cunningham1471

Keep checking as it will keep changing. A few years ago I went to an event in Norwich. that weekend was the longest year of my life. What a boring city Norwich is! I was looking at tickets and thought return tickets from London £9 that's good I'll get some when I get my money. Three days later they had gone up to £34. I thought sod that I won't go. By pure chance about 2 months later I thought I'll look and see what it will cost now. Wahey! Same train leaving the same station from the same platform at the same time... £11.30 so I bought my ticket. I've also managed to get away with a cheap ticket by using my history. And to this day I still don't understand it. I looked at the price of a ticket at work and it said £8.25. I didn't want to put my credit card details on my work computer so thought I would wait until I got home. When I got home I had saved my search for that destination in my favourites the night before. Hmm not what I was expecting ticket price £6.70. I thought have a go it probably won't work so hit buy ticket expecting the price to change. It didn't so I carried on with the transaction and got charged £6.70 for my ticket. Result!! I took the dog for a walk diverting to the nearby train station to print my ticket off and yep it said on it £6.70. When I got home I went back to the webpage to buy a ticket, this time not using the favourites so it was a new approach from a search engine (Google) and the price for that trip said £8.25 the price quoted that morning. I've tried doing that since and it has never worked sadly. Whether it was a glitch or the god of travel was smiling on me that day I don't know. So I would suggest keep an eye on the prices as they are likely to keep changing between now and then. It's just a matter of taking the right price and hope you don't find out later if you waited a few days it would have been cheaper. I've had it and it does annoy you.

A reunion of the cast of "Soap" would be fantastic. That has to be one of the funniest TV comedies ever. A Tiswas reunion of Sally James, Bob Carolgees, John Gorman, Lenny Henry and Chris Tarrant (unlikely) would be great..... This is what they want!! You could even get people to bring buckets to fill wit water to try and set a world record for the most people doing the bucket of water song. If you could get them for October how about an 35th Anniversary of the original cast of Grange Hill? That show ran for years and is a part of people's childhood so long term you have a lot of people to go for The cast of Press Gang

Paul Michael Glazer (Starsky) is touring the UK in Fiddler on the roof next year so depending on dates, he may be a possible guest for one of Showmasters events even if it isn't in London or even if David Soul and Antonio Fargas aren't interested.

The cast of The Murdoch Mysteries would be appreciated... thank you!

Thank you Ted and 18blue78. I'll decide nearer the time if I'm going to stay up there overnight, when I know who is appearing which days. I'm going for the Space 1999 and the Bond women. It's annoying that Nicholas Smith is Sunday only. If more names are added and it makes it worth staying Sat-Sun I'll consider it. I just wish I was interested in boxing. I may even know who half of them are.

Thanks Count Fooku. I've been to the hotel before, it's nice, but the food is pricey... Fish Finger Sarnie, £10 YIKES!!

Hi Gaffer, Thanks for the reply. I was looking at possibly doing the earlier train on Saturday, but it makes the day even longer as I would have to be up and out at 5.30 to get to Euston. Owing to disability speed walking and lots of standing about does me no favours at all, so a long day takes it out of me. It's a shame that the price of hotels in general are so steep it really adds up the overall cost or I would have stayed over for sure. I'm toying with the idea of doing the "are you nuts run" and travelling up and back to London and doing the same again on Sunday, but the cost of the travel for both days is less than one night in a hotel or B&B for one night.

Diane was on TV not long ago on Big Brother's Little Brother or some show like that. I think she is a life coach or something now. She was talking about the dreary contestants spouting cobblers based on what everyone can see if they watch the show.

Mark Lester Ron Moody The Von Trapp Children from The Sound of Music Chitty Chitty Bang Bang reunion WWF - Demolition WWF - Howard Finkel WWF - Bobby "The Brain" Heenan if he is well enough to travel WWF - Mean Gene Okerland WCW/WWF - Lex Luger WCW/WWF -Road Warrior Hawk Jim Dale - Carry On Angela Douglas - Carry On Barbara Windsor - Carry On/Eastenders The Cast of New Tricks

Now if Showmasters wanted to be sneaky they could try and get David Beckham, Alan Shearer and Gazza as guests to push people's loyalties even further. Personally it's footy and I couldn't care less even if England make the final. I didn't even know Andy Murray was in the final let alone that he had won Wimbledon until the day after. Sport = Zzzzzzzzz

Hows about Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin aka Robert Vaughan and David McCullum as guests? I think these two would be a good couple to get that would appeal to people of certain age... ok an old git like me!

