Harry Potter stars turned out yesterday at the red carpet opening of a studio tour which gives fans a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the blockbuster film series.

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Julie Walters is on the red carpet at the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

I was supposed to go to the filming of The Million Pound Drop last week, the live TV game show in which contestants answer questions to win £1m in cash by placing it on (they hope) the trap door marked with the correct answer. But I missed the show because I didn't get out of work in time. So, in order to slake the thirst of my demons who demand live entertainment wherever possible, I decided to see Billy Elliot: The Musical (inset below) instead.

Willy Russell's scabrous Scousers, Shirley Valentine (Saint Joan of the fitted kitchen units, with all her nosy-neighbour voices) and hairdresser Rita of the Open University, are still going strong after a quarter of a century. They are now as engraved in the national consciousness as Maggie May, resilient streetwalker of the Liverpool docks, or the battling socialist MP Bessie Braddock. This Menier Chocolate Factory transfer, for a summer season at the Trafalgar Studios, presents Russell's two plays in all their wit and vivacity.

The Harry Potter star has grown up and even gets naked for a movie about a hedonistic Belfast youth. But he'll still miss the role that made him famous, he tells James Mottram

Feminism with lashings of fun

The film Mo – a new biopic about Dr Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam – boasts the perfect actress for the title role. Julie Walters, 59, gives an uncannily accurate performance as the former MP for Redcar – she captures everything from Mowlam's slight speech impediment to her pigeon-toed, backwards-leaning, chest-thrust-forward gait.

It's not often you see a magician with a male assistant," admits George, the pensioner conjuror who offers "comedy magic with banjo finale". But his wife, Nell, made a mix-up with the bookings and is "now singing at the Hard of Hearing Beetle Drive". We're backstage in the grotty dressing room of Bunter's Nitespot in Piccadilly, Manchester. We're also (as you may have guessed from that snatch of dialogue) in the world of Victoria Wood – the very young Victoria Wood.

If you can imagine Julie Walters sitting down to tell you the story of her life (with one time comedy partner,Victoria Wood, perhaps chipping in with wry asides) this earthy, moving, but none to sentimental memoir, ending with the birth of her daughter Maisie, is just as you would imagine it.

Billy Elliot has danced away with 10 Tony Awards, including the title for best musical.