WHEN you’re a football fan, nobody thinks it’s at all immature or weird to want to meet one of your footballing heroes. I mean, you should have seen the number of grown men queuing up to have their photos taken with Kenny Dalglish a few weeks ago in the Sports and Social.

But if kickerball isn’t your bag, if your cultural and recreational tastes lie in an altogether different direction – say, Doctor Who, for example – then you’re just a geek, aren’t you?

Well, I’m a geek.

The whole of my life I’ve been a Who fan (or “Whovian” for those of the anorak-appreciating tribe). And for much of that time, I’ve been keen to meet an actor who has played the lead role of everyone’s favourite Time Lord. The first chance I got was in 1979, when Tom Baker was scheduled to appear in John Menzies in Buchanan Street, Glasgow, to sign copies of the new Doctor Who paperback, The Horror of Fang Rock. And I was so desperate to go. Only problem was, I had made one of my rare trips to Glasgow just a week earlier and spent all my spare cash on Trigan Empire books and what-have-you. My mum point blank refused to bail me out and I could tell that no tantrum, however impressive, was going to change her mind (interesting point: in his Desert Island Discs appearance over Christmas, David Tennant revealed that he had, in fact attended that very signing).

The next opportunity to meet a Doctor didn’t arise until many, many years later – 2007, in fact, when I attended the press preview of the Christmas special, Voyage of the Damned, at the London Science Museum. I met many other Who actors – John Sim, Elisabeth Sladen, Tony Head, Russell Tovey and Russell “the T” Davies himself – but despite having been tipped off by Steven Moffat that Peter Davison was due to make an appearance, he didn’t show. And David Tennant left pretty shortly after the Q&A which followed the screening, so two of them escaped in the same evening.

A few short months later, I was hosting a table at a Labour Party gala fundraiser dinner, when who should appear on stage to introduce the Prime Minister but the tenth Doctor himself, another son of the manse. After his speech, I decided I would wait until the unseemly gaggle of women fans (honestly! Have they no pride?) around his table  dispersed before casually sauntering over and introducing myself. And then, just as I was about to make my move, he was led from the room and disappeared to his waiting car. Damn. It.

The next near miss was the very worst, most galling of all. In April or May 2008 I was texted by Steven Moffat, who had just been announced as Russell T. Davies’s replacement as showrunner of Doctor Who. Would Carolyn and I like to join him and his friends at his house to watch the broadcast of Silence in the Library, his latest writing contribution to the series? Well, of course we would! Unfortunately, Carolyn and I were in Glasgow and not, as Steven had assumed, in London, so we had to turn down the invitation. A few weeks later Steven told me it was a pity we couldn’t make it because “you would have enjoyed meeting David and Georgia.” That would be David Tennant and Georgia Moffatt, who played the eponymous role in the season four episode, The Doctor’s Daughter, and also happens to be Peter Davison’s real-life daughter. I could have barfed!

And then, last autumn, Steven and his wife, Sue, came for dinner at the Commons. “We’ve just left Matt,” said Steven in passing, “Matt” being Matt Smith, who will play the 11th Doctor. “Would he want to join us for dinner, do you think?” I asked as nonchalantly as I could manage. “I’ll ask him,” said Steven, and I did not object to his using his mobile phone in the Strangers’ restaurant, even though it’s strictly against the rules. “He would have liked to but he’s on his way home now,” said Steven with a shrug. Hmm.

And then last week, finally, at long bloody last, this happened:

He was part of a lobby of parliament by members of the Performers’ Alliance, and of course I took my chance.

Inevitably, he was lovely – very approachable and patient, though I’m sure slightly baffled that so many MPs (note: not just me!) were behaving like fanboys.

It’s taken more than 30 years, but at least that’s another thing crossed off of my “bucket list”.

"And that's one I took of you emptying your bins outside your house..."