Dufus & Shirt...

...Hound of the Whoovervilles.

 

Somehow Dufus and Shirt had missed a Whooverville. With things getting back to normal after a global pandemic, it was agreed that they would attend Whooverville 13 together, particularly as it featured several guests that they had not met before. Even the announcement of Jodie Whittaker at ‘Collectormania’ in Birmingham on the same day didn’t change their minds. They also hatched a plan to visit the ‘Doctor Who: Worlds of Wonder’ exhibition in Liverpool the day after.

Shirt travelled up on the Friday afternoon from London St. Pancras, pleased that for once he was not leaving from London Kings Cross, which was hosting a ‘Back to Hogwarts’ day. He was being met by Dufus at a new station, Chesterfield, which was closest to Dufus’ new job. Having found the station and somewhere that he could stop to let Shirt in (once he remembered to unlock his car doors), Dufus sped back home for an evening of supermarket pizza and identifying DW actors in photos with Dufus (utilising these write-ups to do so). Gilbert Wynne (‘The Krotons’) proved to be the most difficult to identify. They also exchanged Christmas presents 8½ months late.

It was then time for Dufus to gather items for signing from his shelves, with Shirt assisting in suggesting items that could be signed by each guest. During this it became clear that Shirt was labouring under the misapprehension that Keith Jayne was in ‘The Visitation’ rather than ‘The Awakening’ and had therefore brought the wrong DVD cover with him.

“I was so sure that I didn’t check”, wailed Shirt, not for the first time that weekend.

Making an early start the next day, and Shirt having borrowed the booklet from Dufus’ ‘The Awakening’ to swap out later for the one in his DVD at home, they made good progress, managing to fit in a drive-through breakfast and a trip to Mansfield M&B Giveaways (who did not have the new figure sets) in, before arriving at the outskirts of Derby. As is always the case, they got lost on the last bit, but after a circle of the Derby City Centre, they were pulling into the identified multistorey car park, having to park almost at the roof, despite the lift being out of order.

Entering the Quad, the event venue, they were soon having their tickets scanned, being given their event wristbands, autograph sheet, and timetable of the day. Deciding to go to the main event floor first, they took a cursory look at the merchandise on offer, with Dufus purchasing a book and CD for £5 each. Shirt then took the opportunity to get his ‘Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor’ novelisation signed by the cover artist, Andrew-Mark Thompson.

It was then into Screen 2, where they were confused by a lack of queue for the guests signing there. People seemed to be sitting around the room, but only three seemed to be queuing. Having checked that they would not be queue-jumping, they moved down to join the queue. First up was Frazer Hines, who signed Shirt’s ‘Season 22’ Blu-Ray booklet, and a DVD cover for Dufus, whilst he attempted to engage him in conversation about a pub that they both frequent (but not yet at the same time). Next up was Jonathan Watson (multiple Sontarans in ‘Flux’), who signed a photo for Shirt and Dufus’ ‘Flux’ boxset. Finally, there was Keith Jayne, who signed the cover and booklet for ‘The Awakening’. Dufus was struggling to hold all his items in his hand, so Shirt kindly took hold of most of them, after getting his final autograph.

Leaving the cinema, they made their way back down to the ground floor where the second signing area was, in a small Art Gallery. The room was already over-capacity, so they had to wait for around ten minutes before enough people had left to allow them to be admitted. Once inside they joined a queue for Series 9 guest star and Large Endings’ Monk, Rufus Hound. This queue moved at a snail’s pace as Mr. Hound was very chatty, spouting forth to fans on subjects including Will Smith, ‘The Good Place’, and the LE ethos, and spending at least five minutes with each person, prior to signing their items. He then spent around ten minutes drawing a complex series of lines in someone’s autograph book, before signing between some of them. They also noted that he was posing for photos. Therefore, having got their Series 11 poster and boxset respectively signed, both Shirt and Dufus got a photo taken by the other. Dufus struggled to take Shirt’s photo, but with the pressure on having criticised his friend in front of others, Shirt managed to return the favour without any problems.

  

 

Moving round the room, Dufus got Margot Hayhoe to sign his ‘Fury from the Deep' DVD for which she was the Assistant Floor Manager and provided Victoria’s scream when Deborah Watling had a sore throat. Next was Stephen Wyatt, who signed ‘The Psychic Circus’ and a ‘Paradise Found’ comic for Shirt, and ‘Paradise Towers’ and ‘The Greatest Show In The Galaxy’ DVD sleeves for Dufus. Next was an empty table, as Andrew Smith had completed his only signing session of the day (due to participation in multiple panels).

“We should have met him first”, commented Shirt, who had not realised that Andrew was signing for such a short time.

Moving back upstairs, both bought raffle tickets, before going into their first panel of the day – Janet Ellis, who spoke about ‘Blue Peter’, her 'The Horns of Nimon’ costume, her pride in her popstar daughter, and her charity work (which was to be supported by those buying a selfie with her).

Exiting the panel room, they made their way down to another merchandise room where the sponsored guests were sitting. Whilst waiting for Janet to follow them down, Shirt got a ‘Timelash’ publicity photo signed by Eric Deacon (Mykros) and Dean Hollingsworth (Android). Janet then arrived, signing Dufus’ ‘The Horns of Nimon’, and posing for a photo taken by Shirt.

 

 

Whilst Dufus availed himself of the facilities, Shirt wandered over to a Cutaway Comics stall, where he managed to get his issue of ‘Paradise Found’ signed by the writer as well. It was approaching lunchtime, but on reaching the ground floor to find no queue into the Gallery, they managed to pop in, and meet Bhavnisha Parmar (Sonya Khan). In front of them in the very short queue was a female fan dressed as the Thirteenth Doctor, who was relating how she had dashed from ‘Collectormania’ after getting an autograph from Jodie, but was going back for a photoshoot.

 

The usual Metro sandwich shop was frequented for lunch, with both taking the opportunity to eat slowly, and recover from the morning’s exertions. They returned to the venue just in time for the next set of signers, Victoria Alcock and Debbie Chazen. Whilst in the queue, Dufus was having trouble juggling his two DVD boxset booklets, being worried that he would give them to the wrong person. Shirt turned both to an image from the relevant story – the Spaceship Titanic and the sands of Dubai – and agreed to go behind Dufus to correct any mistakes. Booklets signed correctly, and Shirt was getting a ‘Sherlock: The Sign of Three’ photo signed by Debbie (with her commenting how thin she is in it), and ‘Power Play’ (a Sixth Doctor Lost Story realised by LE) CD cover by Victoria.

Returning upstairs, they ummed-and-ahhed over various Reeltime DVDs, finally both purchasing ‘Doctor on Display: Longleat’ and Dufus ‘Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor’. Shirt also decided to purchase ‘The John Nathan Turner Production Diary 1979-1990’ from David J. Howe.

Moving into the panel room, they were in time for Keith Jayne’s panel, followed by a whistlestop tour through Margot Hayhoe’s DW credits, and finally Frazer Hines, who was in fine form, utilising his full repertoire of bad jokes.

Panels completed, it was time for the raffle. In a change to their usual luck, neither Dufus nor Shirt won any of the thirty-odd prizes. It was then time for the closing thanks, followed by the inevitable announcement of Whooverville 14 the same weekend next year, in what would be the Diamond Anniversary year.

Returning to Dufus’ with a minimum of wrong turns, the evening was spent in eating a Chinese takeaway, in watching episode one of ‘House of the Dragon’ (featuring Matt Smith), and in watching some of the extras on the Jon Pertwee Blu-Ray sets, before retiring ready for their early start the next day.

 

 

[PL]