Post by RitaLittlewood on Nov 12, 2007 21:27:12 GMT
Sunday morning and after another few hours sleep it was up again before daylight. After a brief chat with Geoffrey Hughes who told us he slept well we had breakfast with Sharon, Martin and James. Paul told me James kept looking at me. I didn't notice. Was too busy talking to Sharon. Geoff was one of those guests like Annie who ate in the restaurant with the great unwashed. LOL! We hurried as the coffee club tickets went on sale earlier than the day before but even with a new girl on we got them first again - Hooray! We desperately wanted (okay I did more than Paul) Honor Blackman & Colin Baker in the morning and Geoff with Alibe Parsons in the afternoon. With Honor and Geoff being probably the most famous guests they've ever had we thought they'd sell fast. Then, as we had a 2 hour window, we went back to get one for John Levene. Honor and Colin were first up. Colin was late as he'd driven up from Birmingham where he's in theatre and arrived at 2am so it was left to Honor to start proceedings. She also had no idea what she was meant to do and did seem a little nervous. She sat beside me (I was getting lucky at those coffee clubs) and poor thing had the sniffles. Colin joined after about 10 mins. I asked about her working on Corrie. She laughed and said she wouldn't want to do more than those episodes and singled Malcolm Hebden out, saying he made her laugh. I asked if she enjoyed working with Barbara Knox and all she said was she was nice. I think it's clear which she preferred working with. LOL! Honor was really nice and she said it was her second event. We had heard she had demanded she would only sign in autographs and not talk to anyone but she seemed to relax during that 45 mins. Despite having to rush off as it overran, they did pose for photos but signed nothing.
So we queued for autographs of Honor, Colin, Geoff and Alibe.as unusually they weren't doing the numbers in reverse order. We'd expected to be last up. As we waited for the guests Nicola Bryant went past as she was taken to the hall for the panel. That was the only time I saw her all day. Now no one had a clue who Alibe was as she had been in one episode of Mindwarp from Trial of a Time Lord. Honor tried to read the various scrawls in my Companions book to get my name and thought my 'boyfriend's' name was Patrick. LOL! Colin's queue was massive so we decided to go to Geoff next as he was twiddling his thumbs. As we almost got there, it was the 2 minute silence. When it was finished we went up to the table. I asked if he watches Corrie and he said no because it's crap and all about ratings these days. I told him I grew up watching Eddie Yeats and he said I was showing my age and his. LOL! Then we went to Alibe out of politeness but she was friendly enough. As I was with Colin my phone rang. It was my Scouse friend Graeme but I couldn't hear anything the other end then he hung up. LOL! Then we went to John Levene's coffee club and met up with Prakash again. I bet I spelt that wrong. He'd been to many we had attended but John turned up while Prakash was elsewhere. Sadly only the 3 of us were there but John was great. I told him I call him sexy sergeant Benton which he liked. I got my pic taken with him.
He was not amused and told Paul to take another for having too much head space in it.
He said that was better so I took one of him and Paul.
He didn't tell me off. LOL! He told us about his lack of confidence, something I could empathise with as until I did conventions I had none. He was really honest. We thought Louise Jameson told it how it is but she's mild compared to John. He said Tom Baker was a bastard (his words) and wanted to get rid of UNIT. Then on The Android Invasion some extra crawled up Tom's arse to get John sacked so he could have his part. John had worked on the old Chandris Lines liner Britannic and was pleased I knew they were now Celebrity so he talked about that for a while. I asked if he was near where Amy lives and he said about a mile. He got very emotional talking about Jon Pertwee. He said he saw him 10 days before he died and he was in a bad way then, saying he felt he was dying. He also talked fondly of Roger Delgado. He also hates Bush and so does his wife Jenny, who's an exec at Warner Brothers. He said Bush announced he was going into Iraq "Because they tried to kill my daddy". Also his first election campaign (which apparently didn't get shown to the American public) had him saying he likes dictatorships so vote for him. Once it was over he signed the autographs, gave me a kiss then dashed to the toilet. LOL!
