gareth Thomas was very amused by one person’s copy of Virgin’s “The Making of ‘Blake’s 7’”, which had been signed by many people on the title page, jabbing his finger at one message, reading it out – “’Best Wishes, Paul Darrow. Virgin.’ That’s a lie !”. Polite laughter ensued. Shirt was the first to get to the table, which appeared very wobbly, causing Shirt to be concerned that Dufus (coming next) would manage to destroy it by leaning on it or knocking it (the possibilities were endless). Shirt was slightly flummoxed by the fact that the two seemed to be working in tandem, so taking care to give the right CD cover to the right person, asked them to sign them “To Shirt”. Gareth finished first, and was given “The B7 Programme Guide” to sign, whilst Stephen got two video covers. They then swapped, and Gareth then signed the two previous “Dalek Empire” instalments, and “Storm Warning” (on which Shirt ordered him to stay away from the Paul McGann signature). On the latter of these items, Mr. Thomas decided to follow the lead of his ex-colleague Mr. Tuddenham (see C,D,S….Voc Around The Clock), and sign Shirt’s cover in such a way that it could only be seen if pointed out, and held up to the light . Shirt’s final item was the video sleeve for the first episode. Stephen just looked on bored, whilst Shirt threw these items at Mr. Thomas. Giving his camera to a member of staff, Shirt managed to squeeze behind the two men for a photo, and picking up his items moved to the centre of the shop to sort himself out.

Dufus offered his items to the two men, and was pleased when they signed them all. He then asked for a picture. “Yes, you can just squeeze through. Your friend did”, replied Gareth. “Yes, but I’m not quite as slim as my friend is”, retorted Dufus. “I didn’t want to say that!”, replied Mr. Thomas. However, Dufus did manage to squeeze through and pose for a photo. He then rejoined Shirt who was now by the door, where he had been accosted by Helen A, who had just asked him “What happened the other week, when you left without meeting Katy?”. Shirt then explained in careful tones that they had believed that they could just buy photos, and as they had already bought the box-set, they had left. He then reminded her that she had seen him only two days before when he HAD met Katy !

Mumbling pleasantries to the staff, the two left (but not before Dufus finally bought the Harlequin box-set), retracing their multi-transport route, completely tired out despite it only being noon, and wended their separate ways home.

[PL]