Convention Report – ‘Newcastle Comic Con 2022’

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley.

On the first weekend of July 2022, I attended the ‘Newcastle Comic Con’, run by Unleashed Events. I had a great time attending the comic con and reuniting with my two favourite ‘Doctor Who’ stars Peter Davison (the Fifth Doctor) and Sarah Sutton (Nyssa). I’m so happy the weekend was successful!

I’ve attended an Unleashed Event before, as I went to the ‘York Unleashed’ event back in August 2017. Peter and Sarah attended that convention too, so it was nice to attend another Unleashed Event featuring my two favourite ‘Doctor Who’ stars. I feel lucky in being able to meet them again. 🙂

Tim Bradley with Peter Davison at Newcastle Comic Con, July 2022

Tim Bradley with Sarah Sutton at Newcastle Comic Con, July 2022

This was also the third convention I attended since the Covid-19 pandemic happened – please keep safe. A lot has changed since then with there being less pandemic restrictions occurring and being able to interact with guests and attendees more freely, as the social distancing levels have dropped.

It’s like the pandemic never happened, which is a nice feeling, as I enjoyed chatting to Sarah and Peter without the need to wear a facemask. Mind you, everything at the convention was on one floor (the 4th floor of the St. James’ Park building where the ‘Newcastle Comic Con’ was being held).

Like ‘London Comic Con Spring’ this year, I would’ve preferred it if the convention was on more than one floor in order for the guest signings, the merchandise stalls and the Q&A sessions to be spread out. But at least, the 2nd and 3rd floors were available to provide some breathing spaces for people.

It was great to chat with Sarah Sutton again and she was very pleased to see me. I shared with Sarah and Peter that I stayed in Newcastle since Friday and I’d seen ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ at the cinema on the Saturday. I told Sarah how I thought about her flying a Tiger Moth plane when watching the film. 😀

Sarah Sutton at ‘Pandorica 2015’, Bristol, September 2015 – photo courtsey of James Kitto

This was something Sarah did before I met her at the ‘Pandorica 2015’ convention in Bristol, back in September 2015. Sarah enjoyed recalling her Tiger Moth plane experience, especially with the goggled headgear she wore, when we chatted about it at the ‘Newcastle Comic Con’. I later gave Sarah new copies of ‘The Nyssa Challenge’ and Nyssa’s timeline, which she was very happy to have.

I’m very pleased that Sarah keeps finding my Nyssa timelines useful and she’s always happy to receive new ones with brand-new stories added to them. I asked Sarah if I could do a ‘reunion’ audio interview with her that day and she was happy to be interviewed. Please check out my latest ‘reunion’ audio interview with Sarah Sutton below.

Tim Bradley’s vinyl cover of ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’ signed by Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton

I had my vinyl cover of ‘1963: Fanfare For The Common Men’ signed by Sarah Sutton and Peter Davison at the convention. I’m pleased they signed my vinyl cover of the story, as it’s an ASDA-exclusive item that helped me to cope with what we went through in the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. 🙂

I got a chance to chat with Peter at the comic con. I didn’t chat with Peter as much as I chatted with Sarah that day, as he was busier than Sarah and there were a lot of fans who wanted to meet him. Plus, Peter had to leave early that day due to him going to film some more scenes of Series 2 of ‘The Larkins’. 🙂

I’m glad I got to chat to Peter though. As well as him signing my vinyl cover of ‘Fanfare For The Common Men’ and chatting to him about his love of ‘The Beatles’, we also chatted about ‘The Larkins’ and his appearances in the ‘P.R.O.B.E.’ series by BBV, which was great and very worthwhile.

I also had photos with Sarah and Peter that day via my phone camera, which was terrific. I got to say goodbye to Peter before he left at 3pm that day. Despite not chatting to Peter much that day, I’m pleased I chatted to Sarah plenty of times, especially as she’s my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ companion.

With Sarah, I shared some photos I’d taken of the Nyssa figurine produced by Eaglemoss, which I had as part of the Fifth Doctor figurine collection for my birthday last year. I also shared with Sarah photos of me with Jodie Whittaker and Mandip Gill from the ‘London Comic Con Spring’ this year. 😀

Sarah Sutton’s Q&A at the ‘Newcastle Comic Con’, July 2022

Sarah Sutton had her own Q&A session at 1pm that day. I’m pleased Sarah got her own Q&A session. A shame Peter didn’t have one and that he didn’t join Sarah for her Q&A, but then again, he was pretty busy that day. I’m pleased I helped Sarah out with remembering the 1993 Children in Need ‘Doctor Who’ charity special called ‘Dimensions In Time’ during her panel talk. 😀

That afternoon, I gave Sarah copies of my ‘Doctor Who’ stories ‘The Regeneration Dilemma’ and ‘Girl Out of Nowhere’, and shared little synopses with her on what they’re about. 🙂 I also shared with Sarah the ‘Pets In Time’ book from the ‘Doctor Who Appreciation Society’, which she clearly enjoyed checking out. 🙂

We chatted about her taking part in the ‘Behind the Sofa’ items for the ‘Doctor Who’ Blu-ray box sets and I shared with Sarah a print of a ‘Spider-Man 2’ poster I purchased at the event. It was a challenge to say goodbye to Sarah at the comic con, as I couldn’t get away and I enjoyed chatting to her throughout the day. 😀

It was pretty busy at the event, since there were lots of people attending the ‘Newcastle Comic Con’. I didn’t get to take many photos of the cosplayers at the event with it being so busy that day, but I’m glad I was able to achieve all that I wanted to achieve with meeting Sarah Sutton and Peter Davison.

At the comic con, I reunited with Tom Mitchell and his mum Bev, who are followers of my blog. It was great to catch up with them. The photos of displays and cosplayers I took at the event included a dinosaur display from ‘Jurassic Park’. Beforehand, I saw ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ at the cinema whilst in Newcastle. 😀

A dinosaur at the ‘Newcastle Comic Con’, July 2022

Spider-Man at the ‘Newcastle Comic Con’, July 2022

Deadpool at the ‘Newcastle Comic Con’, July 2022

It was nice to see Spider-Man attend the ‘Newcastle Comic Con’ (especially as he’s my favourite Marvel superhero and I saw the first two ‘Spider-Man’ movies with Tobey Maguire on Disney+ at the Premier Inn I was staying at that weekend). There was also…Deadpool?…who’s female now?…attending the event. Huh! I didn’t expect a female Deadpool to show up at the ‘Newcastle Comic Con’.

“Um, Wade? Have you changed gender or is there a sister you have you haven’t told me about?”

Deadpool: “I’m female now? Damn this multiverse timeline arc.” (Pause; teasingly) “Come here, Billy Walker! Kiss me and find out…”

(interrupts) “Okay, I think the less I know about this, the better.”

To sum up, the ‘Newcastle Comic Con’ was a success! I greatly enjoyed attending the event with Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton as the two main ‘Doctor Who’ stars in attendance. It was a worthwhile event and I’m very pleased I achieved everything I wanted with meeting Peter and Sarah.

I’m looking forward to another convention/comic con with Peter and Sarah as ‘Doctor Who’ guests, as I enjoy meeting them and they’re my two favourite ‘Doctor Who’ stars. If Unleashed Events does another one of their comic cons with Peter and Sarah as guests, I’d be very happy to go and attend the event.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂

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