Well, it turned out that all the people in the UK who warned me that the American Jumpcon series of Conventions was an over-ambitious project were right. Back in the early Spring they contacted me to ask if I would like to take part in their mammoth "city a week" sci-fi convention tour. I committed myself to the first four weeks - Kalamazoo, Stamford, Boston and Pittsburgh, which would have meant my spending virtually the whole of July in America. They made me an offer I couldn't refuse and I decided to commit and see how those events turned out before deciding whether to do any more. I subsequently turned down other work. First all of all, the deposits they promised in their contract never materialised, nor did the full payment of the contract, due two weeks before each event. Then the first two events were cancelled; then the fourth; and finally the day before I was due to fly to Boston (though I had received neither deposit, payment or travel tickets) the whole series of events were cancelled and I, in common with all the other actors in America and the UK who were under contract to Jumpcon, was left high and dry - not to mention severely out of pocket. So too were the many fans who had shelled out on tickets, hotels and travel. At least I am not in an actual deficit situation like the fans. Although I have not received my contractual fees, I haven't had to spend any of my own money, although I would undoubtedly have accepted other work during the period. The fans have been promised refunds for the money they have paid to Jumpcon. Let us hope they honour their promise. They will not however be able to get the money back that they have paid out for travel and accommodation. Some fans have actually gone to Boston anyway and are holding their own fan-run convention in a neighbouring hotel to the one booked for Jumpcon. Local fan groups have welcomed the incoming fellow fans and have organised, in a couple of days, what Jumpcon failed to organise in several months. They have even had at least one star guest - Mark Goddard - from Lost in Space - who has very generously gone along to try and salvage something for the fans. I salute him. Were I near Boston I would have happily done the same, as I am sure would Sylvester McCoy, Mary Tamm, Frazer Hines, Jackie Pearce and Ian Liston (of Star Wars fame) all of whom had been booked to appear by Jumpcon and all of whom have been left high and dry. Sylvester and I have been unlucky with overseas engagements before. We went to Australia for a month a few years ago to do a series of events for an Oz Company - which went in liquidation the day after we had finished the job - and we never got paid. And it is the Brits who always play the villains in the American movies. Ironic really, isn't it.So all I have work-wise in the immediate future, in addition to the events listed on this site and already announced, is an episode of the series Kingdom which I will be filming in two weeks time, just after I would have returned from America. And I have just been invited to a signing event with Terry Molloy - and maybe others too - in Lanchester, Co Durham - on 23rd August, before travelling across country to Carnforth for the event there on the Bank Holiday Monday.As soon as my wife learned that I wasn't going to Boston on Thursday, she pressed a paintbrush in my hand, so I am now nursing an aching back, having painted the hall, stairs and landing walls over the last two days. And I gather the hedges need to be cut. And with an empty diary I have no excuse, alas.I watched the final few episodes of Doctor Who, with amazement. Wow, talk about bringing all the story lines together! I'll leave others to judge whether that was a good idea or not. I know some people felt that there was just too much going on - but it certainly ended the season with an all singing, all dancing blockbuster story. Though I must say I couldn't see why Davros couldn't have been played by my friend, Terry Molloy. If it had been a different interpretation of the flawed genius creator of the Daleks, then I would have understood the re-casting. But in the event, it was the same Davros to all intents and purposes, and Terry would have done it superbly. Our's not to reason why!Since my last blog, I went to see my friend Louise Jameson in Hamlet in the drizzle in the open air at Stafford Castle. It was a splendid performance and my daughters Bindy, Lally and I thoroughly enjoyed the superb production, particularly the performances of Louise who achieved the very tricky job of making Gertrude understandable, vulnerable and sexy. It is a part that has defeated many very good actresses. Like Hamlet, we need to be able to understand how Hamlet's mother could so quickly and apparently easily marry her late husband's brother. She had the tricky job of conveying that she could simultaneously have loved her husband and their son Hamlet, whilst needing the security of a marriage to the man who murdered her husband (which she does not know of course). She achieved that superbly. Also excellent and an actor to watch was Joseph Millson as Hamlet. A brilliantly clear and immaculate performance. Funny, poignant and powerful by turn. Apparently he guested in the Sarah Jane spin-off, which I haven't seen.Currently glued to Celebrity Master Chef. I loathe cookery programmes as a rule, but this is different. I watched because the voice over is by India Fisher, with whom I have been recently recording the Big Finish stories. I am now hooked and rooting for the Atomic Kitten girl. Also the Last Choir Standing is compelling viewing - my daughter Lucy worked it on it briefly, so we started watching it - and are now hooked on that too. And of course that brilliant and very dark series Dexter is back for a second series. Not every one's cup of tea - a series about a sympathetic (ish) serial killer - but I love it.Still waiting for summer - and waiting - and waiting.....
