"Whitecross Calling" Page 25

 "Whitecross Calling" Page 26

an intensely private individual, private and possessive. The years of toiling on alone; a solitary voice pressing the case for a brilliant but forgotten series seems only to have heightened that. It's almost as though he regards it as his series now, his and no one else's. Did he resent our interest, our wanting to share in some of it....? Could that be the reason, deep seated and unconscious no doubt, why he seems to want to draw us all in draw on our support in his venture, but simultaneously cuts us off and pushes us away, starving us of that vital oxygen of approval from above...?

The folks behind me were starting to look restless, I'd taken up too much time already. I fingered my list of questions -many of which had now become indecipherable.
"Would it be possible to do an interview with you...?" I enquired tentatively. He looked anxiously behind me at the queue. "Not here, not under these circumstances...." I added nervously. "Perhaps there's somewhere we could contact you to arrange one," I added hopefully.
He dragged my bit of card back across the table and began to write something. When he handed it back I read it quickly. It contained his home address..!

I moved away in a daze and let Lynne frighten him some more with her camera while I took the opportunity to stand on one side to observe for a bit.

During the rest of the event he appeared vaguely bored and a little, well, shy for want of a better word. The lights and the endless procession of questioners seemed to faze him. As the queue dragged on, his attention began to wander to a magazine he'd bought earlier from a vendor. It appeared to chronicle his parts in the various Zombie films he'd starred in

and he seemed frankly more interested in looking for mistakes in that than pressing the flesh with Joe Public.

Lynne tells me that one of the most fundamental rules of running a fan club is to STAY ON GOOD TERMS WITH ALL OF THE IMPORTANT ACTORS but lets be frank, Ian's a funny bugger and there's no getting away from it. Deep as the ocean, moody, ,'I tad petty perhaps - but still, thanks to his enduring contribution as Greg Preston, bloody marvellous. As a fan I feel simultaneously attracted by his intriguing personality and on screen persona and yet at the same time repulsed and rejected by a hero that doesn't seem to want to give any real encouragement to those that admire him! Surely if "King Preston" wants to get his throne back at some time in the future, then he's going to need us - the people that can help put him back on it...! Having met him now, in the flesh so to speak, I confess that he remains a total enigma!

This article could have been a straight forward question and answer thing, but somehow the point of the exercise for me was not what stodgy unoriginal questions he answered from my list (and let's face it most of the interesting questions have been asked already) but what insight I could gain on a man that is simply very important to all of us whether he likes it or not…!

I stepped down from the stage and allowed the list of now badly crumpled questions to fall to the floor. Maybe there'd be another occasion for them in the future...?

The letters in the post, along with a revised copy of the first mag. Come on Ian, prove me wrong....