Count Fooku

To be fair I didn’t threaten legal proceedings I said that was ultimately option that could be pursued, but that hopefully common sense would prevail. In this case that is exactly what has happened, I recieved a response from Jason and have advised him of my preferred option so from my perspective, assuming that is acted upon, I consider the matter closed.

Thanks for the update, I have sent an email as requested. I have to say I've been on this forum as long as most people and have seen pretty pretty out of line discussions on here, but I don't feel this was one of them. I'm afraid the sums of money involved with things like this are too much to be able to take the relaxed view I might have done at one time. I do appreciate this is a forum run and paid for by Showmasters and you have a difficult course to steer here, but when people have paid large sums of money out and have received no product in return and aren't receiving an appropriate level of service, I think it's right they should be able to voice that.

I've only just started looking into this but it seems with both debit and credit cards there is some sort of chargeback service that can be utilised. There also seems to be a few schemes out there for resolving disputes as well. Ultimately there is always legal action, but it would seem more sensible for them to settle this sensibly before anything like that starts to happen. The pity is this is the first time I have used the pre-order service but after this experience there is no way I would use I think again. It's very clear they just aren't set up to handle the volume of business they accept.

Service has been really poor, had a couple of holding replies from Jason but since I've asked for definite answers he's gone quiet. Doesn't seem like I have much other choice than to start looking at further options to get this resolved.

I'm glad this thread is here, whether it was Showmasters themselves or one of their partners who bought him to the event, they have my thanks. I've been lucky enough to meet some incredible people at Showmasters events down the years, but meeting him was something else again.

The annoying thing is for a while I did know exactly who was who because I was looking over people's shoulders who were getting the bio pages signed so I could see who they were, but it's only now that I realise time has played tricks with my memory! If you do manage to find anything out it would be good, but if not, thanks for checking anyway!

Thanks for your help, I'd seen that last image you'd posted online as well but it did t show the whole cast and not too many of them looked like the ones I had! I think my memory must be playing tricks on me because I was sure Leo Bill did sign it but none of mine look like the examples on your programmes which are quite clearly his name. You have confirmed what I thought about Barry and Rudi though. Next time I'll make a note of who has signed where as they do it!

Not strictly related to Sherlocked but it feels like this might be the best forum to post this in! I'm just sorting out my theatre programmes and as part of that thought it was worth making a note where any of them have been signed, who they have been signed by. This brings me to my problem, when I saw Cumberbatch's Hamlet, I got signatures from a few of the cast but I'm now struggling to identify who a lot of them are! Downside of stage door autographs is they aren't always the clearest! So I was wondering if any of you could help with who any of them are. I can say for sure that none of Cumberbatch, Hinds,Hille or Norton signed it, but I'm pretty sure Barry Aird and Rudi Dharmalingam and possibly Matthew Steer did sign it, I think maybe Leo Bill did as well but my memory is a bit hazy! Any help would be appreciated!

I think he was there almost for comic relief Well I don't pay attention to anything so this may be nonsense, but they'd teased him at the end of the last series and beginning of this with the whole 'Miss Me?' business. Although it turned out that was really referring to Eurus, his involvement in the whole scheme was like the pay off to that tease. But in real life yes, some comic relief and Andrew Scott fan service absolutely. I thought them teasing him worked well because they had been so adamant that he was dead so it always suggested an unknown villain was using his image to get in Sherlock's head. As silly as it sounds, I think I would have preferred it if they had flashed up the 'Five years ago' bit as soon as his helicopter appeared, I just found it a little distracting for the first part of that sequence when it appeared to be the present day and that they had bought him back. I'll concede I might not be making much sense here, I've got a cold which is making me sneeze loudly enough to destroy Baker Street!

I may need to watch the episode again but the more I've thought about it this morning, the more my feeling is that the Moriarty element didn't really add a great deal to the story and dare I say it, didn't totally work for me, almost felt like they wanted to fit him into it somehow but didn't have a totally clear idea of how to do it. I may be wrong, it may just be there was so much to take in with the first viewing that it might hang together better with a second viewing.

Funnily enough one of the things I've always liked about the way he's played Mycroft (not good that I'm already talking about it in the past tense!) is that it had a slightly camp edge to it. That line "I'll be mother" and Sherlock's reponse in A Scandal In Belgravia always made me laugh. That said it was good to see a bit more depth to him tonight and in recent weeks, being first bemused then slightly flattered by Lady Smallwood's interest in him, then the acknowledgement that he couldn't shoot an innocent man does show there's more to the character than aloofness and being coldly analytical.

She was there. She walked into the 221b lounge with a smile on her face. Ah, I did miss it then, must have looked away at the wrong moment. Apparently Paul Weller also featured in that closing montage, he was the body lying on the floor!

Adapting Watson's "The best and wisest man that I have ever known" from the book suggests to me that, like Conan Doyle, they could be looking at taking a good long break from the series, if it returns at all. Funny, my lounge seemed to get very dusty all of a sudden when Mary came out with that! If that is it then I think they ended very strongly, even the very last scene was a strong single image to end on, very reminiscent of some of the season one publicity shots. Also liked the nod to Basil Rathbone on the building plaque. Have to admit I was a bit disappointed when Moriarty appeared, as much as I like the character, it felt a bit silly so I was very glad when they established it was a flashback. I liked the sequence with Molly as well, Louise Brealy doesn't always have loads to do in each episode but she is always able to do a lot with the screen time she has. If there are going to be anymore it will be interesting to see if they explore that any further, I could be wrong but I don't think I saw her in the closing montage whereas the likes of Mrs Hudson and Lestrade were both featured. All in all a very strong season, I think all the episodes have benefited from repeat viewing. I wonder where it all goes from here!

