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

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

Brian Blessed

I love Brian Blessed. Not only is he completely bonkers but he's a brilliant actor and a national treasure. I already had an autograph of his, but I didn't obtain it personally (so I can only be dubious as to it's authenticity.)

I wrote him a letter telling him about the roles I liked him most in and I included a picture of him in Flash Gordon. Just when I was starting to think I was going to have send again (as I heard he was a very quick replier) I got a great result in the post.

In my SASE he'd put in my letter but wrote a MASSIVE note to me on it in pink pen. (Good way of dealing with your fanmail I think, send it back with a note, it turns into an autograph so you don't have to worry about recycling.) He thanked me for the letter and had said it was very nice and sent back my Flash Gordon picture, signed and personalised to me along with a headshot signed and personalised to me. Both pictures were signed in blue pen.

The man may be slightly barmy but I love him anyway. They are now going pride of place in my room, maybe even the mantel piece.

Result: Brilliant Success

Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry, national treasure, today I got a personalised picture of him and I'm over the moon. I had sent him a letter in the December batch so a big YAY for an under two month response. It's the small size 5x7 headshot, I've done some checking about on the net and it's a different picture from others I've seen so he might be sending out new ones.

I couldn't actually afford to send a January batch, so I decided to add a few extra to the February lot.



Result: Success