Convention Report- London Film & Comic Con 2016

I recently attended London Film & Comic Con which was held at the Olympia in London, England. This was my third year in a row attending Showmasters’ flagship event and I was curious to see how they tackled the problems from last year’s event which led to a number of unhappy people. By contrast this years’ event was a lot more memorable and was a big improvement on last year.

There were two things that immediately struck me about the event this year. The first was that Showmasters had made a great decision in the changes they had made for the event this year. The two most notable changes were having the use of two halls (compared to one last year) and having the traders be on one floor and the guests on the other floor. The traders were spread out across the ground floor and the guests were on the upstairs floor. They also kept other areas of the event close to each other like having all of the photoshoot areas be reasonably close to each other. These changes made a big difference and the additional hall gave attendees a lot more space to walk about in.

The second was the overall atmosphere among attendees at the event. Everyone I met was very upbeat and happy even if they were in a hurry. Last year it was clear that a lot of people were anxious and the mood change compared to the mood on the Saturday of last year’s event (for example) couldn’t have been more different. London Film & Comic Con is one of, if not the, biggest conventions in Europe so it was great to see a lot of people looking relaxed (including yours truly but I’ll get into that more soon).

I knew the first day of the event, Friday, would be quieter and not as busy as the following two days so I intended to get as much done on the Friday as possible. This meant meeting four guests that were attending the whole weekend (and one that was only attending on the Friday) and buying the exclusive Obi-Wan Kenobi figure at the A1 Toys stand so that I wouldn’t have to worry about doing those on the Saturday or Sunday. I didn’t expect, however, that I would have completed my haul on the first day by 1:30pm! That gave me a lot of time in the afternoon to take pictures, record video footage and wait for my interviews in the afternoon (more on that later…).

I started the day by immediately going to the A1 Toys stand to buy the Obi-Wan figure. For some reason I assumed I’d need to get a ticket or wristband (something like that anyway) so I could queue up to buy the figure. However, when I got to the stand people were just queuing up like normal so I joined the back of the queue. I will preface this next bit by saying that no event is perfect (more issues to be mentioned later) even though this was my favourite LFCC so far and I doubt the organisers were aware of this. However, the Obi-Wan figure was being sold for £49.99 yet was advertised for £44.99. I still bought it anyway because it was a figure I really wanted but I don’t like it that the stall changed the price and decided to charge more. There could be reasons for why it was increased but I still think that if it’s going to be advertised at a certain price it should be sold at that price. Great figure though and not a complaint I can direct at the organisers of the event.

With the Obi-Wan figure bought just ten minutes after arriving at the event, I set off to the guests hall. The first guest I met was actor Jamie Harris (Gordon in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D) who was easily one of my favourite guests of the weekend. Jamie’s father was legendary Irish actor Richard Harris so acting runs in the family clearly. The next guest I met, just a few tables down from Jamie, was actor Julian Sands (Gerald Crane in Gotham). Julian was very laid back and it was a pleasure to meet him as well. The third guest I met was Stephen Bayley (TK-421 in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope). I didn’t know a lot about Stephen going into the event but he was a really nice guy. I got great interviews with all three of these guests and they shared some great stories with me (Bayley also revealed that he was recently an extra on an upcoming comic book movie so you’ll definitely want to listen to his interview to find out which one).

I also met Aaron Stanford (Pyro in X-Men) and Laurie Holden (Andrea in The Walking Dead) on the Friday. They were both very nice to talk to and it was great to meet both of them.

The three Friday interviews were recorded in the late afternoon after I had completed my haul for the day.

