by David "The Pyeman" Pye

Once again an early start – alarm goes at 5.00am – get showered and dressed and load the car up ready for the troops to arrive at mine at 6.00am. And so starts the 19th of July and the teams trip to LFACC. A two and a half hour drive including picking up the missing link of the team...if you’ve seen him you’ll understand this description is very apt. (Sorry, Wayne – only kidding).

The show kicks off at 9am and we arrive at 8.45 am to be met by the queues of people waiting to get in. So, a quick phone call to gain admission and we just beat the mad rush to get Virtual Queu (VQ) tickets bagging single digit ones for our later use. VQ tickets secured, we set up base in a room kindly provided by the organisers and start prepping everything: to be ready for the signing frenzy that has become the trademark of this event.

Fortunately the biggest queues are for non-Star Wars guests, so we are able to avoid most of the madness, except when it comes to getting our own autographs later in the day).

First port of call is the stuntmen – Bill Weston, Malcolm Weaver and Terry Richards – all of whom are totally bemused by the whole process. All are graceful in signing although they cannot always remember exactly what roles they played. Bill Weston said he was only a Stormtrooper and Terry Richards confirmed he only played a Wampa in the deleted scenes from Empire Strikes Back. He explained about how the contraption fitted to his head to give additional height and how the mechanism was linked to his mouth to operate the Wampa’s mouth. In all, he felt the whole outfit was very ungainly and was possibly a further reason why the scenes were deleted. Malcolm Weaver confirmed he played a number of roles in Return of the Jedi, but was not confident he could identify which save he knew he was a Stormtrooper and was also Luke Skywalker’s double in the lightsabre battle with Vader. For this reason, I only got Stormtrooper items signed. Terry was also unaware how to spell Wampa – spelling it "Wamper" sometimes remarking that it looked like ****** (word deleted for the faint of heart).

Next on to Jay Benedict, Deak from the deleted Tosche Station scenes in A New Hope. He fondly reminisced about the filming of the scene and of his co-stars and apologised about the image. For those who bought it, he is the shadowy figure at the rear with curly hair. Jay also played Newt’s father from Aliens, so I had the chance to further discuss this with him, as Saturday was Aliens Day at the convention as well).

Had a quick chat with Kenny Baker who was feeling a bit tired by this stage and so by agreement we decided to catch him first thing on the Sunday in order to get some quality autographs.

Then, after getting my personal things signed, it was "day over," so we retired to the hotel with our goodies.

Ailsa was a very welcoming host and kindly provided some sustenance, which was gratefully received and consumed whilst we discussed Star Wars and Doctor Who. For those of you not in the know, Ailsa has choreographed the latest Doctor Who episodes beginning with Season 1 and the spin off series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. Being a bit of a fan it, was good to talk about this and the stars of the series. In case you are thinking that there isn’t much dancing in Doctor Who, Ailsa's choreography actually shows the likes of the Cybermen how to walk and move and you may have seen her in The Doctor Who Confidential programmes that often follow the shown episode.

Whilst Ailsa signed, we chatted about her role in ROTJ. Firstly, she confirmed Amanaman was the only role she performed. I always ask this because it is surprising how often the cast were used for additional roles that have been forgotten in the ensuing years. Her recollections of the suit was that it was only accessible from the rear and was an all-in one piece with limited vision and no hearing possible once inside. She recalled at one stage George Lucas was standing beside her talking to her, but was unable to respond sensibly as she couldn’t hear what was said. Ailsa had fond memories of Richard Marquand who directed her scenes and said she was unaware of any ill feeling between him and Lucas (which has been muted in the past). Her character was nicknamed "Banana-Woman" by the other cast – a name originating from one of the gate security staff and she confirmed she is still in contact with some of the other Jabba’s Palace creature players, laughing at how Deep Roy and Kiran Shah often competed for roles and that Deep’s affectionate nickname for Kiran was "Cheap Roy"!

After the obligatory photographs, we said our farewells to Ailsa and headed back to the hotel via a Pizza Hut.

Sunday morning was a bit of a lay-in for us, as the show didn’t start until 10am. So, after a leisurely breakfast, we checked out and headed to the Convention to be greeted by a sign saying that Brian Blessed had cancelled due to ill health.

After setting up base and once again securing our VQ tickets, first call was Kenny Baker. Kenny looked really well and was very chatty reminiscing about people he worked with long ago and chatting with Nick Gillard, who he had worked with in a circus many years before Star Wars landed at his doorstep. I witnessed the largest Kenny Baker signature ever on a banner sent in by one of WG’s customers and, thanking Kenny, moved on to Nick Gillard.

Nick was very charming, but a bit confused as he had thought he was giving a talk rather than signing – but was very gracious. He related a number of stories about Star Wars that are, unfortunately, unrepeatable. We then discussed his fellow stuntmen including Ben Cooke, who I was fortunate enough to do a signing with last year for Wattographs. (What’s this Ben – afraid of spiders?) Also, Nick lay to rest rumours that he had appeared as a stuntman in the original trilogy: it was the prequels only, guys. I think this rumour started on the LFACC forums.

Early queues were for Jason Mewes and Christopher Lloyd – both of whom had been busy the previous day – and for Patrick Stewart, who was only signing on the Sunday. In order to process as many people as possible there were signs up for Stewart’s line saying – No Personalisation’s, No Photographs – and a new one to this seasoned convention goer: No Handshakes. Then, by mid-to-late afternoon Patrick had an open queue – guess he had time to shake peoples' hands after all!

The final group of signers to meet were Jenny Cresswell, Annette Jones, Lynne Hazeldine, Khan Bonfils and a late arriver: Hassani Shapi.

All guests were again very gracious and happy to pose for photographs and answer any questions that were raised. Unfortunately, having spent a great deal of time with Kenny and Nick, time was running out and I was unable to spend as much time as I would have liked with these guests. Jenny was upset that her scene had been cut and said that she found Mark Hamill more approachable than Harrison Ford. Annette related how she enjoyed working with the Freeborns. Lynne was promoting her idea on saving the world. Khan said how much he had enjoyed working on The Phantom Menace and how much he regretted that the sequels to that were not filmed in the UK. Hassani confirmed he had not worked on AOTC...just after he had signed a poster from that movie.

Having completed the Star Wars signings, there was a brief chance to look round the stalls. And, to my wife’s subsequent delight, I purchased absolutely nothing! (autographs excepted) . Then we packed up and, after thanking Jason Joiner, the organiser, we loaded up the car and fought our way across London and headed home to a well-earned rest. Many thanks to Wayne, Jabba and Andy for their assistance.