First of all I should apologise to anyone in the States who was expecting to see me in Kalamazoo this weekend, or indeed, Stamford next weekend. Sadly for reasons they are better placed to explain than I am, JumpCon cancelled those two events - something I found out when I logged on to their website, as I was not getting very much info from them. They tell me that Boston and Pittsburgh - the next two events - for which I was also booked - are still happening - but I am in no position at the moment to confirm that absolutely, as I thought I was going to Kalamazoo just a week before that event!Check their website if you are thinking of going and rest assured I will be there if I can!But at least it has meant that I will get to see the last week of Wimbledon in its entirety, which will be unusual for me as I seem to be always working in theatre this time of year - so I won't miss Andy Murray in his first Wimbledon final - I can dream can't I?I have been busy doing Big Finish audios over the last few weeks, but have been warned not to give too much away. But if I can emulate that master of artful publicity, Russell T Davis' column in DWM, - the stories contain words like 'Manchester', 'sentient sludge', 'Hitler's Ghost', 'chiropyt, 'Antwerp', 'crouton' and 'Onyakis'. There that should whet your appetite! Hopefully. They were all great fun to do and I believe that it is no secret that the stories - or some of them anyway - involved Charlie Pollard (aka the lovely and talented India Fisher - that well-known piscatorial sub-continent). What was also great for me was that I was joined for one of them by two of my good friends from the tour of She Stoops to Conquer, which finished at the end of May - Glynn Sweet and Matt Burgess. They both demonstrated their talents once again in parts very different from those that they played on the tour. Other old friends and new ones joined the casts but I will leave that for you to discover - including the former pop star that was very tolerant of my failure to identify him as such for a half hour or so. Nice guy - talented too!I have also celebrated a 'milestone' birthday since my lasting posting on this blog - as Mr Robert Cope webmaster supreme of this site - and rubber of salt into wounds pointed out - so there's no use my pretending it didn't happen! For the first time in years I was actually at home on my birthday and got to spend it with my family instead of doing a matinee on tour as usually seems to be the case. And they resisted the urge to buy me a zimmer frame and subscription to the Oldie too, thank goodness.They did take me out to Yo Sushi though, which was a first for me - although I have eaten sushi before I have never done so in one of those places with the moving belt and the colour coded plates of yummy delicacies. All very healthy too, I am told.I also went with my daughters to see Price Caspian the other night, which I thought was, if anything, better than the first Narnia film and compared very favourably with the Golden Compass, which I had seen a month or so earlier. The latter was good but lacked a lot of what I found so magnificent in the Philip Pulman books. But they are admittedly much more difficult to adapt for film than the Narnia books. I hope they make the other five before the actors are too old to play those beguiling Pevensie children. They are superbly cast.I met some lovely folk at the Oncoming Storm event in Gloucester at the beginning of June and had a good day there, although I wasn't able to see much of my dear friend Louise Jameson - although I am going to see her performing in Stafford Castle in July as Gertrude in Hamlet. My daughter Lally has just finished studying Hamlet for A Level and will be accompanying me. I have also done a photo session for the panto in Bath this Christmas. It is an annual ritual turning up at some photographer's studio in June to dress up (as Fleshcreep in this case) and have some shots done for a job that we do in midwinter. But I got to meet Lewis from Any Dream Will Do - who seems a charming chap and about whom my daughters were enthusing when they heard he was going to be appearing with me - and Chris Harris the actor who has played Dame at Bath for years and with whom I am looking forward to working.And this week I shall be off to Eton College to see my second daughter, Bindy, singing and dancing in the chorus of On the Town - a Windsor Youth Theatre production.As I sit here Andy Murray has just double faulted - I must go and support him in front of the telly with a glass of the amber liquid in my hand. It's a hard life being an actor.
