Harry Potter and the magical Midlanders

Jul 15 2007 By Roz Laws

CREEPY caretaker Argus Filch is a constant presence in the new Harry Potter film.

He's always lurking menacingly in the background, trying to catch the young wizard out.

Filch is a running gag throughout the movie - but fortunately for actor David Bradley, he's a silent figure.

"I had more screen time than ever, but not a single word to say!" laughs David, who lives in Stratford-upon-Avon. "I didn't have to bother learning lines."

But, at 65, David still did all his own stunts, including teetering at the top of a 30 foot high ladder, to hang up the latest decree from nasty new Hogwarts headmis-tress Dolores Umbridge, played by Imelda Staunton.

"I used to be terrified of heights," reveals David. "My wife Rosanna used to have to climb up to the loft while I held the ladder.

"But I had to conquer my fear when I played God at the National Theatre, when I was raised above the audience.

"They were shaking the ladder on Harry Potter, so I had a harness on just in case. I found it was easier to stay up there for half an hour rather than come down after each take.

"I also had to have my face covered in boils for one scene, when Filch eats a Weasley magic sweet. That took an extra couple of hours in make-up, beyond the hour it takes to put in the hair extensions."

David reveals that Filch's feline companion, Mrs Norris, is actually played by two identical cats called Max and Alanis. They are trained to associate the sound of a click with food, so David has a clicker in his boot to encourage them to follow him.

"Max is best at that, while Alanis is good at resting in my arms. Sometimes she falls asleep and I have to give her a nudge when filming starts.

"At one point in the latest film, Mrs Norris has to jump up on my shoulder. That took quite a few takes, with the trainer smearing food on my shoulder and clicking near my head. Once she jumped up facing the wrong way, so her tail was across my face like a handlebar moustache."

Filch has brought David fan mail from around the world.

"I was worried that I would become a hate figure for children," he confesses. "But they're always nice. I think it's because Filch is a bit useless. He's not too scary because he's actually scared of the kids at Hogwarts.

"Poor man, he's horrible but misunderstood and taken for granted!"

David makes a habit of playing grumpy and unsavoury men like Filch, but off screen the Aston Villa fan and father-of-three couldn't be more friendly.

He is a little bemused by his late fame.

Although he's worked steadily throughout his career, in acclaimed TV dramas like Reckless, Vanity Fair and Blackpool, work has really taken off since Harry Potter.

Just this year he's made an hilarious cameo appearance in the hit film Hot Fuzz, starred on stage in The Caretaker and is currently in the BBC1 drama True Dare Kiss.

Next he's starring alongside David Jason in a Sky One Terry Pratchett drama, The Colour Of Magic, as Cohen The Barbarian.

"He's a former action hero with no teeth or hair and haemorrhoids. But he can still swing a sword and get the girl! The parts get more interesting the older I get. I'll keep going as long as the phone keeps ringing."

And if the acting work dries up, David can always fall back on his ability to conduct marriages and funerals.

The bizarre qualification came three years ago thanks to his goddaughter, actress Kate Beckinsale, who wanted David to play a special role at her Los Angeles wedding to film director Len Wiseman.

"Her father Richard was my best mate since drama school," reveals David.

"Two days before we flew out for the wedding, Kate phoned to say 'Will you marry us?'. I said I wasn't qualified, but she said 'That's fine, I can arrange it over the internet'.

"Some guy in Illinois ordained me into the Church Of The Universal Ministries and I printed off a certificate!

"At the service I made a few comments of my own, but I also got to say 'Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today' and 'You may kiss the bride'.

"The ceremony was in a beautiful white room in the Bel-Air Hotel. Kate was trying to keep it a secret, and changed cars three times to throw the paparazzi off the scent, but there was a helicopter buzzing overhead and people trying to gatecrash.

"I think it was just a one-off for me, but if the acting dries up I could become Dave The Rev!"

FRED & GEORGE WEASLEY

WHEN James and Oliver Phelps appeared in the first Harry Potter film, they were 15 and 5ft 5ins tall.

Now they are strapping young men of 21 and, 6ft 3ins, they tower over their schoolmates.

And that's not the only reason that the Sutton Coldfield twins stick out in Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix.

Fred and George Weasley are major characters in the film. At 17, they're legally allowed to practise magic so they delight in appearing out of nowhere. They're in their last year at Hogwarts but are far more interested in going into business with their inventions, like the skiving tuck boxes with magical sweets which make you ill to get you out of lessons.

