There was a one-off open-air screening of E.T., one of my all-time favourite films, in the garden of the Holburne museum on Saturday night. Jane had prepared a plentiful picnic dinner for all the DKA people and we oohed, aahed, and applauded as Elliot’s bicycle became airborne.

I get a lot of mockery when I mention that one of the things I like about this movie is its realism. Of course, by that I don’t mean that the whole alien botanologist mission deal is a realistic situation. But there is plenty of realism to be found in the dialogues, with characters talking over each other, the little details of everyday life, like the D&D game in the beginning of the film, and the plausibility of the reactions to E.T., both on the side of the kids and on the side of the adults representing the government agencies. In general, it displays a care for the minutiae that is sorely lacking in films of recent years, but is necessary to be drawn into a story in the way last night’s audience was.