London Film Fair 6 April 2025

I have been collecting signed photos since I was 12 or 13 years old. Pretty much 95% of my collection has been built up by writing to celebrities from a range of fields, acting, singing and sporting. Nothing can quite match the thrill of receiving a signed photo and occasionally a personal reply in the post. However, at the moment, I do not have the free time to pursue that avenue, though I do intend to go back to it. To fill in some gaps in my collection I have been to the odd signing session, but my visit to the London Film Fair was the biggest convention I have attended so far. So, what was my day like, and would I go again? Well, read on.

I Want It Now!

The reason I wanted to attend this particular convention was to finally meet one of my first celebrity crushes, Julie Dawn Cole. I was close to meeting her at Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory at the BFI but as you will discover, if you read it, it was a case of so near yet so far. This time, I decided to have a picture with Julie as well as getting a couple of signed photos. Now, it’s an odd phenomenon, or maybe it isn’t and everyone else just appears more confident but I always get nervous when meeting a celebrity who has been part of my cultural hinterland. Well, with Julie you could double the nerves and then add more! I had wanted to meet her for so long and I thought that I might chicken out if I didn’t go to see her straight away, so before I walked around the stalls I went straight to her signing table. I was shaking with nerves and excitement, as I reverted to a star struck inner child, but when I finally got to the front of the queue she put me at ease (as far as that was possible!) by being just as lovely as I had imagined. I got two signed photos, the Veruca Salt picture reflecting the part for which she is most famous, and the part that enchanted my 10 year old self, Jo Longhurst in Angels. She seemed genuinely pleased that I was a fan of Angels, and she told me that the original Angels were still in touch although it was very hard for them to arrange times to meet up because their schedules didn’t quite match! I was really pleased to hear that, because the whole of the original cast from the first three series seemed so tight knit on screen, and it was nice that they had a similar closeness off screen. It was a fantastic experience meeting Julie and that was because she focused entirely on me during the brief chat and made me think that in some way she enjoyed meeting me as well. An inner child can dream can’t he?!

Vampires and Man Eating Plants!

The other childhood favourite I wanted to see was Janina Faye who made a number of movies as a child and a teenager, most famous of which were the 1958 version of Dracula with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, and the 1963 film version of Day of the Triffids alongside Howard Keel and my favourite actor of the 40s and 50s Mervyn Johns. Janina was absolutely lovely and very happy to talk about the films and the actors she appeared alongside. I told her that I had first seen Dracula at the age of 10 or 11 because I was obsessed with vampires at the time. The film terrified me so much that I had not watched it since, although I do have the Blu-ray version on my TBW pile of films and TV! We talked about Mervyn Johns and I suggested a couple of his films, particularly The Halfway House which she might want to check out. She said that the Triffids movie was disappointing because it cut so much of the book out, which gave me the opportunity to hand her my book for her to sign the front cover. It might be an odd place to sign it, but every time I reread the book I will be reminded of 10 minutes chatting to a lovely and vibrant lady.

Something I realised

Just as an aside, I thought back to my early favourites and one connection became clear. All the actresses I loved watching as a child were part of the action, not just sitting back and being demure. Julie, of course, was the ultimate ‘bad egg’ who controlled the world around her until she met her match in Willy Wonka. Janina was determined to survive as Susan in Day of the Triffids and played her part in staving off the end of the world. Katy Manning as Jo Grant was often going it alone, ignoring both the Doctor and the Brigadier. I met Katy back in 2006 at a Doctor Who signing. Finally, Roberta Tovey played Susan in the two big screen Dalek spin offs and was in the thick of the action throughout. Roberta is the last of that quartet I want to meet so I am keeping my eyes peeled! It’s interesting how much your early cultural experiences inform your character, and true to that my favourite girls in real life were the types who were more than happy to shape their world by being determined and taking risks.

The stalls and my purchases

Having never been to a convention of this size, I was not prepared for the range of temptation that they would put in my path! I came away having spent far more than anticipated. Just as well it was a late birthday treat really! Anyway, as you can see below, I got some memorabilia that I probably would not have found elsewhere. The biggest find was the original cinema programme of Scrooge from 1970. I am old enough to remember the days when many films had these available, and now that they are obsolete these connections to a cultural past become ever rarer and ever more valuable from a historical perspective. Luckily I picked up Scrooge for £5 and I don’t think it had been read more than once, so pristine was it. Another film from around the same time, Melody, was absolutely massive in Japan, and at another stall I found an original Japanese cinema programme for £4. My luck was definitely in! I had no intention of adding to my huge TBW pile, so of course I picked up the original Star Wars trilogy, classic sci-fi film Things to Come and the entire first series of 70s anthology Thriller! Oh well, I paid less than £15 for the lot so I feel like I got some real bargains there. Finally, I got a book covering every film Jenny Agutter has ever made. One of our best and most versatile actresses, there’s a number of these films I have not heard of let alone seen, so it will definitely be a fascinating read. By the way, I wrote to Jenny a number of years ago and received a signed photo so this icon of my younger years is already safely in my collection.

And finally ….

I have never wanted to have a picture of myself with one of my favourites on the basis that I would ruin the picture! Well, this time I did and to my surprise I don’t seem to have done, although I will leave you to decide.