Here's a Phelps fact file.

* They've become sex symbols, with two award-winning websites set up in their honour by German fans - Phelpsaholics and Twice As Nice. Fans post comments like "I love them, they're so hot!".

* At Arthur Terry School in Sutton Coldfield, the twins would switch places to play tricks on their teachers. You can tell them apart by the fact that Oliver, who is 13 minutes older and plays George, has a mole on the right side of his neck.

* The pair have naturally brown hair and dye it ginger for Harry Potter.

* Oliver is a fan of Aston Villa while James is a Birmingham City supporter. They've been thrilled to meet the likes of Steve Bruce and Alan Shearer.

* James is interested in working behind the camera and was a runner on The Da Vinci Code movie.

* The pair regularly play golf with their screen brother Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley.

* The twins have invested their movie earnings in property.

* They've attended film premieres in New York and Japan - and switched on Nuneaton's Christmas lights.

ARTHUR & MOLLY WEASLEY

ARTHUR and Molly Weasley, key members of the Order Of The Phoenix and Harry's surrogate parents, are played by Midland actors Mark Williams and Julie Walters.

In the new film, Arthur - who is amazed by the workings of the Tube - uses a secret lift in a phone box to take Harry into the Ministry Of Magic.

Mark grew up in a council estate in Merritts Brook near Northfield, Birmingham, before his family moved to Bromsgrove. After an English degree at Oxford University, his jobs included painting and decorating, working as a care assistant in a psychiatric unit and running a wine bar.

His acting career began with the Mikron Theatre Company, travelling the Midlands by canal narrowboat. TV fame came through an advert in which he said, "We want to be together", before he joined Paul Whitehouse in the Fast Show.

"I think it took longer for me to succeed because I've got a face like the corner of a crocodile handbag," said Paul, 47.

Fans were disappointed when Smethwick-born Julie Walters, 57, did not appear in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, and Julie admitted to being hurt that Mrs Weasley's role was cut. But she's delighted to return for The Order Of The Phoenix.

"Will you write to them and tell them that I'm indispensable?" she smiles.

UNCLE DURSLEY

AS bullying Uncle Vernon Dursley, Richard Griffiths lives at the famous address of 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, where all the Harry Potter films begin.

In real life, Richard lives just outside Stratford-upon-Avon.

He says he finds children irritating, and he likes playing Vernon "because that gives me a licence to be horrible to kids".

Harry and Vernon hate each other, but Richard and Daniel Radcliffe are great friends who appeared together in the much-hyped stage revival of Equus.

Richard is a veteran theatre actor, spending a decade with the Royal Shakespeare Company. During a performance of The History Boys, he became so annoyed at a man in the audience whose mobile phone kept going off that he stopped acting and ordered the man out of the theatre, to much applause.

Brought up in a world of silence by parents who were profoundly deaf and dumb, he was once considered for the part of Doctor Who.

He turns 60 on July 31 - which, coincidentally, is Harry Potter's birthday.

* One Midlander who filmed a role but never got to appear is Rik Mayall. Rik, who grew up in Droitwich, Worcestershire, played the trouble-making poltergeist Peeves in The Philosopher's Stone. But while he appears in the cast lists for the first two films, the role ended up on the cutting room floor. He said: "But I got the cash, that's all that matters."

* Evanna Lynch beat more than 15,000 girls for the role of Luna Lovegood. With no acting experience, she won the director over with her ethereal quality - and her obsessive knowledge of the Harry Potter books, which she knows inside out.

POTTER FACTS

* The carpet in Professor Umbridge's office cost £50,000 to make.

* At 896 pages, The Order Of The Phoenix is the longest Potter book - but at 138 minutes, the film is the shortest movie so far. The longest is The Chamber Of Secrets at 161 minutes.

* Robbie Coltrane was the very first person to be cast in the franchise, as Hagrid.

* Richard Harris only agreed to taking the part of Albus Dumbledore after his 11 year-old granddaughter threatened never to speak to him again if he refused. When he died in 2002, a few weeks before the release of The Chamber Of Secrets, Michael Gambon took over the role after Peter O'Toole and Ian McKellen turned it down.

* Evil house elf Kreacher was never going to appear in The Order Of The Phoenix, until author JK Rowling pointed out it might be a good idea, for the sake of future films, to introduce him. This suggests he may play a crucial role in the last novel.