Gni's Great London Adventure - Part 4: The Panel

[gnimaerd]

So there's about a five second delay between the MC saying 'Bradley James!' and Bradley James appearing on stage.

But then he does - and of course the cheering section lose their shit - and it's weird. He looked... very clean and crisp under the stage lights. He had his cam corder with him and was filming everything and he sort of waved and grinned and sat down.

Seeing him in the flesh was surreal. It was like it was him - but not. I was too used to seeing him on screen - my mind was having difficulty meshing the memory of him on TV with the reality of him sitting about twenty feet away from me.

Though of course THAT was nothing compared to what happened when Katie McGrath came out.

Once again there was this little gap between the MC saying 'Katie McGrath' and her actually appearing, and I can really only describe that gap as the sharp intake of breath you take right before you go over the top of a roller coaster. And then she appeared to more screaming and it was really, REALLY weird.

The first thing I thought, really, was how small she looked. I don't mean that she was short (I don't think she is and it was difficult to gauge her height from where I was sitting anyway) but that she seemed... very slight. Probably because she was dressed so casually (jeans, T-shirt and a grey sweater thing which drowned her a bit) and I'm so used to seeing her in costumes that highlight her *cough* figure, if you know what I mean. In person, she's a slight wee whisp of a thing. It was a bit unbalancing.

Then there was Penny Buckle and Johnny Capps, who were good sports about basically being ignored throughout the entire panel by the audience (can you blame us? =/)

And then Angel came out and the first thing that hit me was that she was fucking GORGEOUS.

Okay, I know I've said this before but believe me when i tell you - Merlin does this woman no justice at all. Angel Coulby is fine to the point where she could give Katie a run for her money. (I suppose it just depends on your taste in the end but really, honestly - Angel is beautiful).

She had her hair down with a sparkly flower clip in it and she was wearing awesome red shoes and a red leather belt (Gok Wan would have been applauding her for coordinating so well).

Then, finally, Colin Morgan came out, who the audience absolutely lost their shit for (me included - seriously, the guy's fucking Merlin, you know? if you're going to lose your shit for anyone...)

And seeing him was weird as well because he genuinely looks really different in person than he does as Merlin. I think his fair is brushed differently or something. Maybe just that when he's in character he holds himself different, but I think his body language was just really different when he was himself (which just points to how awesome an actor he is, really).

Anyway, the audience by that point were really seriously wound up, and Bradley was filming his cheering section. Whilst waiting for the first question, Katie calmly leant over and stuck up two fingers to make 'bunny ears' behind Bradley's head, which I think got the first real laugh out of the audience (and a look of total bemusement from Bradley, who had no idea what she'd done to make them laugh) and after that everybody calmed the fuck down and relaxed a bit. It was like 'okay - they're here - it's fine - let's get on with this.'

Now, for the first five minutes or so I experianced total paralysis of the mind. I couldn't think, I couldn't breath, I was too busy just... you know, watching. These people have been in my head pretty constantly for nine months and suddenly they were real and in front of me and being normal human beings with minds of their own and I just couldn't get my sleep-deprived head round it.

For a little bit I was convinced I just wasn't going to be able to ask anything. I didn't trust myself to do it without freaking the fuck out.

But then more and more questions were asked and everybody seemed to settle down I began to relax. I think it was at the point where Bradley through a fake-strop (wiping fake tears, putting on his sunglasses, folding his arms, putting his nose in the air and pouting) when someone asked him if Arthur was still 'dim' (the whole thing was hilarious) that I remembered to breath again. It wasn't so much him doing that that calmed me down, as it was the way Katie, Angel and Colin reacted to it - which was with high amusement. Katie in particular laughed her ass off.

And I realised that actually, these guys were just actors who were talking about what they do for a living - and really, I wasn't about to ask anything embarassingly inappropriate - and I really DID want to ask my questions. At the very least, I wanted to know about that sodding tiger. I'd come all this way and damn it, I was going to ask Katie about it come what may. So I stuck my hand up.

It took about twenty minutes for the MC with the microphone to get to me, and when I saw him make eyecontact and realised that he was coming to me next I felt my stomach drop a little and nearly blanched. But I didn't. I took a deep breath and pretended that I was that nerdy little thirteen year old back at the book festival six summers ago, asking Phillip Pullman about the importance of secularism in his novels. I'd been nervous as fuck about that but I'd still done it.

