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Millie Humphries and the Warner Bros. Studio of Secrets

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It’s been widely reported that J.K Rowling sent Harry and the Philosopher’s Stone to a total of 12 publishers before she approached Bloomsbury to see if they would publish the book. Fortunately, for the entire world, they did and the rest, as they say, is history. This was back in 1997 – now do you feel old? Ahead of Groupon’s exclusive event next month, I donned my cape and glasses (ok not really) and journeyed behind the scenes at the Warner Bros. Studios to find out how The Boy Who Lived was indeed, brought to life.

 

6 Great Hall

 

Our journey began in The Great Hall, which, rather incredibly, is actual size and built with authentic flagstones both for aesthetics and for durability. With hundreds of cast and crew trampling over them for the duration of seven films, they had to last! As well as authentic flagstones, there were also authentic costumes on display including the first and last school uniforms of Harry Potter himself. The first was so small and cute, someone innocently guessed that it belonged to Dobby. Other costumes included those of Hogwarts pupils, professors and best of all, Hagrid. As Robbie Coltrane was nowhere near the height of 11 ft 6” Hagrid, a body double was used for the long shots of the giant. Watching the films i’d had no idea that rugby player Martin Bayfield (a mere 6ft 10”) was shuffling around underneath the giant’s exterior, wearing huge wooden platforms and an animatronic head.

 

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Moving into the next studio we saw a whole section of the The Great Hall roof as well as entire rooms set up with absolutely minute attention to detail from the Ministry of Magic and the Gryffindor common room, to my personal favourite, Professor Umbridge’s office. The bright pink walls are adorned with over 200 decorated, cat covered plates. The way these plates were given life for the movies is both surprising and unbelievably cute. The design team worked with over 40 furry feline models, filming each one over two days in hand knitted outfits, wizards hats and many more irresistible accessories. What makes the tale even more heart-warming, is that all the kittens were adopted afterwards and their owners are completely oblivious to their life of international on-screen stardom!

 

1 Cats

 

As we all know, the kittens weren’t the only animals in the Harry Potter movies. The tour gives a charming insight into the animal actors from the films. From the enormous Fang (played by 9 different pooches), to Harry’s feathered friend Hedwig, each animal actor had a different personality. Some were good as wizard gold and some, like Hollywood actresses (not mentioning any names), were divas. Prince for example (one of the four cats playing Crookshanks), was one of the latter category, his picture accompanied by the note ‘would rather be carried than ever do any work’.

 

2 Broomstick Making

 

We walked past the potions lab where rows upon rows of jars containing questionable contents line the shelves, until we reached the workshop where the master broomstick craftsman was hard at work, making a replica Firebolt. He told us all about how the brooms were made and even showed us the actual Nimbus 2000 used in the films by Daniel Radcliffe. Incredibly, the brooms are all hand crafted and it takes around 8 weeks to make one. Most interestingly, perhaps, we learned that there are rubber, metal and wooden versions of the broomsticks, all with different purposes for different scenes.

 

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Outside, a number of surprises awaited us. The gigantic purple Knight Bus parked in the middle of the courtyard, still with the shrunken head hanging from the mirror. Other set pieces include the Hogwarts bridge, and the infamous No.4 Privet Drive, which I found indescribably novel. It seems I wasn’t the only one and I even saw someone knocking on the door which was somewhat amusing.

 

5 Night Bus

 

As my eyes fell upon a welcoming sign, I knew the novelty was far from over. Butterbeer. I’d always wished it was real and now that it was, I was dying to know what it tasted like… With creamy, caramelly foam on top of a fizzy liquid not dissimilar to ice cream soda, it was sweet and scrumptious. It didn’t last long.

 

4 Butterbeer

 

The final section of the tour began with a vast array of detailed prosthetics, my favourite of which were the individually grotesque heads of the Gringotts goblins, each with its own gruesome expression. Both incredibly creepy and incredibly awesome, each was crafted by hand with its own ears and needle sharp teeth. Also on display were animatronic mandrakes, the Monster Book of Monsters, dementors and a whole load of other magnificently mythical creatures. The sheer scale of work was unbelievable. As we walked along the cobbled streets of Diagon Alley, past puking pastilles in the window of Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes and stacks of cages outside the Owl Emporium, I genuinely felt like I was no longer a muggle; I was part of the wizarding world. The final room contains the best surprise of the tour, but I’ll leave that to you to discover.

 

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If you’re fortunate enough to have got your hands on some tickets for the September event, you’ll be able to meet some of the furry and feathered friends from the movies (make sure you give Prince a good carry round). Believe me, I am very, very jealous. And if animals aren’t your cup of tea, you can always fly a broomstick in front of the studio’s green screen- a movie MUST for anyone potty about Potter. So get your wands at the ready and practise your disarming spells- with a Death Eater duel on the cards, you’re going to need them. Expelliarmus!

 

Twitter & Instagram @humphriesmillie

 


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