Judith Proctor's Journal

With the election approaching, it seems only right to formally announce that I will be standing for Ruler of the Universe at the next Redemption Convention.

"Harriet Jones, Ruler of the Universe"

"We know who you are!"

My policies are honesty, integrity and strong defence for Earth against alien invasions of any kind.

Clearly, the best way to prevent aliens invading is to rule the entire universe and bring the benefits of British culture to everyone.  A wider Commonwealth in which all species will be welcome as long as they are peaceful.

I'll be looking for volunteers to help with my campaign.  Members of UNIT and Torchwood are especially welcome, as are people with publicity/organisational skills.  In the interests of full employment and a vibrant economy, we guarantee to find suitable jobs for all volunteers.

For those who missed the con, here's a link to one of my favourite bits of the cabaret!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx7ON43yhI0

(the joy of good tech is that it looks easy)

This is mostly a brief post to remind myself of all the things I actually want to post about when I'm awake enough to do it properly...

It was fabulous, possibly the best Redemption ever.

The highlights included:  Two superb Drazi leaders (Simon and Helen) who were totally in the spirit of it throughout the entire con and lead their teams with style, panache, creativity and cheating.

The Ruler of the Universe had the best orchestrated campaign I have ever seen and was won by a resounding margin by Brigade Leader Lethbridge-Stewart (you always know a candidate has done well when his vote tally is 150 more than the number of people at the convention).

Rob Shearman is great fun and I will talk about him later.

Kev Sutherland's 'Scottish Falsetto sock puppet theatre' is hilarious and inspired and had the audience creasing themselves with laughter.

The food was really good! Our new hotel did us proud, especially with the £7 evening meal choice.

The hall costumes were the best ever!  So many people in so many great outfits.

And the chaos Liberator in the masquerade and the cabaret with songs and poi and sketches.  The hall was as packed at the end as at the start.

There were good workshops, tech were really well organised, the people were wonderful, I hugged so many people I can't recall them all now.

And I got given flowers in the closing ceremony (I'm retiring from the Redemption committee after 10 years, to concentrate fully on Odyssey 2010) and the audience all got to their feet and started chanting ''Ju-dith' and I almost cried because it was such an amazing moment.

We're celebrating another guest for Redemption.

People who saw Kev Sutherland in the Edinburgh Fringe were saying: "Please can we have him as a guest at Redemption?"

This was due to his hilarious sock puppet take-offs of shows like Torchwood and Primeval.

Of course -grin - we're bringing you more than just a commedian (though that would be enough in itself)

Kev is also a writer and artist whose  work has appeared in Marvel comics, 2000AD, Dr Who magazine and the Red Dwarf Smegzine.

So, come along and on the Saturday of Redemption you can meet the man who draws the Bash Street Kids in the Beano!