The Pink Lady

Then again...

We already know Redbeard is going to be there. Is this turning into a menagerie, or a travelling circus? Will we be treated to the opportunity to meet the bloodhound which features in that still from S4, even though we haven't seen it yet? Will Mark be bringing Bunsen and Amanda her pack of doggies? Tune in the same time tomorrow and all will be revealed. Excuse me for not being massively excited about this one. Though dogs are cute.

Well, I'm very excited not only that I'll get to see Amanda on the talks stage, but get to meet her too! And that there are still more guests to be announced! This is going to be a great experience, again.

Nope, I agree that it will be at least one lead guest, but it could also be at least one lead plus all the rest still not announced - given how close we are now.

I'm getting properly, butterflies-in-the-tummy excited! I'll be at a family party at 4pm, but they all know and love me enough to tolerate me getting on the web and doing whatever follows. I've already got my platinum pass, so I don't think I'll be buying much extra, but if, say, a Holmes family photo was on the cards... I'm also pondering getting a set photo on the Friday evening and going dressed Victorian-ish (I don't do cosplay but dress sort of that way often enough I could get close!) just for one session.

No, it hasn't - but none of the non-lead guests has had a pre-announcement so far, so I deduce that this will either be a lead guest, or more than one, or all the remaining guests including at least one lead.

I don't think that Andrew was counted as a Lead Guest last time, or is my memory faulty?

17 hours to go. I plan to be asleep for about ten of them. That will get some of the waiting out of the way. 😴

Babybatch!

Yes, Benedict will soon be doing a lot of promotional work for Dr Strange over the next couple of months, he also has filming coming up shortly for his next project (Can't remember what it is off the top of my head, other than I think he's playing Eddison). I'm still on it being Ben (I'm going to be happy with a new guest, but disappointed it's not Ben, if it's not him) but the logic dictates that Loo isn't any more likely to get a build up than Una or Rupert. Ben is going to be busy but it doesn't mean it won't be him, he'll be doing promo work in the UK as well I'm sure and just because filming is starting soon it doesn't mean they will need him on or around the weekend of Sherlocked. Same with Andrew. I don't know anything about what he is filming so don't know how big his part is but there's noting to say he will actually be filming around that weekend and he may be home. It also doesn't mean the guest will be doing the whole event, they may be only doing 1 day like Ben did last year, and Mark is doing this year, leaving rest time on the other day. Ben is the most likely in my opinion but it doesn't mean any of them can be discounted.

Without wishing to read too much into things (actually, who am I kidding? Of course I do!) it's the big announcement that's singular, hence 'guest' following suit. Any number of guests might be announced within the one announcement. If it said "big guest(s) to be announced" it would be clearer, or "big announcement about a guest/guests"; but this way round could mean either! [\pedant mode] I think we might be getting the full, final line up - waaaay back in January we were told that things would be finalised about a month out. Well, guess when we are now?

My instincts tell me this will be Ben and/or Martin - they're timing the announcement for when most people will be or can be near a computer/tablet/phone to book tickets, rather than a general working day, so they're likely expecting a rush of traffic following the announcement. I'll be happy whoever it is - Ben, Martin, Amanda, Andrew or Loo - but I do have I little wish in my heart.

Yep, I feel another spreadsheet coming on to plan everything minutely. I really want to get to more talks this time!

Ah, brilliant - I somehow missed your previous post, so thanks for going to the trouble of explaining it again! I've pretty much resigned myself that neither Ben or Martin will be there, but perhaps I'll go back to dreaming about my photo on the 221b set with them in their respective chairs and me as a client...

I'm doing something similar and bringing my Sherlock Chronicles to be signed by people I didn't meet last year, and other stuff for those I did. I'm trying to keep the weight down, though, because my bag was killing by the time I finished last year! I'm so excited that it's coming round again. Only seven weeks now! Woot woot!

Whatever happened to Platinum ticket holders getting a priority booking period for photo shoots? It's clearly listed there as one of the benefits of buying the package, but we have just had, for instance, Rupert Graves announced as a guest, and his photo shoots seem to be on sale to everyone without any priority booking period. It has been this way for all the shoots which were announced so far. It hasn't affected me personally as I think that all I want will be included in my package anyway, but why use this as a selling point for packages if it isn't going to be honoured?

I suspect they've been putting all their time into sorting the US con, given they've announced they're about to announce it, if you se what I mean! I'm getting the feeling that something is coming for us in the UK too. Fingers crossed!

Fantastic! I'm a big fan of Phil's work in general, but he was brilliant in A Study in Pink. Great news!

Wow, that seems pretty unfair, given that Platinum is pretty well the 'everything' package. I wasn't expecting to have to pay extra for something which was included last time. Hmm, not sure I'll be forking out for it in that case.

Cookie gratefully received!

It's worth bearing in mind, folks, that last year the event was announced and the tickets went on sale very much closer to the event, so they pretty much had to have all the guests in place before they opened booking. This time, there's much longer to go and so all the time in the world for guests to be able to arrange to be there, as well as the other way around and for some to drop out - so I'm happy that we will end up with as good a line up as possible, and lots of good guests to meet. My cynical head also says that the primary reason that the system went down last time was that Benedict was already announced as a guest, and the world and his dog all went 'squee' and broke the Internet. I can't imagine that we'd be looking at the same ticket prices as last year without some combination of Ben/Martin/Amanda/Andrew as leads, so it could be that this 'soft' launch was deliberately designed to give a more manageable start to booking, and that behind the scenes someone already pretty much knows what the line-up will be. They'll just dribble out the info to tease us! I've booked a platinum package again just because I had such a great time last year, and we're already assured that all the elements would be worth £850 if paid for separately. That tells me that they have a good idea of who's coming, and some of them are going to command quite high prices.

Oh wow, that sounds great! I'm an architectural historian so I am all about the sets and design. Thanks for sharing the non-contentious bits of what you saw!

I know, right? I've got butterflies already, like last time. I normally work from home, and go into my office only once a fortnight. Guess what? That happens to be next Wednesday. Typical! Luckily I have a very friendly team who are all aware of my slight obsession so they will, I am sure, indulge me as I swear at the computer and fumble around with credit cards. Let's hope the system doesn't fall over like last time!

I hope that the Victorian telegram which served as the Twitter announcement means that we're going to get lots of lovely stuff about The Abominable Bride at this year's event!

Great minds thinking alike!