Vworp 4

I wanted to share with you all a recent experience I had at a Doctor Who convention. Now I would not describe myself as a regular convention attendee these days. Back in the ‘wilderness’ years (that is an official term now you know!) I used to go all the time because it was one of the few ways of obtaining any sort of access to the programme.

These days it takes something special to entice me out. Well Vworp 4 managed that by describing some excellent guests, and a perfect setting....a pub! So off I trundled.

The pub in question was the Lass O Gowrie in Manchester, an intimate venue which provided some dark and dingy respite from the intense blazing sunshine that bathed Lancashire. Perfect for chat about Doctor Who! The crowd could not have totalled more than 70 people which allowed the professionals affiliated with various aspects of the show to mingle with the fans between Q and A sessions. This leant a lovely personal touch to proceedings.

And the interviews themselves were with a very eclectic line up. Up first was sixties era Script Editor Donald Tosh. Now you don’t get many surviving members of the William Hartnell production team these days so his anecdotes around the mad panic to get ‘The Dales Master Plan’ to screen or his disappointment with the finished article of ‘The Celestial Toymaker (which many consider to be a classic) were fascinating. His tale of writing a wonderful speech for Hartnell at the end of ‘The Massacre’ was also interesting and the speech being played on audio in the pub received a lovely round of applause.

Next up was Adrian Salmon. This gentleman has worked on the Doctor Who Magazine comic strips for years but for me personally his most telling contributions are the pictures he does to accompany DWM’s ‘Time Team ‘feature. I absolutely love those and it was interesting to hear the man behind the art.

We then had the Doctor Who Magazine team, original Editor Dez Skinn, current Editor Peter Spilsbury and Assistant Editor Peter Ware. Later on I was able to speak briefly with Tom and a bit more in depth with Peter (who I finally got to thank face to face for giving me a chance to write for DWM) which was probably just as well as their panel was the Dez Skinn hour to a large degree!

Dez is a fascinating man who is very opinionated but also evidently extremely passionate about the subject matter and it was that passion that will have kept Doctor Who Magazine going for so many years, he is in the Guinness Book of Records after all for this very fact. Tom and Peter had obviously witnessed first hand  the Dez Skinn experience before and soaked it all in with wry smiles. I did manage to ask them about the most recent DWM, the tribute to Nick Courtney, which I thought was an exceptional piece of work and of course they were rightly very proud of it. Genuinely lovely blokes all of them.

We then had the irrepressible Katy Manning who simply does not need an interviewer to hold a crowd. She is as manic, off the wall and completely endearing every time I have seen her on stage and had the audience lapping up her anecdotes.

Then came the personal highlight for me. I had contacted Steve Gallagher (writer of Warriors’ Gate and Terminus) prior to the event about perhaps grabbing a quick five mins with him to ask some questions. Not only did Steve agree to this but he suggested we go outside so my recording would be able to pick the interview up better. For 30 mins we stood outside in the gorgeous whether and chatted about his stories, Chris Bidmead, Eric Saward, Sherlock and American TV. Steve is a highly intelligent and absolutely fascinating guy and I will share that interview with you all at a later date. Thank you Steve!

We also then had a Q and A with Ben Aaronovitch (writer of Remembrance of the Daleks and Battlefield) and Seventh Doctor era Script Editor Andrew Cartmel. This session felt a little disjointed and perhaps a little fatigue had set in with the audience at this point. However Andrew Cartmel is always an interesting chap to listen to and his anecdote about Ace seeing the ‘No Coloureds” sign in the window of the B&B in Remembrance and whether to look in disdain or rip it up was fascinating. I believe they chose the right outcome for subtlety.

It was then time for me to depart having had a wonderful time. Vworp 4 is a unique convention and you are unlikely to ever attend another where you will have the opportunity to speak to people heavily involved with the past and present of the series in such close quarters. My thanks to all those that arranged the event and all the people who participated. A truly memorable day.