The best day of my life was probably my university graduation. The second best day of my life was my visit to the Warner Brother Studio Tour in 2012 shortly after it opened.
No trip to the Studio Tour would be complete without first making a detour to Kings Cross Station to pose by half a trolley sticking out of a brick wall. Since the photo below was taken, the Platform 9 3/4 trolley has been taken over by the Harry Potter Shop nearby, where, after about an hour of queuing, enthusiastic helpers wrap a scarf around you and flap it feebly just out of shot for an extortionately-priced photo (I'm informed that if you come outside of the shop hours you can still take your own, free photo). But then again, when I went a man mistook it for a rubbish bin and stuck a greasy Greggs wrapper in it, so it's swings and roundabouts.
Pre-Gregg's wrapper photo
Unfortunately you can't catch the Hogwarts Express to the Studio Tour, but you can catch a themed bus from Watford train station, which is better than nothing. I was intending to whip myself up into a magical frenzy by listening to the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone soundtrack on my MP3 player on the bus, but there was a mildly interesting voice over during the short journey which informed passengers of the history of the Leavesden Studio.
Sadly, the bus is not a triple decker
When the bus pulled up to the Studio Tour, I was greeted with this magnificent facade:
Jolly
Hogwarts Castle it's not, but believe me, it is amazing inside.
Even the foyer is jaw dropping and it is perfect for setting the scene and making visitors excited about beginning the tour. Huge photos of the cast line the tall ceilings and a flying Ford Anglia hangs alongside a celestial globe. Then there's the obligatory Starbucks.
The thing that really grabbed me, however, was how much thought had gone into the whole experience, even from the offset. Harry Potter is such an emotive series of books and films for its fans and any Harry Potter-themed attraction has to be able to deal with the source material sensitively- after all, we grew up with Harry, Ron and Hermione and we really want to emotionally connect with the wizarding world. When you join the queue to go into the tour, you line up alongside the place where it all started: the cupboard under the stairs, complete with toy solders and a little pair of round spectacles on the shelf. It really did tug at my heartstrings and I'm normally quite a tough nut to crack.
Still probably bigger than most flats in London
The first part of the tour was a little odd, but this was probably for the best as otherwise I could have literally exploded from excitement and that would have made an unpleasant day out for all the other visitors. You are first led through to a dark room with back lit Harry Potter movie posters on the walls where you hear about J.K. Rowling's struggle to get published and how it went on to become a world wide phenomenon. Then you're taken through to a cinema screen where you watch a nice little video from the stars of the movies about their experiences working on the films and how excited they are by the Studio Tour. So far, so average.
However, as Dan, Rupert and Emma stand in front of the door to the Great Hall in the video and say 'come inside', the entire cinema screen suddenly rolls up into the ceiling to reveal.....
Ta da!
The door to the Great Hall itself!
Part 2 to follow soon....
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