Hi, I know that this is near impossible, but can anyone give me a best guess estimate of the number of people that attend Autgraphica? I've only done the LFCC and that draws tens of thousands, last weekend 80,000+. I know this event doesn't draw anything close to that, likely not even a third of that. I'm thinking of coming to this event and am trying to work out if I need to stop over Friday night or if I can come up early Saturday morning from London hitting the hotel about 9am and get to see the people I am interested in.

If you are thinking reunions. Police Academy (30th Anniversary) One of the biggest comedies of the 80's that spawned soem ropey sequels. Dynasty (25th Anniversay of the show ending) The Cosplayers will have a field day with the shoulder pad dresses lol Tiswas (40th Anniversay) This is what they want! If you really went for it you could get people to bring buckets and create a world record for the most people performing "The Bucket of Water Song" in one place. If that odesn't get you on local TV news I don't know what will. The Tomorrow People (35th Anniversary of the original show ending) As there is a US version being made, it may get some interest in the past the same way Doctor Who did. The Dukes of Hazzard (35th Anniversary) Sadly Boss Hogg is no longer with us but The Duke brothers and of course the lovely Daisy are. Quantum Leap (25th Anniversary) "Oh boy!"

I think the reality is this issue will never go away unless drastic changes are made. I say drastic because that is exactly what it would be. 1) Too many Earlybird/Prepaid tickets are sold hence the queues getting longer and longer and resulting in slower movement of the line. Answer: Restrict the number of tickets sold to 100 max. Each ticket is numbered or has a barcode. At the entrance the number/barcode is read and ticked off on a laptop saying that person is in. The barcode is the best and faster option if it can be scanned and it would help stop photocopies being used. Result - people complain they couldn't get a ticket, won't line up to pay on the door so don't bother going. 2) Too many people attending now so the venue can't deal with so many people coming using seperate doors with different types of tickets. Answer - Have one day as prepaid tickets only, no on the day sales. On the other day haev it pay at the door only. Result - People will complain that some guest are only appearing on one day and so they have to buy two tickets (as weekender tickets will no longer be issued) and they don't wat to line up why can't I buy two prepaid tickets one for each day, it's inconvenient, I don't want to line up to buy a ticket (when they are lining up anyway to get in the door) blah blah blah. Both would work, both will be wrong and upset people. However if something is going to change it needs to be accepted that some people are going to be angry and upset but tough titties! Showmasters are in a no win situation with this one. Can imporvements be made? Yes of course. Better signage, better explanation on the description as to what the ticket is and means. Rather than call it an Early Bird ticket just call it and advance purchase ticket. and clearly print on the ticket this doesn't guarantee early entry and you may not get in quicker than on the day ticket sales. Someone suggested megaphones. I agree this would help, from experience of the chaos that happens with people not knowing which line is which, however this too causes a problem. if I lived near the venue and I had people on megaphones disturbing my morning from about 8am I wouldn't be too happy and would start making complaints to the venue, the local council etc. It would be annoying at anytome of the say, especially first thing in the morning. The perfect venue would be somewhere like the O2 in London, but way too expensive. Not only are they equipped to deal with vast numbers of people, they can have electronic boards above the entrance saying whilch line is which, there are plenty of places to get food etc, lots of seating inside the arena for people to rest if they need too and best of all, should megaphones be needed to be used outside the venue there is a good distance between it and local housing so it would causse less disturbance for local residents. It's just a shame it costs so much to hire.. If used occasionally.. one megaphone used once, making one announcemnet every half an hour I could probably live with at a stretch. Continuous every 5 minutes would p**** me off very quickly.

It does seem a very strange way to put on and promote an event, under the circumstances. I mean sure, dozens of events are ran that way, but they don't have successful forums and huge mailing lists to rely upon. To virtually ignore your primary marketplace, let others pass the messages on for you, seems very odd indeed. Unfortuately this is standard way of doing things by the looks of it. I had booked for "The Games" and the OUAT/Grimm conventions. Both boards were dead, no news, despite lots of requests as to what is happening and the status of the cons and then suddenly cancelled. I was looking at the first Lords of Time con and saw a similar pattern on there as well so didn't even think about buying a ticket. That event did go ahead but that isn't the point. The complete failure of psoting anything and update news on your own forum is a big mistake and wrong IMO. It's the main reason that I will no longer even consider going to a ME convention. Cancellations happen, guests have to withdraw, that happens and it can't be helped, but promoting and notifying is the responsibility of the person or company that is running the event. Getting that wrong gives a bad impression. Getting that wrong and then cancelling events looks worse. Getting it wrong, cancelling events and blaming lack of ticket sales can be devestating as it makes the person or company look inept. I realise that for this event the reason wasn't owing to ticket sales, but I'm sure you understand the point I am making.