Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog AND I’VE BEEN TO THE ‘BEDFORD WHO CHARITY CON’!!!
After two years of waiting for this event to happen, it actually happened! I’ve been looking forward to attending ‘Bedford Who Charity Con 6’ since April 2020. Originally, ‘BWCC6’ was meant to take place in April 2020, but sadly got rescheduled because of the Covid-19 pandemic – please keep safe.
It was rescheduled for October 2020, before being rescheduled to April 2021 and finally for October 2021. And it was well worth the wait! After getting the vaccines to protect ourselves against Covid-19, ‘BWCC6’ was able to go ahead and in style. I’m really pleased that I was able to attend the event!
The event was organised by Simon Danes and it supported the Bedford Foodbank charity. The ‘Doctor Who’ guests in attendance were Peter Davison (the Fifth Doctor), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Janet Fielding (Tegan), designer Roger Murray-Leach, Paul Marc Davis (the Trickster from ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’), Dalek operator David Hankinson and supporting artist Peter Roy. I didn’t think this event would happen after the nightmare year we had in 2020, but I’m so glad it happened.
There were some Covid restrictions that many of us (including the guests and attendees) had to abide by whilst attending the event, such as wearing facemasks most of the time; maintaining social distancing and using hand sanitizers. But this didn’t spoil the enjoyment of the day whilst attending.
‘Bedford Who Charity Con’ is highly rated as a ‘Doctor Who’ convention by guests and attendees. It’s considered to be a relaxing event. This was my first experience of a ‘Bedford Who Charity Con’ and I prayed that it would be very relaxing and enjoyable as everybody else had said it was beforehand. 🙂
The day started off with a welcome to us fans at the event by Simon. There were Daleks at the convention and they kept everyone obedient and in order! 😀 Simon introduced the guests including Peter Roy, Paul Marc Davis, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding and Peter Davison. Roger Murray-Leach was late in attending the event, but fortunately he was able to turn up after lunch to do a panel talk.
After the welcome, we had a panel interview with Janet, Sarah and Peter. I enjoyed the panel interview very much. I was able to ask a question to the TARDIS trio. Sarah remembered me after the couple of years we’ve been apart and she even recognised me when I wore my Wales flag facemask, which is amazing. 🙂 I must have been the only Welsh ‘Doctor Who’ fan in attendance at ‘BWCC6’. 😀
I asked Janet, Sarah and Peter about when Season 20 would be released on Blu-ray. Hopefully it’ll be soon since Janet, Sarah and Peter did a ‘Great British Car Journeys’-styled extra in Germany for the Blu-ray box set before the pandemic happened. Hopefully they will be able to do some ‘Behind the Sofa’s on Season 20 soon. 🙂 The anecdotes they shared of being in Germany were fun to listen to. 😀
After a comfort break, there were two short sketches performed by the guests that were very funny to watch. Sarah and Peter did the first sketch and they were joined by Paul Marc Davis in a ‘Doctor Who’/‘All Creatures Great and Small’ crossover. There was then a sketch with Sarah, Peter and Janet. Tegan became clever and she said some ridiculously complicated words, which annoyed Janet.
I think Peter wrote the script. 😀 There was a period of waiting on my part before we could see Janet, Sarah and Peter for autographs. We were also given colour-coded tickets that controlled the autograph queues, including red, green, orange, blue and yellow. I had a yellow ticket and yellows came last. I took a photo of a wonderfully designed TARDIS console and had lunch as I waited for autographs. 🙂
I must admit, I prefer my autograph sessions to be leisurely-paced and spread out throughout the day as opposed to compressing them into one autograph session. It’s why I enjoy the Showmasters events as you can be flexible throughout the day. There was a point where I felt I wasn’t going to achieve all that I wanted to do during that day and I would have to sacrifice some certain objectives.
Thankfully, the day turned out to be better than I anticipated and surpassed my expectations. I didn’t get a selfie with Janet Fielding, but I’m happy I got to chat to her for my autograph session with her. She signed ‘The Doctor Who Cookbook’ for me. I enjoyed chatting to Janet about her soufflé recipe as it wasn’t in ‘The Doctor Who Cooked Revisited’ for the Season 23 Blu-ray box set. 🙂
It was great to be reunited with my best friend Sarah Sutton at ‘BWCC6’. I was lucky to have a chat with Sarah. I was the last one to see her in the autograph queue for that day. I don’t know whether that was by design or coincidence, but I’m glad I was able to catch up with her after having not seen her for a couple of years. I gave presents to Sarah, including a cuddly toy of Remy from ‘Ratatouille’.
Sarah loved Remy, saying it was the best present I’d given her, since I know ‘Ratatouille’ is one of her favourite films. I also gave Sarah some chocolates and a card; updated versions of Nyssa’s timeline and ‘The Nyssa Challenge’; and paper copies of the short stories ‘The Crimson Lion’ and ‘Into the Death-Space’. I told Sarah that Nyssa confronts a crimson alien lion in Longleat in ‘The Crimson Lion’.
