Missing Magic

Formula gets a bum rap from critics, but I’m rather partial to it myself. In the Bond movies, it’s pretty much the best bits — take out the flirting with Moneypenny, Q going ‘Pay attention, 007’, Shirley Bassey bellowing the theme song over silhouettes of dolly birds gyrating round giant pistols, and what’s left isn’t that interesting. J.K. Rowling’s decision to revive the English school story in supernatural form lent an instant shape to the Harry Potter adventures and, although I’ve never read a word of the books (for the same reason as Julie Burchill refuses to visit America, on the grounds that everybody else already has), I liked the way that on screen they settled instantly into Bond-like conventions: for example, the pre-term opening sequence of Harry suffering the summer hols at Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon’s house.

That’s been nixed in this fourth outing of the series, which is bad news for those who enjoyed their five minutes of Fiona Shaw and Richard Griffiths.