Certainly looking forward to Sunday now but I hope no spoilers leak out before then!

Bloody good episode this!

Just re-watching it now, have to say as much as I enjoyed him as Hamlet, I am looking forward to his Henry V when he gets round to it!

I've not been to a franchise specific convention at this venue before but I've been to a lot of Autographicas there and if they look to have a similar number of attendees I reckon it will still be a manageable thing to do. Bear in mind a lot of the queueing areas will stretch into the public areas of the hotel so I'd imagine there will be some restrictions on how many people they can have to attend. It is a different type of guest list I know, but the likes of Buzz Aldrin, Leslie Nielsen and Tony Curtis could still pack the punters in!

Some good thoughts in there. Certainly would seem to fit what we know and what has been hinted at. It was funny, but all along watching the episode something didn't feel quite right about the psychiatrist but I couldn't put my finger on it. I thought that I just recognised the actress from something else! I do hope that this means we get to see Mr and Mrs Holmes next week, those two are brilliant! I'm going to watch the episode again this week, I didn't finish watching it until about 1am on Sunday and was trying to see off a migraine at the same time so I reckon I probably missed a few things!

Daily Heil already has an article up, usual thing, disappointed fans, greedy stars, people being blasted let right and centre, sky high ticket prices etc! Apparently we were all on the same drugs as Sherlock last year because we all hallucinated seeing him at the event because according to their article he didn't attend!

Very impressive episode, towards the end I was starting to wonder where they could go from there for next week and it all might be a bit of an anti climax, then the ending happened! Thought Martin Freeman was excellent in this episode, no one really put a foot wrong but he was a particular stand out. Toby Jones was very good as well. This might be another one to watch again to get everything, I was out last night so didnt watch it till I got home so didn't finish till about 1am. I had seen a comment about Moriarty online on my way home so I was a bit worried he was going to make another appearance. I was very glad when he didn't. I did like the nod to Irene Adler though and the idea that Sherlock is still in contact with her as a means of support. Next week looks very interesting but it is re-enforcing my thinking even more that this might be the last episode.

Interesting the way this new event is being presented, not necessarily good or bad either way at this stage, but just interesting! The Hilton is a decent sized hotel but I don't think it could hold crowds the way the Excel centre could which suggests the event won't be on the same scale as previous events. Certainly from the SM events I've been to there in the past, the rooms that have been used would struggle to accommodate autograph and photoshoot queues like we've had at the last two events. I know there was a lot of empty space at the last show around the hall but how busy certain areas got at peak times, I'd think the hotel might struggle if similar numbers turn up. That said, this time, the platinum package makes specific reference to autographs from both Martin and Benedict as features of the package, if they attend, I don't remember them explicitly making reference to that in the package features before. Could be wrong on that though. I think I might hold fire on this until there are a few more details out about how the event will be, I don't doubt for a minute SM/ME have a clear plan for this and will know what they can and can't do in the hotel setting, but until that's a bit clearer, I might have to save my £600! Hope it's going to be good though!

It's only now that I've seen it written down that I realise there is a nod to another Holmes story with The Norwood Builder! I think there has been some talk of things going back to their childhoods, but I can't remember. Seems possible there could be some significance to the code names.

They are quite sneaky like that, I became convinced for a while that there was some sort of hint about the way Sherlock had faked his death in a newspaper headline that Watson was looking at, it was nothing to do with it in the end!

I think an element of the problem with Mary is that although she was a character in the original stories, she was nothing like the way the character has developed in this series. I agree that at times in the episode I did find my attention wandering a bit as it did feel like it was becoming as much about Mary as it was about the other two, in hindsight it makes more sense that they took that approach, it will be interesting to see it again knowing what happens. Watson's behaviour in many ways is consistent with what we know about the character, he has a need for danger in his life and it did suggest that with a baby and Sherlock making more use of Mary he was missing that. I have to admit I missed it in the epsiode, but I have seen people point out online that on one of the bus shelters there was a piciture of Toby Jones as Culverton-Smith. Whether that was just to plant the idea of him in the minds of people who noticed or whether they wanted to link him and the bus woman in people's minds, I don't know. Sometimes it's easy to go looking for clues that aren't really there!

Good idea, so I don't know about anyone else but Irene Adler and Mrs Hudson being outed as being in a torrid affair was a bit of a shock but I have to admit I did see Molly being revealed as the brains behind Moriarty all along coming a mile off, they left a big clue with her winking messages in morse code! So back to reality, Mary dying, interesting development I thought. In many ways I think it makes sense, Mary Morstan was never really a major character in the books, and the way the series was going she was becoming a third member of what is supposed after all to be a duo. That said I thought she was an interesting character, and was played very well by Amanda Abington. I'm curious about the possible affair Watson may or may not have had. Firstly whether this may have been some form of set-up which we will see come back in a later epsiode, and secondly whether Sherlock might have been aware of what was going on and whether that will be referred to again. It was never really hinted at that he did know but it was suggested that there was a passage of time and he may well have noticed that Watson's behaviour had changed. Going to need to watch this epsiode again before Sunday!