Spotted: Miranda Sawyer

When: last night
Where: Ritzy, Brixton

Last night when I went to see An Education with CT and CB, Miranda Sawyer, ace journo and all-round brilliant person was seeing the same film.

I refrained from running up to her and shouting "I think you're fab" in her face, instead, pointed her out to the others. Short-sighted CB said she wasn't sure she knew what she looked like, altho she recognised the name. Some people just don't know their Smash Hits / Select / Time Out / Mixmag history. Cuh.

Miranda was on the Culture Show tonight, interviewing a frankly terrifying-seeming author from the States. I thought she did it all brilliantly as usual. It's all the more satisfying that she seems to live within walking distance of the Ritzy in Brixton, cos she and her blokey set off past my bus stop on their way home. Hurrah for this pocket of South London.

An Education was good, but not amazing, I guess. I liked it, but I didn't love it. It was a great snapshot of that moment, in that year (1962), definitely the 60s, but a pre-Beatles 60s. Dominic and Ros Pike were cool as the two mates of the slightly creepy David, and I think newbie Carey Mulligan was really good.

But there were a few things that jarred for me. I wasn't sure about the timeliness of cigarettes with filters (actually, a little research shows they are correct), Jenny's suddenly pierced ears, the flatness of Jenny's schoolmates - were none of them clever or interesting (I was horrified that bloody Ellie Kendrick might be in it a whole lot more), her caricature father played by Alfred Molina, and the English department of Oxford (?!) offering her a place...

And the final song? Man, as far as I'm aware, there were some pretty cool tunes recorded in the 60s, right? Some of them were even by women. And some of them were about being hurt by sleazy men. So why on earth, after all that period accuracy of cars, dresses, hats, sunglasses, tea-sets and the rest, did we have to listen to Duffy at the end? Please.

But it wasn't bad, and it was certainly nice going to the cinema again after all this time. (The torturous Disney's A Christmas Carol 3D effort really doesn't count.)