The highlight of my weekend, my month – dare I say my year? – was my trip Leavesden Studios for the Harry Potter Studio Tour. In the weeks running up my sister and I had been effectively training my mum in all things Potter. For someone who was pretty reluctant, she got very into it… pollyjuice potion, unforgivable curses, first name terms with the characters, you know it.
So we arrive at Watford Junction and get the Potter bus to the studios – thankfully tinted windows mean non-geeks can’t see in… Arriving, I have to say it was all a pleasure – so well organised! No mile-long queues, no delays. The main disappointment was that I didn’t work there!
I don’t want to give it all away as if any of you want to go yourself, it would be boring to know any surprises. But I will say what a fun day out it was – you really can see everything. I think we were all surprised by how real it felt. I was expecting cardboard and plastic galore but it wasn’t at all. The main studio was full of the main indoor sets from Hagrid’s Hut to the Great Hall, Potions class to The Burrow, Gryffindor common room to the Ministry of Magic.
In-between all these sets were piles and piles of props – horcruxes, wands, the Mirror of Erised, costumes, wigs, brooms, even Lupin’s self-closing suitcase… the list goes on. The detail was just so phenomenal, especially when you consider that some of these things would get maybe one second screen time.
It was clear also how inclusive the whole process was for the crew. You could be forgiven for being slightly sick in your mouth every time Daniel Radcliffe talks about the crew as ‘one big family’ but it seems it really was… every cast member had their name printed on an Ollivander wand box, secret messages fill the walls in the Marauder’s Map and some of the crew became immortalised in portraits on Hogwarts’ walls. Again, the effort and detail… amazing.
The outside sets were equally impressive, made even more fun by cups of butterbeer (the sweetest thing I have ever tasted…).
That wasn’t the end, though. Diagon Alley, creatures, full-size models, prosthetics and, one of my favourite things, a massive model of Hogwarts itself. The lights even changed in and out so that you could see the castle in daylight and at night.
All these sets didn’t just happen, though. Obviously. They all started off as fascinatingly intricate paper models – one of which I have pictured below centre of the Divination tower.
Anyhoos, you should all go. The only sad thing about the whole day was that I can’t live in Hogwarts… genuinely gutted.
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