Last night Nick, Dave and Steve attended the exclusive Heroes reception at the top of the Gherkin in London to celebrate the show's success on BBC2. We rubbed shoulders with Hayden Panettiere (Claire), Jack Coleman (Mr Bennet), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter) and Adrian Pasdar (Nathan) who are all friendly, funny people - currently they're in the midst of a world tour to meet fans of the show. After a press conference we saw some clips from the next season and then raised a few glasses with the stars, as well as legendary producer Dennis Hammer and the guv'nor of BBC2, Roly Keating.
Panettiere claimed that she finds the attention of the world's males "flattering", while a very dry Coleman, asked by a tabloid journalist what his preferred super power would be, said, "I was in Dynasty and The Colbys in the 1980s. Ask me then, I would have said invisibility. Then I was invisible for most of the 1990s, and I decided its not that much fun..." He later told me that he was pleased to be interviewed by the genre press (see issue 159) because our readers and writers know more about the show and are prepared to go a little bit deeper.
Panettiere said that their contracts tie them in for up to six seasons of Heroes, although none of them know if the show will last that long, or if their characters will survive. Keating from the BBC claimed to be confident BBC2 will show all further available series in the UK. The cast also said they had enormous respect for the work of Brit actor Christopher Eccleston.
In the bar afterwards Pasdar sympathised with our problems regarding spoilers (admitting it was "confusing" the way people were watching the show at different paces and on different networks). You can read our interview with him in SFX 160 and, yes, if you're watching it at BBC2 pace there is one big spoiler in that article. Whoops.
Remember that some of these lovely people are appearing on Sunday at the London Film and Comic Con (visit our SFX stand if you attend, details here ).
