Hello Everyone,

I said I would let you know the final figure raised from your contributions last year to my chosen charity SSAFA. Well, I am pleased as punch to be able to tell you that THE TOTAL RAISED FROM YOUR DONATIONS AT CONVENTIONS IN 2017 WAS £4521.95! Once again, a massive Thank You for your generosity and here’s looking forward to another year in which we can play our part in providing vital funding for veterans and currently serving members of the Armed Forces in need of support.

One of the highlights of 2017 came towards the end of the year. It was a reunion of the cast and writers of The Brittas Empire. After cutting the ribbon to launch the rebranded Ringwood Health and Leisure Centre, we went off for a meal. There we caught up on two decades of each other’s lives before, inevitably, our thoughts turned to the future of Brittas. Significantly it was clear that everyone was excited about the possibility at least of a Brittas return. All I can say at this stage is that Richard Fegan is working hard on achieving this and, hopefully, sometime in the not too distant, I will have some further news…Meanwhile, RDXII seems to have gone down well and, dare I say it, as I write this piece, the ‘powers that be’ are possibly putting together a plan for some new product in 2018… We shall see!

During the summer of ’17, I was asked by Major General Peter Gilchrist CB, Chairman of Trustees at the Tank Museum to be an Ambassador for the Museum. Of course I accepted without hesitation. I spent some excellent days filming there for the ‘Massive’ and ‘Britain’s Greatest Machines’ series, unbelievably, some 10 years ago now and I very much look forward to promoting the Museum hence forward…

I attended some fantastic Conventions in 2017 and although I wasn’t able to attend all the shows I would have liked, I certainly clocked up the miles. As for Conventions in 2018, I can confirm that I shall be attending the following events…

12th May Salisbury Comic Con
25th May MCM London (Friday only)
27th May SciFi Invasion at The Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset
9th June Cannock Comic Con

More will be added as and when.

As usual I must apologise for not responding to emails. Thank you so much to all of you who have taken the time to write to me with such positive sentiments. Suffice to say I am most grateful for your kind comments about RDXII and previous shows and I shall endeavour to keep you informed of any news.

I have also received emails requesting my involvement in podcasts but frankly, I am not overly keen to participate. I need to clarify that I do not have Twitter or Facebook accounts, so if you do see or hear of a Chris Barrie on either of the two, it definitely isn’t me. As I have said above, I struggle to keep up with the webmail, without wanting to further disappoint anyone on social media.

SSAFA (The Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association) has been serving the armed forces community for more then 130 years, making it the oldest national tri service charity. Every year SSAFA staff and a team of volunteers help over 60,000 people whether they be WWII veterans or young men and women who have returned from Afghanistan. I recall my father being involved with SSAFA in the 70′s and early 80′s, so when it came to finding a charity to support, the choice was straightforward.

Best Wishes
Chris Barrie