WDW's Oxford adventure - it was An Education

A strange thing happened on the way to the office this morning...

Little did I know when I set off for work this morning that I would be able to disprove the theory that a certain movie is only being filmed in locations beginning with W. Demonstrating (with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer) that it's a small world, I turned the corner by my office and saw a whole load of movie trailers, along with a double decker bus serving as a canteen. We're used to filmsets in Oxford (I've seen more movie stars here than I have in LA) and so I approached the security guard - the one with 'Manchester United FC' tattooed onto his neck - and asked what was going on. He said he didn't know if it was a movie or a TV show but it was called 'An Education'. You could have knocked me down with a feather.

To cut a long story short - well, I won't because I'm going to keep talking about it - several hours later, this is how it ended up. Me and Peter Sarsgaard - don't you think we look good together?


At lunchtime, having sat patiently at my desk as long as I possibly could, and dragging along a not-very-reluctant friend with me (who, being a glamorous sort, managed to get quite a bit of information from one of the movie roadies), I headed off to the trailers to find where the shoot was taking place. My friend learned that we had to go left, then right, then left, then right, then right again. This led us to one of Oxford's most familiar filming locations, the Radcliffe Camera, which, to be honest, was a disappointment to me as I thought it would be nice if crews looked elsewhere for a beautyspot as we have so many.



We went over and spent a very enjoyable hour watching one scene being rehearsed down an alley by Brasenose College. This scene featured two girls dolled up to their early 1960s' best, bouffants and all, leaning on a car, while student-types walked by. It was fascinating to see all the attention hair and wardrobe were getting - photographs were used to ensure that continuity was preserved in the arrangement of the hair. One of the girls had a lot of trouble with her shoes and she took them off whenever she could. Otherwse, there were extras passing by on foot or on bicycle, dressed as students would 40 years ago or so. To be honest, it was hard telling them apart from the observers, and I'm not kidding.



After work on this beautiful sunny day I headed back to the Camera (this is a beautiful round building which acts as a library as well as a favourite site for youngsters in centuries past to hurl themselves off the top of) and watched the preparation for a scene in which the young lovely young actress Carey Mulligan cycled past the Bridge of Sighs. She was accompanied by an extra, a student, whose friends were standing behind me and kept trying to put him off.




The sun was bright today and apparently there was too much sun in the shot and so they had to wait a few minutes before what the director called 'The Peter Shot'. That got my attention. I turned round and there was Peter standing by some old cars, by the Bridge of Sighs and an old newspaper stand. I took his picture and, because the filming was held up for the sun, I decided to walk over and say a few words to him, along the lines of how thrilled I was to see him and that I had seen him in Toronto and got his autograph.


Peter was very kind, shaking my hand, and - completely staying in character, speaking with an impeccable English accent (it was weird, I have to tell you, to not hear the beautiful voice we're so used to from Peter) - said how great that was. I asked if I could take his picture and he suggested we could do better than that and he called a guy over to take our picture together and I got an arm put round me and he got one round him. I asked him if he was in Oxford for longer and he said for only one day. I told him how pleased I was that it was so sunny for him and that he'd made my perfect day. He laughed, shook my hand again, and I went off. I couldn't beat that moment.

So they're only in Oxford for one day. I tried but failed to find out where they are tomorrow but really I don't think I care too much. Oxford is a beautiful city, especially when it's bathed in sun as it was today, but today it looked even more stunning than usual.



I realise I have written a whole post and not mentioned Jake Gyllenhaal's name. Oops - no I haven't. Thank you, Peter, for being so kind to me even though you were in character and had your mind on work. You were lovely to me in Toronto and you were just wonderful today. To say you made my day would be as banal as saying Monday follows Sunday - you absolutely made my day. Thank you!


By the way, please take pity on me - I wasn't expecting to be photographed with an international movie star today! All pictures by WDW.