Saturdays are almost always the busiest days at conventions, particularly at London Film & Comic Con, and I had a lot planned for the Saturday of this event with ten guests I was planning to meet. The first two guests I met were Jasper Jacob (Captain Yorr) and Mike Havord (Colonel Jendon) from Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Both were pleasant and I enjoyed meeting them. The next guests I met were the two Alans. Alan Austen (Carbon Freezing Stormtrooper, a Hoth Rebel and a Bespin Guard in The Empire Strikes Back) was attending his first event and it was nice to meet him. Art director Alan Tomkins was a guest I was excited about as I love anything to do with behind the scenes work on films and he didn’t disappoint. He was a very nice person with great stories. The next guest I met was Pip Torrens (Colonel Kaplan in Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and he was another great guest to meet. I was able to record interviews with Pip and the two Alans later in the day and it was really great to hear their stories.

The next guest I met was Caroline Blakiston (Mon Mothma from Return of the Jedi) and she was another guest that was nice to talk to. After I met Caroline I had to wait to meet the bigger guests I had picked up VQ tickets for at the start of the day (it was just before or around lunchtime that I met Caroline). The next guest I met was Elden Henson (see above) from Marvel’s Daredevil series as Foggy Nelson. It was really great to meet him and get a picture and an autograph from one of my favourite Daredevil characters. I then met Michelle Gomez (Missy in Doctor Who) and she was pleasant as well. She was also one of very few guests that said my name correctly on the first try! I then had to wait in queues for a while to meet Faye Marsay (Shona in Doctor Who and The Waif in Game of Thrones) and Natalia Tena (Tonks in Harry Potter and Osha in Game of Thrones) but they were very nice. Although, here’s a funny story with the latter. We were told in the queue by a staff member that due to the number of people wanting to meet her Natalia wouldn’t be personalising anymore autographs. However, when I got to the front of the queue that wasn’t the case (perhaps she wasn’t aware of the crew member saying that). The awkward thing for me was that because my name isn’t the common spelling of the name (more people would be familiar with “Rory”) I had my name written on a sticky note which I was giving to guests so they knew how to spell my name. Unfortunately when I was told by the staff member that she wouldn’t be personalising anymore I put said sticky note away and it got stuck in my pocket. As you can imagine the autograph has “Rory” on it instead and as the queue was moving so quickly I wouldn’t have had a chance to spell it out anyway. Looking at it in a positive way though it does give me a funny story to talk about!

This brings me to probably my biggest issue with the event this year. I can see why the decision to have the Game of Thrones guests in the same area would make sense. However, they ended up so busy that there were so many queues in that area that ended up being very difficult to get through and caused problems for a number of attendees. I do have to commend Showmasters for fixing this problem and moving the Game of Thrones guests into a number of different areas on the Sunday though so the problem didn’t happen again.

The Sunday was a more relaxed day as I only planned to meet four lesser-known guests that I knew wouldn’t be very busy. Stuntwoman Wendy Leech was very pleasant and the first guest I met on the Sunday. I then met Frazer Diamond (son of Star Wars Original Trilogy stunt co-ordinator Peter Diamond) who I’ve known for a long time online and it was great to finally meet him in person. I recorded an interview with him later in the day that was around ten minutes long and it was a very enjoyable chat. The third guest I met on the day was Mike Stevens (Colonel Cracken in Return of the Jedi) and he was a nice guest to meet as well. The fourth and final (both on the day and the course of the weekend) guest I met was actor Dixie Arnold, who played a Resistance Soldier in The Force Awakens. I also recorded an interview with him and he was very talkative as well. I had to leave the event an hour early to catch a plane but I had done everything I felt I needed to over the three days. The three days were very productive and as a result I had very little energy left afterwards.

In summary, I had a great time at London Film & Comic Con this year. Out of the three London Film & Comic Con events I’ve been to this years’ one was by far my favourite. All of the guests I met were fantastic and I’m amazed that I was able to record eight fantastic interviews during the course of the weekend. Buying the Obi-Wan Kenobi figure was also a big highlight. I’m looking forward to seeing what Showmasters have planned for next years London Film & Comic Con.

By Ruari Williamson

*The opinions in this article are those of the writer and do not represent the views of all of the Everything Geek Podcast staff*.

You can watch our footage from London Film & Comic Con below: