Get up close and personal with stars from Doctor Who, James Bond, Star Wars and other cult TV shows and movies at a sci-fi autograph show taking place in Stevenage this month.
Our Disappearing Planet 2 takes place at the Arts and Leisure Centre on May 20, and features the likes of Bernard Cribbins, Christopher Biggins, Toyah Wilcox and Peter Purves.
One of the stars appearing is Herts actress, impressionist and graphic novelist Jessica Martin, best known for appearing in TV’s Copy Cats and Doctor Who, as well as on stage in Me and My Girl and Elf: The Musical.
She told the Comet: “I attended my first Doctor Who convention as a guest about five years ago. The first thing that struck me was the feeling of being in a time bubble. The episodes I appeared in were from a different era and yet the way fans were talking about them and the questions they were asking made one feel it had all happened last week. And they knew facts about the show and my history in it that even I didn’t know! Now I knew I was part of a cultural phenomenon that outsiders think of as ‘geek’ but I could see was inspirational and eternal for so many people.
“In the next few years I was emerging as a comic artist and had lots of experience meeting and chatting to people at comic conventions. I felt that the time went more pleasantly for me and for the audiences if you engaged in conversation rather than sitting glumly waiting to conduct the next transaction. And I really have met so many interesting people with diverse interests, careers and reasons why they are part of the fandom.
“On a less grand scale, it’s just lovely meeting people who remember being entertained by shows like Spitting Image or Copycats. I even had one fan who performed a whole impressionist act in front of my table!
“So I’m looking forward to meeting the fans who’ll be coming to Stevenage with perhaps some long lost memorabilia or the admission that I made them quake with fear when they watched me change into a werewolf!”
For more information about the Stevenage show, click here.
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