| I was sitting having a lovely breakfast with the friend I went with, when a faint smell of very expensive perfume wafted past and Sarah Sutton walked past and smiled as I looked up. Simply as I wasn't expecting to see her then, I had to take a deep breath to get over that one. Even so, I did wait for over an hour for her autograph. Unlike some, I didn't present her with my entire video collection to autograph, rather I asked her to sign a few favourite photographs - one of which she'd signed back in 1982 - which made her chuckle when she saw that. She asked if I wanted them signed to anyone, of course, and seemed a bit surprised when I said no (just rather have her autograph actually). I took a quick picture, which she was happy to pose for, and then, conscious that there were plenty of people who'd waited longer than me, I just quickly mentioned that I really enjoyed the rapport she'd reestablished with Davison on the audios, which she thanked me for, and asked if she knew if she'd be doing any more - she said no, but that she really enjoyed doing them and would love to do more. In fact, she seemed quite happy to chat, but I felt it was more thoughtful to others just to thank her and move on. I noticed that she was still signing an hour later despite the room being very stuffy and uncomfortable. |  |
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When it came to her panel, apart from hearing that she'd danced at the karoake the previous night, she was on excellent form. She talked about her whole acting career very enthusiastically, explaining the nature of her earlier work in great detail. She barely talked about 'Who' apart from the audios, which she again said she loved to do and loved the positive feedback that the fans had given her. She expressed her fondness for 'Mutant Phase' in particular and said that she was conscious of trying to make Nyssa a bit more assertive (more 'Tegan-like' as she put it). She again made clear her lack of affection for science-fiction, preferring to read history. |
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They then asked for questions and of course my hand shot up (naturally I was on the front row). Actually there had been very few questions from the floor throughout the weekend and I'd found myself asking all sorts of questions - asking Peter Davison what he thought of JNT, Mark Strickson to do his impersonation of the Myrka, Sophie Aldred and Sylvester McCoy what they thought of the racism theme in 'Rememberance of the Daleks', and even Colin Baker about the nature of the character. I asked Sarah about her work on 'the Crucible' and 'Byron' and whether or not she was disappointed that she hadn't done more costume pieces. Her memory of 'The Crucible' was very strong, but she was very keen to defend DW from having harmed her career - she acknowledged that she'd taken her 'eye off the ball' due to her family and that her career had suffered consequently - although in many respects she said she didn't mind that at all. |
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There were plenty more Who-related questions, then Mark Strickson bounded on
stage, totally unanounced as per usual and of course took over a bit.
I did manage to ask both of them if they missed Janet Fielding - Mark
said he did, but Sarah said that she hadn't considered her absence
until I asked. Mark also confessed to thinking about 'Who' at least
once a day - Sarah grimaced and admitted that she sometimes never
thought about it for weeks at a time! She also confessed to never
watching 'Who' and never taking the videos out of their
shrink-wrapping. She came across very well - very thoughtful, taking time to talk
in detail about the things people asked, and very pleased to still be
involved in the series. Oh and she thanked me every time she answered
one of my questions.
Apart from missing the karaoke, my only other regret was that I'd hoped 'Asylum' would be on sale and it wasn't. It was a very good convention - nicely informal - I did get the chance to chat with Mark Strickson, Colin Baker and Wendy Padbury, with lots of good guests. |
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