Another year and another Convention comes to an end, it seems hard to believe that this was our ninth annual event.  Looking back to the first Convention at the Nags Head in Brentwood, in a marquee with approximately 200 hundred people attending, we now regularly attract over 2000 people, it’s a good job Wembley Stadium should be open by next year, we may need it.

Once again a big thank you must go out to all the regular staff that make the whole day seamless, without them we could never organise something on such a big scale.

This year saw us take our annual road show to Colchester in Essex again we opened the doors at 10am, to the relief of the queue which had been building from 7am.  It’s always amazing to see everybody jostling for the best position in the queue for autographs especially as no one really knows who’s going to be attending.

This year we tried our hardest to come up with some fresh faces and the crowds certainly weren’t disappointed, firstly on stage we welcomed regulars Roy Heather and Paul Barber, followed by Jack Doolan, Peter Hepplethwaite and Ivan Kaye from The Green Green Grass. Our first new face to grace the stage was that of David Ross Who plays Elgin the f-f-f-f-f-f-farm manager in The Green Green Grass, he received a massive round of applause which helped to relax everyone for what was about to come. As ever we were joined by two great friends of the Society John Challis and Sue Holderness, they told us how pleased they were with the success of The Green Green Grass and to look out for an excellent Christmas Special that would be airing over the festive period. If you’ve been counting you will have noticed that we had already introduced eight actors to the stage, so what else could we do? Well with some negotiating we managed to have our biggest collection of Only Fools actors at any of our Conventions by finally introducing the Driscoll Brothers (Christopher Ryan and Roy Marsden) to the stage, it was fantastic to see the surprise on everyones faces.

By 10.30am all our actors were in their usual place and poised ready to sign the many thousands of autographs that would be ahead of them. Whilst they were signing some people were taking advantage of another show regular, having their picture taken in our reconstruction of the Trotter Flat, with our Del and Albert look-a-likes. By the way, the flat is now housed in our permanent museum in Bressingham, along with many show other great items fro the show.

As you entered the hall you were confronted by one of the many Trotter Vans that had been used in the show and were able to quite freely walk around it and take pictures.  Again we were able to display a vast array of new and exclusive merchandise, most of which was limited and sold out very quickly. By the end of the day the merchandise stalls were all nearly empty, something that is always pleasing as we do need the room in the back of the van!!!!

This year we decided to try and get as many of the fans involved in the making of the Convention DVD, we tried to interview as many as we could to include their comments, so look out for some interesting stories when the DVD is available. UKGold also took the opportunity to take interviews for the then up coming 40 Greatest Only Fools Moments Show  it was nice watching the many repeats of it over the Christmas period  hope you managed to catch yourself on the ‘box’

Until next year………. Keith Bishop

This year our great convention will be held at Colchester Leisure World.

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