Dale-Con line-up unveiled

Brian Wheeler appearing at Dale-Con 1 with Harrison Ballard

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The Dale-Con sci-fi convention returns to Rochdale in February, with the line-up being announced this week.

Heading up the event is Danny John-Jules. Known as Cat from Red Dwarf, Danny has starred in all ten series of the epic show now, and Martin Ballard, centre manager and organiser of the Rochdale event caught up with Danny who jumped, or should that be pounced, at the chance to visit some of his fans from up North.

Star Wars’ Ken Coombs and Harry Potter’s Brian Wheeler will appear at The Wheatsheaf Shopping Centre on 22 and 23 February for what is the biggest sci-fi convention outside of Manchester and London.

Coombs, who played an Imperial Officer in ‘Star Wars Episode 6 - Return of the Jedi’ will be at the centre on the Saturday along with John Chapman, creator of the ‘Johnny Rocket’ children’s books and another Star Wars actor.

Brian Wheeler, who starred in The Phantom of the Opera as well as Star Wars and Harry Potter, will also be attending the event alongside Pam Rose. Pam has featured in over 300 screen productions and is another member of the expansive Star Wars cast.

Alan Flyng, who attended the convention last year, returns and will be present on both days. Flyng, who is credited as an actor on films such as An American Werewolf in London, Scum and Clash of the Titans, has also spent much of his film career within costume and wardrobe.

He said: “I used to drive around Rochdale years ago when I was a tour guide for England and Scotland with German tour buses - German being my main language. I have never had the luxury of time to investigate Rochdale for myself. As I am not very mobile on my feet, I would welcome the chance of a tour by car with photo-stops.”

Joining the line-up is Toby Philpott, famed for his work with Star Wars character Jabba the Hut and The 99th Garrison, a Manchester-based costuming group based around the hugely popular film series.

Jim Davies, the Garrison’s Commanding Officer, said. “The 99th doesn’t tend to do many conventions; because most of them seem to be down south we prefer to focus on other types of events where we interact with the general public rather than just the sci-fi/Star Wars community.

“We collect for charity at most events and we have raised just over £20,000 for various charities during 2013.”

American actor Chris Muncke will immediately ring a bell for fans of both James Bond films and Star Wars. He starred opposite Roger Moore in The Spy Who Loved Me and of course planned the brief but iconic role of Captain Khurgee, whose scanning crew failed to catch Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in Star Wars - A New Hope.

Completing the line up is a technical wiz behind the camera with his droid work and animation on creatures such as Yoda is SFX specialist, Ron Hone. Ron has worked on countless films starting back in 1968 but best known on the sci-fi circuit for the films 'Empire Strikes Back' and 'Alien', but more recently Ron has been involved in both the 'Prometheus' film and 'World War Z'.

Martin Ballard, the Centre Manager at the Wheatsheaf, explained why the centre is running the event: "In the shopping centre industry, trade has become increasingly hard over the years with the likes of out of town shopping centres such as the Trafford Centre and the internet, so it's down to town centres to reinvent themselves. We proved last year that if you put on a quality event, people will come to Rochdale for it.”

Mr Ballard also confessed that the event brought out his inner-geek: “I packed away all my Star Wars toys as a young man, and regret it now - the film is as popular as it was back then, and I got a heck of a buzz putting on a Darth Vader outfit and turning on the lightsaber."