December 3 month review

Welcome to the 3 month review for December, this is where I'm going to round up the results of the letters and see what's what.

Total letters sent: 25
Replies received: 14 - 56%
No Reply: 11 - 44%
RTS/Denials: 2 - 8%
Pre Prints: 3 - 12%
Authentics: 8 - 32%

So, of the 25 letters I sent, I got just over half back, of those I did get back only 8 were actually signed by the person I'd written to. A very shocking 11 people haven't replied in 3 months, although one I was told takes about 6 months to reply, but I'll come back to that. Let's talk about the ones I did get.

Within one month:
5, Stephen Fry, Victoria Wood, Thelma Barlow, Robbie Coltrane, Rik Mayall

3 genuine, 2 pre prints

Within two months:

5, Chris Barrie, Julie Walters, Ian McKellen, Charlie Cox, Brian Blessed

All genuine

Within three months:

2, Timothy Spall (genuine), Ian Holm (pre print)

(one denial, one RTS)

The people who haven't replied at all and possible reasons as to why:

Tom Felton: - filming Potter but he's able to update his twitter 6 times a day while he's at it
Dawn French: - Has been busy with comic relief I suppose
Warwick Davis: - Was told he takes about six months anyway
Tom Baker: - Um... no excuse? He's not doing any VA work currently
Paul McGann: - He's got a couple of films going on but that hasn't stopped anyone else
Sylvestor McCoy: - Touring with Little shop of horrors, which I'm actually going to see so I'm going to try and collar him outside
Anne Reid: - Bugger all, no excuse
Celia Imrie: - Not much really
Eric Sykes: - Very old I suppose (didn't stop Ian Mckellen)
Ben Barnes: - Bugger all, no more busy than Charlie Cox who sent a personalised pic
Sir Patrick Moore: - Umm... None again

Of these people, I've only thought 3 of them would be busy enough to delay sending fanmail, the rest I'm just very disapointed in.


I'm about to send off the March batch now so hopefully I'll get a few more replies.

Colin Firth, Ian Holm, Timothy Spall

Colin Firth:

A fast return from the February batch, though I'm 90% sure that it's a secretarial. Its a nice headshot personalised for me but strangely its signed in felt tip. If it's genuine then its a very fast return but the likelihood is that its some poor person sat in an office.

Result: Success

Ian Holm:

A bit of a strange one, he sent me two headshots with pre printed signatures and one he'd signed my name in blue biro. Considering this took nearly 3 months to arrive you'd think he would have signed he's name as well as mine but I've been told he's actually insane so it makes sense.

Result: Success (sort of)

Timothy Spall:

This just made it inside the 3 month mark, a bit shocking considering its a plain B&W headshot, not even personalised. It's a nice picture but I don't think it was worth the 3 month wait for it. Oh well I'm sure he's very busy running round with Tim Burton and the like, I don't think it would be worth writing to him again as I've only seen bad results from him.

Result: Success

Colin Baker again

Since I'd initially sent to him at a wrong address, I resent to the updated one I'd found. It came back really quickly and I got a personalised postcard signed in silver sharpie.

I'm quite shocked that he's the only doctor who that I've heard from, I also wrote to 3 other doctors in December and so far there's been no response which is quite disheartening.

Oh well, it's quite a cool postcard anyway and I'm chuffed that I got him.

Result: Success

Sir David Attenborough and Cassandra Clare

Sir David Attenborough:

First response from the February batch, amazingly it only took a three day response on this one which is uberly impressive. I sent a letter and a SASE and I received a really nice colour picture that was signed "Best Wishes David Attenborough" - Picture to come later, I can't be bothered scanning at the moment.

Result: Success


Cassandra Clare:

Cassandra Clare is an author, if you don't know her, then go buy all her books immediately. She became famous on the internet for writing three novel length fanfictions known as the Draco trilogy. She then got a contract and wrote a series of books. The mortal instruments trilogy, City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass, City of Glass is out next month, I have mine on pre-order from amazon.com.

I sent her an email, asking if she would mind sending me an autograph, she kindly responded and said that she was sorry it had taken so long and had popped a signed postcard in the post for me.

She's replied to messages I've sent her before, she is an uberly nice girl who understands the need to be a fan girl, her books are utterly brilliant and she needs to be read by more people.

Result: Success

Doris Day and Jay Leno

Doris Day:

I sent an email for this one and to be honest, didn't expect to hear anything back. I was really surprised when this beautiful autograph turned up in the post. It was personalised to me and is likely to be a jewel in my collection.

I really love Doris Day, I think I need to watch calamity Jane again tonight to celebrate.

Result: Success

Jay Leno:

This was another email jobby, back in December. Again I didn't expect to hear anything on this one and got a huge beautiful personalised picture. Jay should be proud that he's sending fans a nice picture, some people just can't be bothered or worse, only sell their signatures to their fans.

Result: Success

Sir Ian Mckellen & Doug Bradley (sort of)

Ian Mckellen:

One from the December batch (reminds self to start writing February batch.) I sent a letter talking mostly about how much I enjoyed LOTR and got a 4x6 black and white head shot. It's personalised to me, though its my full name, which is slightly strange, but aparently he does it to stop people selling them.

I'm not currently connected to my scanner... sorree, but it looks pretty good. Going to try again at some point and get myself a Gandalf picture signed.

Result: Success

Doug Bradley:

Not actually part of the experiment, but I thought I'd say anyway. My friend knows I'm quite horror obsessed and Mr Doug Bradley aka Pinhead, only sells his autographs. I am adamantly against this but there's nothing I'm going to do to prevent it.

Anyway my friend got a refund on paypal & bought me one from his site. For £5 (£7.50 with P&P, not even first class) I got a postcard, personalised to me. The picture isn't great but I'm really chuffed with it anyway. I love the Hellraiser series and I'm really happy to put this in my collection.

Chris Barrie

I am a HUGE Red Dwarf fan, I simply adore it, best programme ever on telly.

Today, from the December batch, I got a reply from Mr Chris Barrie, who played Rimmer on Red Dwarf. He also voiced one of my favourite games of all time; Simon the Sorcerer. He starred in The Brittas Empire and was a leading voice artist on Spitting Image.

Love the man. Would happily have his babies.

I'm a bit disappointed with this one, I only got back the Red Dwarf picture I'd printed out on my computer and most send a headshot as well just for the sake of it, but that's not what I'm disappointed with. Although it is personalised to me (so sorry, no pics of this one) it's half in gold, half in black. It's like he wrote the whole thing in black sharpie (it's a dark picture) then went over bits in gold.

It looks so strange, I'm not sure I want to hang it up with the others. Hey ho, at least by Dad will be green with envy.

Result: Success