Dr Who Unleashed (Ipswich July 2006).
A review by Gillian Puddle.
Those travelling from south of the river to Ipswich on a sweltering July Friday afternoon for the ‘Dr Who Unleashed Convention’ had their hopes of a quick journey dashed as soon as they joined the M25. Warnings of ‘Long Delays at Dartford Crossing’ unfortunately proved only too accurate. Among those caught in the ten-mile crawl to the tunnel was Paul Darrow. He walked through the doors of the Holiday Inn around 5pm, the designated start of the convention, and straight on stage for the opening ceremony.
Glancing around, and failing to see Sylvester McCoy or Nicola Bryant in the room, he asked the interviewer, ‘Just me?’ ‘Yes, just you’ came the reply. Paul smiled at his audience of around fifty mainly Dr. Who aficionados. ‘Welcome to Dr Who Unleashed!’
Deciding he had been brought in as the ‘warm up’ act, Paul set about the task with enthusiasm. A few jokes, banter with members of the audience (many of whom were local to the area), followed by a couple of anecdotes from his work on Dr Who and the Silurians and Timelash, soon had everyone paying attention and wanting more. Moving on to his fellow guests, Paul disclosed that his friend, Sylvester McCoy, tended to address him as ‘Master’. Not, ‘The Master’ of Dr. Who fame, but harking back to their time together on Ghoulashed, when Paul played the Ghoul Master and Sylvester played one of the subordinate Ghouls. A spirited demonstration followed and maybe some lucky people caught the real thing when Paul and Sylvester met later! There were some affectionate memories of Vere Lorimer - particularly his glowing introduction of another of the weekend’s guests, Julian Glover, to the cast of Blake’s 7 – ‘boys and girls, he’s one of our most distinguished actors – Brian Glover’.
Towards the end of Paul’s session, he was no longer alone on stage as he gave the audience his brilliant John Wayne, Burt Lancaster and Clint Eastwood impressions, living up in fine style to the nickname of ‘Blint’ bestowed on him by Mary Ridge, a director of Blake’s 7.
All too soon the performance was over. Paul had achieved the most brilliantly entertaining introduction, setting an upbeat tone for the rest of the weekend’s proceedings.
A break for dinner followed, during which Nicola Bryant arrived, having experienced difficulties and delays travelling to Ipswich from London. Nonetheless, she was soon on stage with Paul for the unenviable task of commentating on the first half of the Dr Who episode ‘Timelash’. Unfortunately, the sound from the recording made it difficult to pick up their comments but it was still amusing to see their reactions to Peri and Tekker. Paul had already mentioned that he couldn’t take seriously his conversation with a snake (and had been even more bemused to find the actor concerned practising ‘hissing’ to himself), so the inclusion of this scene caused a lot of hilarity. As did Peri’s casual treatment of the deadly plant. The costumes and hairdos came in for some flak too, but it was all in good part. Some would have liked to have continued with the second half of the programme, but … enough was enough!
Paul was on stage mid-morning on Saturday for a short question and answer session – apart from Avon, interest was shown in his role in a Hammer House of Horror production (the memory of having to hold a live chicken seems to have endured!), and his portrayal of Kaston Iago in the Kaldor City CDs.
Paul’s next port of call was a coffee club, at which twelve or so attendees (mainly men) had coffee with Paul and chatted about … football!! An opportunity for those who wanted their photo taken with Paul was next on the agenda. A multicoloured scarf and hat hung from a coat stand as a backdrop – a reminder that this was a Dr. Who convention!
After lunch, Paul and Sylvester McCoy signed autographs, sitting next to one another at the table. Paul’s book ‘You’re Him, Aren’t You?’ was available and sold like hot cakes. It seemed Paul’s performances on stage during the weekend had been a wonderful advertisement for his memoires. Sylvester couldn’t wait to discover what Paul had written about him and took the soonest opportunity to find out!
Paul’s sessions finished on the Saturday afternoon, but he stayed over until the Sunday morning, giving attendees a chance to chat with him.
There had been a very relaxed atmosphere to this convention, which contributed to making it such an enjoyable event.