Danny Pink goes Barking!

In a pseudo warm-up to next weekend’s big Gallifrey One convention, today I trekked out to Barking for Tenth Planet Event’s first signing session of 2015.

Barking Signing - 7th February 2015

To be honest the guest list was a little light on interest, with Jasmine Breaks, the little girl in Remembrance Of The Daleks; Clem So, the go-to Chinese actor seen in Pond Life, The Angels Take Manhatten, The Day Of The Doctor and notably as a clockwork droid in Deep Breath; and Gregory De Polnay, D84 in The Robots Of Death.


There were also a couple of non-Who also-ran guests who appeared in the likes of Grange Hill and Z Cars, but for me the main draw was Brian Miller, Barney the tramp in Deep Breath and husband to the late, great Elizabeth Sladen.


However, with less than a week to go, the organisers added a surprise guest, Samuel Anderson - Danny Pink himself!

It was a cold morning, and I got there in good time to get the signatures in my book I was after, though sadly Gregory De Polnay was a no-show due to ill health. Hopefully he'll come on a future session.

Samuel came across very well and was interacting with the fans without any reservations, engaging with one and all.

He was happy to sign anything put in front of him including a wonderful portrait done by a fan, who gave him a copy to keep - which Samuel asked him to sign!

I had a little chat with Jasmine, who was flattered to have been asked along after all these years for an appearance she has little memory of!

After the signing opportunity was over, Samuel hosted the Q&A himself, after the planned host called in sick.
After an awkward start he got into the swing of things, asking his fellow guests questions, as well as fielding them from the floor.

A lot of interest was directed towards Clem, who has appeared uncredited in a many recent A-list films, including Guardians Of The Galaxy, Jupiter Ascending, Kingsman: The Secret Service and Skyfall.
He has also done the upcoming Mr Holmes with Sir Isn McKellen playing the aged retired sleuth, grappling an unsolved case from his past.

Richard Heffer told amazing stories of the making of Waterloo, shot in Ukraine in the early 1970s using 12,000 Russian serving soldiers as extras. I had chatted to him myself about Czech Mate, in my view the only truly good episode of Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense.

This was one of the first events Samuel has attended and he told me he’s looking forward to doing more in future, especially LA if he can get on the guest list!