Well the tour is now fading into the past and I have grown accustomed to eating with my family again for a few weeks, which has been a pleasant discovery after nearly a year of being on the road with Bedroom farce and then She Stoops to Conquer, broken only by a visit to Norwich for pantomime. It has been really pleasant to wake up in my own bed for more than two days at a time, though I am not sure my daughters are relishing having "Mr Grumpy" back in circulation nagging them about the ir untidy bedrooms and for leaving cups, glasses and plates all over the house. Fathers are the same the whole world over, it seems.Since finishing the tour in Bath at the end of April, the time has rushed by.I spent my first Saturday off at Milton Keynes for my old friends at Tenth Planet and then motored up to Liverpool to do a day with the fans at The Cavern in Liverpool. This has proved a very succesful event over the last few years, organised by the redoubtable Erica Egerton who is on the Executive of DWAS now. A great day and it was good to see my old and dear friend Nicola in good form (I say "old" as in I have known her for a long time - not to indicate that she remains anything other than a very delectable and dishy young lady, who seems to get more attractive as the years go by. It's not fair. Also there were the clever owner of the Moth -eaten scarf (catch his show if you get the chance) Toby Hadoke and my august predecessor Peter Davison. I subsequently saw his daughter Georgia playing "the Doctor's daughter" - I knew Georgia as a four year old when she was at the same school as my daughter Lucy - they were in the same class actually - amazing - there were two girls in one class who could say "My dad is Doctor Who!" took the kudos of that away a little for them - which was probably no bad thing. I thought Georgia was fantastic - what a good actress she is - and what a pretty girl. If they've got any sense, they'll see the spin-off potential of that character. The next couple of weeks I immersed myself in all the activities I have been unable to give much attention for the last year - I am a Governor at three different schools and had a lot to catch up on. I went down to the excellent Academy Theatre at Shepton Mallet too, where my cousin and photographer extraordinaire Ian Burgess is jointly organising an event over the weekend of 16/17 August - to help them with a little pre-publicity. I've done some interviews in vision for DVD extras for releases due out later in the year of Doctor Who stories.Then the BIG EVENT. 18th May saw me revisiting Gladstone Pottery in Stoke on Trent where we filmed the final Fantasy Factory element of Trial of a Time Lord back in 1986. Rob Cope the genius creator and maintainer of this website organised the event with the Gladstone Pottery Museum, who laid on a great day for the fans who turned up in their droves. Children had great fun making clay daleks and tardises and Terry Molloy and I got to meet lots of fans and had a great day, in lovely weather, thank goodness. Rob is to be congratulated on his bravery in organising the day and we will only find out whether he enjoyed it as much as everybody else did if he decides to repeat the experience in the future.I have done another Big Finish story (with India Fisher with whom I enormously enjoy working - she is great fun and an excellent actress) and am scheduled to to a few more stories over the next month, before I go off to the USA to strut my stuff for JumpCon in Kalamazoo - yes there really is such a place.I was also invited by the excellent guys at WETA (whom I visited when I was in New Zealand a few years ago) to spend a couple of days with them on their stand at Expo in docklands on 24/25 May. They have created a superb range of high quality Doctor Who figures designed and sculpted by my friend David Tremont, whose stunning work I saw when I was shown the sets and props that WETA made for the Lord of the Rings trilogy for Peter Jackson. I had a great couple of days with them, ruined only by watching the Eurovision Song Contest farce on TV on the Saturday night. Time to bow out of that one, I think. Shame, I used to enjoy it and even submitted an entry a few years ago.Bank Holiday Monday I was in the Lake District at a friend's daughter's wedding by Ullswater, which was delightful and blessed by good weather while the south was pounded by rain.Saturday another friend's daughter's 30th birthday party in London. This hectic social life is exhausting me - I can't wait to get back to work for a rest!More Big Finish this week and on Friday I am meeting up with my friends Jane and Fred of Rod Jane and Freddie fame for you cult tv followers out there - who are very good friends that I have known for many years.On 14th June I shall be in Gloucester for The Oncoming Storm convention which promises to be great fun. Come along if you can!