I also told Sarah that there’s a multiverse featuring many Nyssas in ‘Into the Death-Space’. Sarah was pleased that I know of her love of ‘big cats’ and she found it amusing that were multiple Nyssas. 😀 I took photos of Sarah with Remy and also with Cuddles, who was very happy to be reunited with her as well. 😀 Sarah also signed ‘The Doctor Who Cookbook’, as she thanked me for giving her Remy. 🙂
I was also lucky to get a selfie with Sarah, which I’m very pleased about. I showed Sarah some photos of the lasagnes I’ve made, based on her recipe in ‘The Doctor Who Cookbook’. We chatted more about the new ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ series, ‘Grantchester’ and ‘Downton Abbey’. It was great to catch up with Sarah again. It was the happiest autograph session that I’ve ever had with her.
I was also able to meet up with Peter Davison for an autograph session. Peter signed ‘The Doctor Who Cookbook’ too, though he signed inside the cookbook where his ‘Chocolate Malted Medicine’ recipe was. I hope I’ll get around to making that someday. 😀 I also had a selfie with Peter that day. It was also nice to meet Elizabeth Morton, Peter’s wife, who was helping him out with the autographs.
Afterwards, I was able to meet up with Sarah along with my fan (and also Sarah’s fan), Tom Mitchell, accompanied by his mum Bev. It was lovely to catch up with Tom and Bev again. They enjoyed themselves too that day. Sarah, Tom, Bev and I had cups of tea whilst we chatted and I even had a photo with Tom and Sarah, taken by Bev, before we finished. 🙂 We did chat about ‘No Time to Die’.
Sarah didn’t like the ending of that film either. 😀 There was then a group photo shoot! I had a photo, taken by someone using my phone camera, of me with Sarah, Peter and Janet as well as Paul Marc Davis, David Hankinson, Peter Roy and Roger Murray-Leach. There was then a panel talk with Janet, Sarah, Peter, David and Paul to close off the day where they answered TARDIS tin questions. 🙂
I was able to purchase a couple of merchandise from ‘BWCC6’, including the Target novelization of ‘Frontios’ by Christopher H. Bidmead and the audiobook CD set of ‘The Roundheads’ by Mark Gatiss, read by Anneke Wills. I hope to check those out soon after checking out other ‘Doctor Who’ stuff. 😀
‘Bedford Who Charity Con 6’ turned out to be a wonderful day out and better than I expected. I thank Simon Danes for organising the event and it turns out £6633 was raised for the Bedford Foodbank charity, which is brilliant. I’m very pleased I was able to see Sarah, Janet and Peter again. 🙂
It’s amazing that it was two years since I last saw people like Sarah Sutton at a convention and it’s like we haven’t lost that friendship between us, even after a pandemic. I won’t be attending anymore conventions this year, but Sarah has assured me she hopes to attend more events in 2022.
This, I’m looking forward to! I hope to see Sarah again and other ‘Doctor Who’ guests soon in 2022!
Incidentally, I heard an amazing story from Roger Murray-Leach where he met a young Peter Capaldi during the making of the 1983 film ‘Local Hero’.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
Bradley's Basement 
Great report Tim.
This convention, my first proper one, was an absolute joy to attend. I wore a t-shirt that had the 80s BBC One logo printed on it. A few people complimented me on that. 😀
The panel talks and sketches were hilarious. I liked it when Janet put her mask on when Peter came up on stage as if she was scared of him. The information they shared during the panel talks was great to listen to. I sat through all of them. I take it you were sitting in a different seat for the talks that didn’t involve Peter, Sarah and Janet.
At the signing session, I had the red ticket so I was one of the first. I managed to get two signatures each from Peter and Sarah. Peter signed my copy of the Collection Season 19, Sarah did Season 18 and they both signed my copy of ‘The Sands of Time’. I even managed to exchange a few words with them. There were a couple of hitches however. By the time I got to Sarah, I only had enough money to pay for autographs for her, so I had to give Janet a miss. It’s a shame but 2 out of 3 isn’t bad and I got to be in the group photo with her. And it was a pleasure just to be in the same room as them. I’m sure I’ll have another chance for an autograph opportunity with Janet Fielding. 😀
I bought two items from the event. A copy of ‘Goth Opera’ and a poster featuring the Fifth Doctor and all of his television companions. When I start up my own blog next year, I’ll share my own memories of the convention in more detail.
Take care, WF92. 😀
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Hi WF92,
Glad you enjoyed attending the ‘Bedford Who Charity Con’ last weekend. It was a nice event. I enjoyed attending the weekend and reuniting with Sarah Sutton, Peter Davison and Janet Fielding. A shame I didn’t get to meet up with you. Hopefully we’ll be able to at a future event.
I’m pleased you enjoyed the panel talks and sketches. I didn’t attend the other talks apart from Peter, Sarah and Janet’s as well as the end of Roger Murray-Leach’s panel. I spent some time waiting for my yellow ticket to be called for. I had lunch as well as a little look around the dealers room outside the main hall whilst waiting. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on your autograph sessions. A shame you didn’t get an autograph with Janet. Hopefully you will at a future event. Glad you got autographs from Peter and Sarah and very pleased you got a copy of ‘Goth Opera’ (great story that) and the Fifth Doctor and companions poster.
Many thanks for your comments and sharing your thoughts about Bedford. Glad you enjoyed the day!
Tim 🙂
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