After another rip off Meal Deal lunch (70p for a packet of crisps???) we went to Geoff and Alibe's coffee club where only 4 of us went which surprised us as Geoff is famous! There was a 10 year old kid there from the Hyde Fundraisers who told us it was Honor and Colin. LOL! He was a sweet kid. Jo Grant's his favourite. Peri was there and he liked Sarah too. Didn't know their real names but did the Doctors of which Tom Baker's his favourite. He loves Daleks too. He sort of gatecrashed the event until being eventually dragged away. Another girl and her mother kept slinking in. This girl had no idea about the original so I hope she wasn't disappointed by only having Anthony Flangan from 42 and the people from the Sarah Jane Adventures there from recent times. LOL! It was Geoff and Alibe's first convention and they had no idea about the coffee club either. There was a lot of it about. Geoff didn't really seem to want to talk about Corrie. He's still in touch with Jean Alexander and Thelma Barlow but spoke very little about it at all. The conversation was mostly about the state of TV today. He did tell us about winning some sheep's wool something for lagging on eBay and, as it was nearby, he went to collect it so knocked at the door at 8am. He crammed most of it in his car but there's still some there. LOL! He has done the QE2 twice but feels crusing isn't for him as he's not one for lying around doing nothing. As he lives on the Isle of Wight for the past 5 years we had a little chat about the ships coming into Southampton as he seems them passing. Alibe's Corrie role, we discovered, was the mother of the girlfriend of Andy McDonald. As soon as she said a mother whose daughter had a young child Paul immediately guessed who she'd played. More than I did. LOL! She was such a revelation and wasn't as disappointing as we'd imagined. We came away liking her a lot. They signed stuff and had pics taken.
Paul was improving after John's lesson in photography. LOL! I went to the Trial of a Time Lord panel while Paul went to get Katy Manning's autograph them stayed for the rest he needed along with my autograph sheet so he could get 4 instead of 2.
Honor said she hadn't sung Kinky Boots since 1962 and Patrick McNee was totally against it as he couldn't sing and had no rhythm and once they got to the recording studio she realised she wasn't kidding. Someone asked Geoff how old he was when he joined Corrie and his memories of working with hsi fellow cast. All he said was about his first part in the 60s when he pushed Albert Tatlock to the floor and people said well done and he went back in 1974, saying it had humour then. Colin said they should do more because it's all about the love lives of 12 year olds. Colin hates it too. Paul came back with a photo of John Levene he'd bought and got signed for me which I'll scan when I'm more awake.
After saying goodbye to Geoff who was driving back to the Isle of Wight that night and moaning about his lack of being able to have a fag we went back to the room. We bumped into Alibe later and had a brief chat. Then while Paul kept me company in Leper's Corner he spotted Katy about to leave. She pinched someone's fag. LOL! I asked if I could get a pic as I hadn't seen her this time all weekend and she said fine.
We were both freezing. She said she hadn't had a fag all weekend and we learned today she'd flown over using Indian Airways, caught a bug and passed it onto people. As she was getting in the car she suddenly said, "When you've finished being a leper, can you give this to reception because I steal them" and promptly held her room key out. LOL! We waved her off and went to the Toby Pub for dinner down the road next to Express by Holiday Inn as we heard they have a good value carvery. We had a slap up meal for £8! Sat night was a fiver we heard.
This morning we met John Levene and his wife as they were coming into breakfast. He thanked me for what I'd said even if I didn't mean it. I said I did and if my Scottish friend Graham was there he'd tell him I fancy sexy sergeant Benton. He gave me a hug and kiss then we went to pack. I went to Leper's Corner as Paul was still packing and literally bumped into John as I was getting out of the lift and he and his wife were going in. LOL! We also had a brief chat with Alibe as we waited to check out. We saw her later at Newcastle station but Paul wouldn't let me go over to her. Grrr!
So that's it for another year and what a weekend it was. Flew by so fast. I love conventions.
Patsy
So we queued for autographs of Honor, Colin, Geoff and Alibe.as unusually they weren't doing the numbers in reverse order. We'd expected to be last up. As we waited for the guests Nicola Bryant went past as she was taken to the hall for the panel. That was the only time I saw her all day. Now no one had a clue who Alibe was as she had been in one episode of Mindwarp from Trial of a Time Lord. Honor tried to read the various scrawls in my Companions book to get my name and thought my 'boyfriend's' name was Patrick. LOL! Colin's queue was massive so we decided to go to Geoff next as he was twiddling his thumbs. As we almost got there, it was the 2 minute silence. When it was finished we went up to the table. I asked if he watches Corrie and he said no because it's crap and all about ratings these days. I told him I grew up watching Eddie Yeats and he said I was showing my age and his. LOL! Then we went to Alibe out of politeness but she was friendly enough. As I was with Colin my phone rang. It was my Scouse friend Graeme but I couldn't hear anything the other end then he hung up. LOL! Then we went to John Levene's coffee club and met up with Prakash again. I bet I spelt that wrong. He'd been to many we had attended but John turned up while Prakash was elsewhere. Sadly only the 3 of us were there but John was great. I told him I call him sexy sergeant Benton which he liked. I got my pic taken with him.
He was not amused and told Paul to take another for having too much head space in it.
He said that was better so I took one of him and Paul.
