The woman sitting in seat L2 of the local Odeon cinema on Saturday was a big help to those near her who were having difficulty following the plot, or fully appreciating the film, other patrons reported.

During the one hour forty minute film What Women Want, starring Mel Gibson as an advertising executive who gains the ability to read women’s minds, the woman gave a constant commentary on the on-screen action, and pointed out things that others may well have missed.

“I was extremely grateful to [her],” said fellow patron Nicki Gregg, 26. “I am a bit dim, and often when watching a film, I will miss salient points in the plot. But thanks to this woman, I kept up with every intricate twist and turn. Like when Mel attempted to recreate the conditions of the original accident to try and reverse it - I only realised that because she explained it to everyone.”

According to those sitting with twenty feet of seat L2, the woman never missed a single trick throughout the entire film. When Gibson spilled bath beads on the floor, she announced “Oh, he’s going to fall over,” a plot development which three people admitted they would never have seen coming without her timely intervention.

“But she didn’t stop there,” said Gregg’s boyfriend, Frank Parton. “You know how sometimes, when you’re watching a comedy, you don’t know where the funny bits are? And you just try to laugh along with everybody else, except sometimes someone laughs, and you join in, but then you realise they were laughing at something their friend said? It happens. But not when you’ve got a helpful person saying ‘That is so funny’ in a really loud voice on every gag. I never missed a guffaw through the entire film.”

Cinema management said that normally, if someone was talking loudly during a feature presentation, an usher or other member of staff would discreetly ask them to “please keep it down,” for fear that they disturb other film fans.

“But on this occasion, we felt she was adding so much to what is already a marvellous film,” said assistant manager Neville Whitely, “that it would have seemed churlish to intervene. In fact, had we been able to intercept her as she left the theatre, I was going to offer her a job doing what she did that night.”

“But with a microphone,” he added.

Sadly for future viewers of the film, Whitely did not find the woman as she left that evening. But there are others like her, and you can but hope, the next time you go to the pictures, you end up sitting right in front of one.