Chalky, Dufus & Shirt …

… Meet Bonnie and Blake

CHALKY	BONNIE	DUFUS	GARETH	SHIRT

Seventh Galaxy announced yet another double header – Knight of Valyshaa & one-time resistance leader, Gareth Thomas would be present so sign the conclusion (or so the friends thought) to the “Dalek Empire” quartet of CDs, and joining him would be the bubbly Bonnie Langford (who had been unable to attend the “One Doctor” signing at the end of the previous year). With a “Delta & The Bannermen” fan and a “Blake’s Seven” fan among our friends, a trip was inevitable. The promise of a talk by Ms. Langford was the decider (apart from Shirt who was swayed by the promise of Gareth’s co-star, Sarah Mowatt).

The usual engineering works negotiated, the friends found themselves at Seventh Galaxy somewhat earlier than usual. However, the rush was unwarranted, as due to a lack of venue, Ms. Langford’s talk had been cancelled, and worse than that – Sarah Mowatt was going to be a no-show. Shirt took this news very badly, but Chalky was in happier mood, this being his first meeting with resistance fighter, Roj Blake.

Entering the shop, the friends bought the requisite items, then Dufus and Shirt had a heated debate about the new Strictly Ink Trading Cards.

“You can get them cheaper on E-bay, and in complete sets”, said Shirt.

Shirt eventually won through with a minimum of death threats. (In fact Dufus finally got a complete set of 120 standard cards for £3, rather than paying £1.75 for 8 random cards).

Leaving the shop, and joining the queue, Chalky and Shirt spent the time discussing the previous “Dalek Empire” CDs, without giving away plot-points and cliffhangers to Dufus, who hadn’t yet got round to listening to them. Dufus reacted to this by continually wandering off, insisting on being let back into the queue.

Big Ted came along, and due to work being carried out on the mural, split the queue into two, one either side of the approach to the shop.

Finally, passing Poppy the three entered the shop, and joined the queue at the far side. At the near end of the table was Large Endings’ musical and sound guru, Alistair Lock. Chalky was first, and got his CD signed, then moved on to Bonnie. Searching for a topic of conversation, Chalky chanced on Bonnie’s family (as she had been pregnant last time the friends had met her).

“What’s your daughter called ?”, he asked.

Bonnie told him, going on to tell him that she had taken her to see her first pantomime at Christmas, at Wimbledon.

“My friend Shirt saw that one”, said Chalky gesturing to Shirt, and unable to think of anything else to say he moved on to Gareth.

A brief conversation then took place between Bonnie and Shirt about Wimbledon’s 2001 pantomime offering, the main points being – Bonnie’s friend Allan Stewart was good as the Dame but had too little to do, Shane Richie was quite good as the titular Jack (of Beanstalk fame), and that the attempts to update the story failed dismally.

Shirt then offered Bonnie his CD cover and a “Thriller Playhouse” boxset in which she played Pixie, the love interest for Christopher Cazenove’s Norman Conquest. Cue another long discussion, this time about how much fun it had been to make. Moving on to Gareth, Dufus moved up to Bonnie, getting his CD cover and not having any additional items himself, the DWM “One Doctor” cartoon, Shirt had already got signed by Biggins and Buckfield (see CD&S…Meets One Doctor, 1.2 Children and A Couple of Writers).

Chalky had reached the end of the table, having exchanged pleasantries with Gareth, and realised he had another item for Alistair.

"I'm just going to squeeze into Alistair Lock", said Chalky to Shirt.

Shirt’s reply was to raise his eyebrows in a shocked/quizzical/double-entendre –type way.

As Chalky pushed in to see Alistair again, Shirt was getting his final “Dalek Empire” CD signed by Gareth, then offered the video sleeve for the Jeremy Brett version of the Sherlock Holmes story, “The Naval Treaty”. Cue yet another long discussion about how much fun it had been to make.

The three posed for a quick photo with the guests, then left the shop to sort out their signed items, Shirt thanking Dufus for getting the cartoon signed. Before wending their way home, the three frequented a video stall in Barking Market, and at Shirt’s request every charity shop in the local area. Dufus not wishing to disappoint, decided to have a severe case of flatulence in one shop, when bending down to look at some items. Leaving in a hurry, and embarrassed by this behaviour, the three walked back to the station, and travelled the long journey home.

[PL]