He didn't tell me off. LOL! He told us about his lack of confidence, something I could empathise with as until I did conventions I had none. He was really honest. We thought Louise Jameson told it how it is but she's mild compared to John. He said Tom Baker was a bastard (his words) and wanted to get rid of UNIT. Then on The Android Invasion some extra crawled up Tom's arse to get John sacked so he could have his part. John had worked on the old Chandris Lines liner Britannic and was pleased I knew they were now Celebrity so he talked about that for a while. I asked if he was near where Amy lives and he said about a mile. He got very emotional talking about Jon Pertwee. He said he saw him 10 days before he died and he was in a bad way then, saying he felt he was dying. He also talked fondly of Roger Delgado. He also hates Bush and so does his wife Jenny, who's an exec at Warner Brothers. He said Bush announced he was going into Iraq "Because they tried to kill my daddy". Also his first election campaign (which apparently didn't get shown to the American public) had him saying he likes dictatorships so vote for him. Once it was over he signed the autographs, gave me a kiss then dashed to the toilet. LOL!
After another rip off Meal Deal lunch (70p for a packet of crisps???) we went to Geoff and Alibe's coffee club where only 4 of us went which surprised us as Geoff is famous! There was a 10 year old kid there from the Hyde Fundraisers who told us it was Honor and Colin. LOL! He was a sweet kid. Jo Grant's his favourite. Peri was there and he liked Sarah too. Didn't know their real names but did the Doctors of which Tom Baker's his favourite. He loves Daleks too. He sort of gatecrashed the event until being eventually dragged away. Another girl and her mother kept slinking in. This girl had no idea about the original so I hope she wasn't disappointed by only having Anthony Flangan from 42 and the people from the Sarah Jane Adventures there from recent times. LOL! It was Geoff and Alibe's first convention and they had no idea about the coffee club either. There was a lot of it about. Geoff didn't really seem to want to talk about Corrie. He's still in touch with Jean Alexander and Thelma Barlow but spoke very little about it at all. The conversation was mostly about the state of TV today. He did tell us about winning some sheep's wool something for lagging on eBay and, as it was nearby, he went to collect it so knocked at the door at 8am. He crammed most of it in his car but there's still some there. LOL! He has done the QE2 twice but feels crusing isn't for him as he's not one for lying around doing nothing. As he lives on the Isle of Wight for the past 5 years we had a little chat about the ships coming into Southampton as he seems them passing. Alibe's Corrie role, we discovered, was the mother of the girlfriend of Andy McDonald. As soon as she said a mother whose daughter had a young child Paul immediately guessed who she'd played. More than I did. LOL! She was such a revelation and wasn't as disappointing as we'd imagined. We came away liking her a lot. They signed stuff and had pics taken.
Paul was improving after John's lesson in photography. LOL! I went to the Trial of a Time Lord panel while Paul went to get Katy Manning's autograph them stayed for the rest he needed along with my autograph sheet so he could get 4 instead of 2.
Honor said she hadn't sung Kinky Boots since 1962 and Patrick McNee was totally against it as he couldn't sing and had no rhythm and once they got to the recording studio she realised she wasn't kidding. Someone asked Geoff how old he was when he joined Corrie and his memories of working with hsi fellow cast. All he said was about his first part in the 60s when he pushed Albert Tatlock to the floor and people said well done and he went back in 1974, saying it had humour then. Colin said they should do more because it's all about the love lives of 12 year olds. Colin hates it too. Paul came back with a photo of John Levene he'd bought and got signed for me which I'll scan when I'm more awake.
After saying goodbye to Geoff who was driving back to the Isle of Wight that night and moaning about his lack of being able to have a fag we went back to the room. We bumped into Alibe later and had a brief chat. Then while Paul kept me company in Leper's Corner he spotted Katy about to leave. She pinched someone's fag. LOL! I asked if I could get a pic as I hadn't seen her this time all weekend and she said fine.
We were both freezing. She said she hadn't had a fag all weekend and we learned today she'd flown over using Indian Airways, caught a bug and passed it onto people. As she was getting in the car she suddenly said, "When you've finished being a leper, can you give this to reception because I steal them" and promptly held her room key out. LOL! We waved her off and went to the Toby Pub for dinner down the road next to Express by Holiday Inn as we heard they have a good value carvery. We had a slap up meal for £8! Sat night was a fiver we heard.
This morning we met John Levene and his wife as they were coming into breakfast. He thanked me for what I'd said even if I didn't mean it. I said I did and if my Scottish friend Graham was there he'd tell him I fancy sexy sergeant Benton. He gave me a hug and kiss then we went to pack. I went to Leper's Corner as Paul was still packing and literally bumped into John as I was getting out of the lift and he and his wife were going in. LOL! We also had a brief chat with Alibe as we waited to check out. We saw her later at Newcastle station but Paul wouldn't let me go over to her. Grrr!
So that's it for another year and what a weekend it was. Flew by so fast. I love conventions.
Patsy
As a result the guest list has become more interesting with the addition of John Nettles and Burt Kwuok! There's also Derek Martin and others.
