Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
“Happy 59th Anniversary, ‘Doctor Who’! 🙂
And yes! I’m sharing another set of convention memories to celebrate the occasion. Today, I’m sharing the time that I attended the ‘Timey-Wimey 1’ convention in Brighton in November 2014. This was to celebrate 51 years of ‘Doctor Who’, as the event took place on Sunday the 23rd of November.
The one-day convention was run by Louise Jameson (Leela in ‘Doctor Who’) and Matt Evenden. The venue was the Thistle Hotel in Brighton. Although the convention was on Sunday, my parents and I stayed overnight from Friday 21st so that we could explore more Brighton whilst we stayed there. 🙂
As well as Louise Jameson, there was also Tom Baker, who was the guest of honour for the day. There was also Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), who I was pleased to see again, as well as Wendy Padbury (Zoe), John Leeson (K-9) and Sophie Aldred (Ace). There was also Toby Hadoke and Nigel Fairs there.
The Big Finish people were also there, including producer David Richardson, writer/script editor Matt Fitton and actor/writer/script editor John Dorney. They also had Karen Gledhill (who played Allison in ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’) and Hugh Ross (‘Counter-Measures’) as sponsored guests. 🙂
‘Timey-Wimey 1’ turned out to be a very happy convention for me to go to. There had been a previous convention – ‘Timey-Wimey 2’ – with Janet Fielding as the guest. There was later a ‘Timey-Wimey 7’ in 2015. Yeah, I know. These conventions were out of order in terms of numbers. 😀 I don’t know what’s become of the other ‘Timey-Wimey’ conventions since then.
Let me share with you with the highlights of ‘Timey-Wimey 1’. It started off of course with a welcome from Matt Evenden, the mayor of Brighton if I recall correctly, and Louise Jameson herself. We then had Toby Hadoke, who then introduced us to Tom Baker who had his panel talk on the day.
I enjoyed the panel talk with Tom Baker, conducted by Toby Hadoke. It was nice to hear Tom’s remembrances of being the Fourth Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’ and sharing some amusing stories. I was able to ask a question to Tom Baker about jelly babies, which I’m very pleased he was able to answer.
I didn’t get to meet Tom Baker for a signing session sadly, but I was able to have a photo shoot with him, which was nice. Tom remembered me during the panel talk and I told him it was nice to meet him. He replied, “It’s nice to be met.” That’s a convention memory of Tom Baker that I won’t forget. 🙂
I later went to have some signing sessions with the ‘Doctor Who’ companions. I met up with Wendy Padbury, who I had nice chats with that day. She signed my CD covers of ‘The Queen of Time’ and ‘Lords of the Red Planet’, which I enjoyed listening to. I also had photos with dear Wendy that day. 🙂
I also met up with Sophie Aldred, who I enjoyed meeting that day too. Sophie signed my CD cover of ‘1963: The Assassination Games’ and I had a couple of photos with her too. My parents also had photos and signed items from the guests that day. That included Wendy Padbury and Sophie Aldred.
Of course, it was a joy to see Sarah Sutton again at ‘Timey-Wimey 1’, having recently seen her in ‘Collectormania 22’ in Milton Keynes a week ago. I had nice chats with Sarah that day and had a couple of photos with her. Sarah signed my DVD covers of the three ‘Black Guardian Trilogy’ stories.
This includes ‘Mawdryn Undead’, ‘Terminus’ and ‘Enlightenment’. Sarah signed the back of my ‘Enlightenment’ DVD cover, as her ‘Finding Sarah Sutton’ item is in the 2-disc DVD set. I enjoyed sharing a joke with Sarah as well as about how great it would be for Nyssa to be back in the TV show. 🙂
I met up with John Leeson and had a chat with him, as well as having my CD cover of 2003’s ‘Shada’ signed by him. I also met up with Louise Jameson and had a nice chat to her during a signing session. She signed my ‘Talons of Weng-Chiang’ DVD cover as well as my ‘Fourth Doctor Box Set’ CD cover. 🙂
I managed to get to see Louise Jameson for her panel talk with Toby Hadoke on that day. I also met up with Karen Gledhill and Hugh Ross at the Big Finish stall, as they were promoting the spin-off audio series ‘Counter-Measures’. I managed to have a couple of photos with them as well as a Dalek.
