Shirt…
…Being More Human
Spring Memorabilia had rolled around
again, and Shirt had decided to take a chance on booking a train ticket for the
Saturday well in advance, based on the initial guest announcements. This proved
to be a good call, as the majority of the other guests that Shirt would have
liked to meet were added to the Saturday list.
Travelling up to Birmingham
International, listening to the first two episodes of “Industrial Evolution”,
Shirt let the train take the strain. Arriving at just before 11am, when
standard entry began, Shirt made his way across the ENC to the exhibition hall,
which once again was on the other side of the complex. Joining a large queue,
he finally purchased an entry ticket, and entered the hall. After a quick scout
around, Shirt made his way to find the guest that he most wanted to meet, and
who he assumed would be most popular – Sinead Keenan, Nina from “Being Human”.
Sinead proved to be one of the guests
who you paid for at a separate desk first, getting an autograph coupon, before
joining her queue. A medium-sized queue had built up which took in both Sinead
and Russell Tovey (George from “Being Human). The
queue moved at a reasonable speed, with occasional breaks for fans having their
photos taken with Sinead (and sometimes Russell too), with two fans with
paintings of George and Nina to be signed getting the most ‘brownie points’. On
reaching the front of the queue, Shirt was surprised at Sinead’s strong Irish
accent. She happily chatted to Shirt whilst signing a photograph of Nina,
asking him where he came from. Shirt then asked for a photo with her, which was
taken by a steward.
Thanking Sinead, Shirt picked up his
photo and neatly side-stepped Russell, as he had met him at a previous event
(see CDS…Being
Human). He then went looking for the next
person on his list, Sheila Reid, one-time Varosian
resident, now best known for being Madge in ‘Benidorm’.
There turned out to be no queue, and so Shirt stepped straight up to her table,
placing his “Vengeance on Varos” video cover down,
and paying her steward. Sheila signed the cover next to her viewing partner,
Stephen Yardley.
Finding the ‘Spirit Sinema’ tables, Shirt took the opportunity to get Lawry Lewin (who was a Vinvocci with Sinead Keenan in ‘The End of Time’) on his Specials
poster, and Babatunde Aleshe
(who appeared in “The Lodger”) on his Series 5 poster. The latter signature
meant that Shirt now had signatures from guest stars from all 13 Series 5
stories on the poster. He was tempted by Steve North from the 2010 WHO
Christmas Special, but did not yet have a Series 6 poster for him to sign.
Having met all the guests that he
wanted, after being tempted by Hattie Hayridge, Shirt
spent a long time trawling the stalls of merchandise. An hour-and-a-half later, and having passed almost the entire cast of "Allo Allo" (some in full costume), and he was leaving having purchased an Eleventh Doctor desk calendar, a CD boxset of Peter Cushing reading Sherlock Holmes stories
(half price due to spindles being broken), a SS Pentallian
model for Chalky, a ‘Sherlock Pink Panther’ soft toy, and small Bert &
Ernie soft toys.
Making his way back to the train
station, Shirt was in plenty of time for his booked train. However, he made the
mistake of eating his lunch on the cold platform, rather than the warm waiting
area upstairs. The train having arrived, it initially seemed that someone was
sitting in Shirt’s reserved seat. However, having checked his ticket again, it
seemed that his seat was in Coach B, not Coach D where he was currently
standing. Walking along to the appropriate carriage, Shirt took a seat, and
settled back for the conclusion of “Industrial Evolution”.
Arriving at Euston, it took a few
seconds for Shirt to break out of his reverie, and so he had to grab all his luggage, and get off the train swiftly. However, he
could then not find his mobile phone, and so jumped back onto the train to look
for it. Having failed to do so, exiting back onto the platform, he found it in
a pocket he hadn’t tried before.
Wending his way across
[PL]