So the guy came down in front of me and stuck the microphone in front of my face, and I glanced up at katie and back down at the microphone and thought speak, you moron! and went for it.

"Um, so - I have two questions, one of which is really really nerdy and specific and one of which is kind of more general. Um - the first one's for Katie." I glance at her - I have her attention - I mentally freak the fuck out - "okay, so there's this bit in the first series DVDs in the extras, where you're filming the first feast scene in the first episode and you're hanging around with Bradley between takes and you're in the red and dress and... um - you're holding a toy tiger. And I'd really like to know why because there's been a lot of specualation about this on the internet."

Everybody roars with laughter, though I'm not sure whether it's at my question or at Katie's response, which is to flush scarlet and bury her head in her hands. But I feel okay because it's not bad laughter or anything - and Katie looks embarassed but in a good way where you can tell she's not necissarily uncomfortable - just a bit sheepish that she's been caught on tape clutching a stuffed toy (I mean, for all I know, she's not even aware that she's actually on the DVDs holding it).

The laughter dies down and Katie raised her head to grin at me (mental shrieking - SHRIEKING, I tell you), "okay - it's not me being weird with a teddy, okay? It's a hot water bottle." (I go ohhhh, but silently, so she can see that I get it).

She goes on to explain, in a slightly clearer voice, about how thin her costumes are and how cold it can get on set, and how the warddrobe department took pity on her and got her a hot water bottle. She says his name but I don't quite catch it, and I don't want to make her repeat it so I make a mental note to ask her at the autograph session later.

Anyway, I ask my second question, about Gwen and Morgana's relationship, mentioning how nice it is that Merlin actually bothers to give the two female leads a friendship that doesn't revolve around the men on the show, compairing it to Robin Hood where Djaq and Marian had two series and two conversations. This gets vigorous approval from the middle aged lady sitting next to me, who nods, applauds, squeezes my arm and goes good question! (I felt validated. XP)

Angel tells me that they honestly don't know about where Morgana and Gwen's friendship is going yet but that she likes that they are so close; then Johnny Capps chimes in and says that he can tell me that Gwen and Morgana are going to get closer (closer?! Is that physically fucking possible?!) this season because Morgana will be going through some situations where she will need her friend, and Merlin too. (This gets a cheer from the audience - clearly we had some Merlin/Morgana shippers in). He says that, like all friendships, Gwen and Morgana's will be tested, but that they will be getting closer next series.

I give a thumbs up and say thank you and then collapse back into my seat feeling slightly faint, but triumphant.

I honestly can't remember much else of the panel. It's all very disjointed and I can't remember what came when. I do remember the looks on their faces when the cosplayers sitting behind us stood up (fucking HILARIOUS); also that we have confirmation that Lancelot will be coming back. Angel is learning to play guitar; Bradley thinks that his hidden talent is 'acting'. Katie wants to be Rogue from X-men; Colin wants to be Gambit; Angel would like to fly and Bradley would like to be able to heal (because someone he knows is sick - this gets understandable sympathy from the audience who all awww appropriately; poor guy - I hope it's nothing too serious for his friend. ;_;)

They are all clearly very grateful to the audience, when asked about how they feel about have so many fans. Bradley talks about how strange it is to have so many people looking at him expecting him to say something profound; Katie thanks everyone for coming and reacting so well to them (they laughs and apologises for sounding so sad); Angel and Colin express similar sentiments and Colin adds that it's really nice to be given a chance to talk about what they do and how much they enjoy that.

We were lucky enough to avoid anything particularly cringe-worthy from the audience in terms of their questions. The only one that got close to being as bad as I've experianced at various other cons was when one girl asked if Colin and Bradley still had the piece of cardboard that she and a friend had given them last year that said they loved them on it.

Bradley was like '...yes...?'

Oh dear. But, given that that was as bad as it got I think we got off fairly lightly.

And then, like that, it was over, and I was deciding that this had DEFINITELY been worth it, and me and andthedescent got up and toddled off outside to finding the autograph table, squeeing between ourselves about how awesome and nice they'd been.


Oh, and if you want to see me publically embarass Katie McGrath, SOMEONE  EFFING  TAPED  IT!