I also purchased Series 1 of ‘Counter-Measures’ from the Big Finish stall and had it signed by Karen and Hugh, which was nice. 🙂 They also signed ‘1963: The Assassination Games’. I also purchased a copy of ‘Dark Eyes 3’, which had been signed by Nicola Walker and Alex Macqueen before the event.
I also had a little chat with Matt Fitton and he signed my CD cover of the ‘Destiny of the Doctor’ story ‘The Time Machine’. I also received some autograph signatures from John Leeson and Sophie Aldred and I also received a ‘Timey-Wimey’ photo of Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, signed by him.
I attended the Big Finish panel talk, which also included David Richardson, John Dorney, Matt Fitton, Karen Gledhill and Hugh Ross. There were hints of future Big Finish audio releases shared by the Big Finish team, including the Gareth Roberts ‘Doctor Who’ novel adaptations with Tom Baker’s Doctor.
I later saw Sarah Sutton for her panel talk with Nigel Fairs, and she also did a live DVD commentary on ‘Part Two’ of ‘Arc of Infinity’. This, I greatly enjoyed seeing. 🙂 I was able to help Sarah out with recalling things in ‘Arc of Infinity’ as well as things in general about ‘Doctor Who’ in her panel talk. 🙂
I also saw Sophie Aldred for her panel talk with Nigel Fairs, and she also did a live DVD commentary on ‘Part One’ of ‘Silver Nemesis’. We soon had a photo shoot featuring all the companions, including Louise Jameson, Wendy Padbury, John Leeson, Sophie Aldred and Sarah Sutton. This, I enjoyed a lot.
The day ended with a panel talk of all five companions – John, Sarah, Wendy, Sophie and Louise – conducted by Nigel Fairs. There was then a charity auction to raise money for DAVSS (Domestic Abuse Volunteers Support Services). I won a signed ‘Iterations of I’ script from Sarah on that Sunday.
I also received the front script page of ‘Iterations of I’, signed by all members of the cast. When I got home from Brighton, I received the signed script of ‘Iterations of I’ from Sarah in the post. It was lovely to receive that in the post and I was pleased to check out when revisiting the story on audio. 🙂
I also had a nice glamour photo of Sarah Sutton signed by her that day. 🙂 Incidentally, as it was ‘Doctor Who’s 51st birthday, Toby Hadoke came on stage with a birthday cake to show John, Sarah, Wendy, Sophie, Louise and Matt Evenden, which was great. There was also one Dalek watching us! 😀
By the way, Joe Lidster attended that day. I had a quick chat with him. 🙂 I also had a nice chat with Toby Hadoke sometime during the day. As the day concluded, I got the chance to say goodbye to Sarah. I was so looking forward to seeing her at the next convention in Fareham in two weeks’ time.
I came away feeling very happy from attending ‘Timey-Wimey 1’. It’s a convention I regard highly, and I’m pleased Louise Jameson was able to organise the event with Matt Evenden and have people like Tom Baker, Sarah Sutton, Wendy Padbury, John Leeson and Sophie Aldred attending that day. 🙂
I’m glad my parents and I had an enjoyable weekend in Brighton, and it was a good way to celebrate 51 years of ‘Doctor Who’ back then. I was looking forward to attending one more convention before the end of 2014. How fitting I would see Sarah Sutton again at a convention before Christmas time. 🙂
Incidentally, I’ve kept the souvenir programme for ‘Timey-Wimey 1’ after all these years. Check out the pages for the ‘Timey-Wimey 1’ souvenir programme to see what it’s like.
Stay tuned for my ‘convention memories’ blog post on the ‘Timeless Collectors’ sci-fi fair in Fareham, December 2014.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
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