A Weekend with Louise Jameson & Nigel Fairs - and special guest Julie Brennon
A weekend with Louise Jameson and Nigel Fairs (featuring special Sunday guest: Julie Brennon
The 7th March and 8th March, was a special moment for me, I had the pleasure to meet Louise Jameson (who played Doctor Who companion Leela: Warrior of the Sevateem) and Nigel Fairs (Big Finish writer, actor and director) on both days as well as a third guest named Julie Brennon (who played a well-loved Doctor Who character named ‘Fire Escape’ from the Doctor Who story ‘Paradise Towers) at Club Parramatta. As a Whovian who enjoys watching Leela on television, finally being able to meet Louise Jameson and Nigel Fairs was an absolute delight. Although I had previously met Julie Brennon two years ago at Club Burwood, it was still great to meet her again.
It was Saturday night 7:30pm, inside a small function room in Club Parramatta, my friends, myself and other attendees that I have seen at other Sirens of Audio events had attended to see Louise Jameson and Nigel Fairs perform a dramatic and humorous play entitled ‘Shakespeare’s Mistress.’ As soon as the host ‘Philip Edney’ introduced Louise Jameson onto the stage, everyone gave a thunderous applause along with the wooing and cheering as Louise (dressed in a magnificent plain white T-shirt and matching pastel coloured buttoned coat and trousers) walked onto the stage. As the applause died down, Louise immediately began spouting a Shakespeare sonnet, I was sitting in the front row smiling with glee as Louise recites the sonnet with such passion and dramatic. After that, everyone applauded her whilst she softly replied, “Thank you.” Louise thanked everyone for coming over to see her, and she told us that we will have an enjoyable evening, and she kindly asked the audience to ensure our phones are turned off or silent. 
As the performance was about to commence, Louise introduced her co-star Nigel Fairs (she also said that Nigel Fairs was her gay best friend) to the stage. Shakespeare’s Mistress consists of going through mainly Louise Jameson’s life and career (occasionally, Nigel Fair’s career was explored) through Nigel Fairs narrating notable moments in Louise’s life and career whilst Louise quotes a line from different Shakespeare plays and sonnets. The most memorable moments throughout the whole performance were when Louise and Nigel asked for an audience member to come up to the stage to assist in the performance. The first instance was when a female audience member pretended to be Orlando from the Shakespeare play ‘As you like it’. The final time was when Nigel Fairs asked a male audience member to come up on the stage to reenact a dramatic death scene for a play he had written. Overall, I thought the performance was theatrical, amazing, and yet humorous. I enjoyed every minute of it, I was absolutely captivated by how spectacular Nigel and Louise performed their lines on the stage, it was thrilling to watch, I am so glad I was able to see this performance.
After the performance, the VIP guests were able to stay behind to spend time having a drink and chatting with Nigel and Louise as well as my friends First my friend (Laura) and I were with a small group of VIP attendees chatting with Nigel Fairs, I remember asking him about his experience creating the music and sound effects for ‘Mistfall’ (a Big Finish audio drama, that is a sequel to a Doctor Who story entitled ‘Full Circle’) as I recall the music sounded similar to the incidental music in ‘Full Circle’ and he explained that he had to re-do the music because the director felt that Nigel was copying the music from ‘Full Circle’. Also, we discussed our thoughts on the Leela Companion Chronicles Nigel Fairs wrote such as ‘The Catalyst’, ‘Empathy Games’, ‘The Time Vampire’ and ‘The Child’. I praised Nigel for his brilliant storytelling on ‘The Catalysts’ and I enjoyed how dramatic it was. As everyone was leaving the conference room to head home, Laura and I managed to chat with Louise about numerous Big Finish audio dramas such as The Gallifrey series and working with Alex Kingston as River Song in the audio drama entitled ‘Emancipation’ (part of the audio anthology series ‘The Eighth of March’), she enjoyed her time doing both of these audio dramas.
Sunday, 8th March was the second and final day of spending time with Louise Jameson and Nigel Fairs. This day was a remarkable day for Doctor Who fans because a third guest had arrived and her name was Julie Brennon, well known to Doctor Who fans as the beloved side character ‘Fire Escape’ in Paradise Towers. Before the show was about to start, I had arrived at the conference greeting my friends and admiring the different shops that contain numerous Doctor Who merchandise (rare items such as old Doctor Who magazines and novelisations plus The Doctor Who Club of Australia was selling DVDS, DVD box sets and Big Finish audio dramas). By the time, all the attendees had taken their seats, Philip (the organiser) played an introduction video dedicated to Leela (played by Louise Jameson) accompanied by a song about Leela (Warrior of the Sevateem) and clips from different Doctor Who stories Leela had appeared in. Immediately after, Louise Jameson, Nigel Fairs and Julie Brennon were welcomed to the stage with a massive round of applause from the audience and a standing ovation before everyone sat down.
The event kicked off with Philip (the organiser) interviewing Louise. It was in-depth and fascinating to listen to Louise discuss her extensive career; first she talked about her time performing at the Royal Shakespeare Company, her time in Doctor Who and her experiences working with Tom Baker and working with producers Philip Hinchcliffe and Graham Williams. She has also touched on her other notable roles such as playing Blanche in the TV series entitled ‘Tenko’, Emmerdale, and her Big Finish work – during that discussion she talked about her one-woman show entitled ‘Pulling Faces’ which later adapted into audio. Lastly, hearing Louise reflect on her exit scene in the Doctor Who story entitled ‘The Invasion of Time’ and her memories on meeting John Nathan-Turner because he wanted her to appear in the Fourth Doctor’s final story ‘Logopolis’ was a real treat for fans.
Next up, Julie Brennon was interviewed by another interviewer named Todd. As the interview began, Julie shared her experiences playing Fire Escape in the Doctor Who story Paradise Towers, her role in another British TV medical drama entitled ‘Angels’, her time visiting various Doctor Who sets whilst her former husband Mark Strickson was in Doctor Who. Todd also talked about her academic background — Zoology, theatre, history, Aboriginal studies — and her current writing projects. It was fascinating to hear how varied her career and interests have been.
After lunch, author Jon Blum took the stage to announce a new audio drama series titled ‘Wolf Country’. The room buzzed with excitement – it's always fun to be in the audience when something new is unveiled. Jon Blum introduced everyone who contributed to Wolf Country, and it was revealed that Louise Jameson is guest starring in the audio drama.
After that, Philip interviewed Nigel Fairs about his work as both an actor, writer and director; especially his contributions to Big Finish. Nigel also spoke about his lifelong love of Doctor Who, which made the conversation feel wonderfully personal.
One of the most heart-warming moments of the weekend was celebrating the birthdays of three attendees – Matthew, Max and Issac; all sharing the special date (8th March). Philip asked the three guests towards the front of the stage whilst everyone, happily sang ‘happy birthday’ and shouted ‘hip hip hooray’ to the three guests. Behind the scenes, my friends Laura and Phoebe had gone the extra mile by arranging two birthday cakes: a rich, creamy cheesecake and a beautifully coloured taro cake. The boys were beaming, the crowd was smiling, and it added this lovely sense of community to the day — a reminder that events like this bring fans together not just for the guests on stage, but for each other.
Lastly, Louise and Nigel returned for a Q&A session, answering questions with warmth, humour and honesty. The day wrapped up with autograph signings from Julie, Louise and Nigel – a perfect ending to a fan filled weekend.
Written by Teresa Tsang