What's that in your hand, boy?

What's that in your hand, boy?

I went with the family this afternoon to see the latest Harry Potter. It’s a curious mixture. On the one hand, Harry and his mates are starting to discover lurve. On the other, there’s the usual battle against the rotten old dark forces going on. But the special effects – now so commonplace that they’re not really ‘special’ anymore – work their magic and the hanging ending left my fellow viewers almost audibly panting for the seventh, and last, film. Everybody will have their favourite characters and actors. Mine is Severus Snape, played with brilliant consistency by Alan Rickman. A lot of the credibility of his character is based, of course, on the fact that there really were teachers like him. They tended to wear gowns and flit around, popping up in all the wrong places at all the wrong moments and always ready with a sneering put-down.