IT IS impossible not to feel a tinge of excitement when pulling into the gates of Leavesden Studios in Watford, home of the Harry Potter set.

The record-breaking film franchise has brought the JK Rowling books to millions of fans across the globe over the last decade, and it sometimes feels there can be few people in the world who are not officially entranced by the former English teacher’s world of wizardry and wonderment.

I am here to talk to cast members shooting the final two instalments of Rowling’s last book, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows and hope to glean some gossip.

First to divulge details is Tom Felton, who plays Potter’s adversary Draco Malfoy. The 22-year-old spent time with the special effects department as part of the extras that can be seen on the DVD and Blu-ray release of the sixth film, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince.

“Some of the sets are very plain and slightly boring,” he says. “It’s the visual effects team who turn them into something amazing, like the cave from Half-Blood Prince. It looked like cheap plastic and a big green screen and then you see it in the film and it’s amazing.”

Describing Draco as “very one dimensional” in the first five films, Tom says the reason he enjoyed filming the sixth so much was

“the massive change” in Draco.

“He’s trying to grow up,” says Tom. “Everyone just assumed him to be an evil bully and he’s not at all. Daniel (Radcliffe, who plays Harry) and I are often saying we think Draco and Harry are two sides of the same coin. I feel sorry for him, he is a victim of circumstance and we get to explore that in the last three movies.”

Half-Blood Prince also marked the first time Tom was on a set by himself “with no dialogue, just walking up and down corridors and mooching in the Hall of Requirement,” says Tom. “David (Yates, the director) talked me through how Draco should look lost and haunted and his eyes slightly glazed, so I just stared at a wall for half an hour before the take!”

The film also includes a much anticipated action sequence between Harry and Draco.

“We were looking forward to that,” he says. “It was cool to be in a room when they have rigged it up with explosives, so every time you did that (he makes a hand movement as if casting a spell with a wand) they blew up a toilet or something. It was very satisfying.”

The down-side of playing a loner like Draco is missing out on the romance. “Everyone’s in love in the sixth film apart from Draco,” he says, laughing. “I would like to think he had offers but was too busy with his evil plans.”

As for how he’s coping with attention from ardent fans in real life, he says he’s rarely stopped but “there’s usually a bit of whispering of, ‘It’s that bloke from Harry Potter.”’ But he admits “there are a few people that haven’t seen the difference between reality and make belief”.

He adds: “I had a gentleman legally change his name to Lucius Malfoy (Draco’s father) and wanted to adopt me. He had sent me the adoption forms and apparently wanted me to change my name to Draco and we could all live as one happy family. Luckily my mother declined the offer.”

Bonnie Wright, 18, who plays Ginny Weasley, has gone from being Ron Weasley’s ‘baby sister’ to becoming Harry’s love-interest.

“I think if we were told how our characters would end up we wouldn’t have believed it,” says Bonnie, who was 10 when the first film came out.

“As a little girl, Ginny fancied her big brother’s best friend but she never believed anything would come of it.”

But in Half-Blood Prince, Ginny’s feelings are reciprocated and she and Harry share a kiss.

“I think it worked better because we know each other so well,” she says of filming the scene. “We didn’t feel any embarrassment or pressurised by anyone and made it feel a lot more natural.”

Keeping everyone in check is David Yates, 46, the director of Half-Blood Prince, who also directed Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, and is currently shooting the final two instalments of Deathly Hallows.

“I’d never made a big movie before I came to Harry Potter,” he says at the end of a long day shooting a torture scene between Daniel Radcliffe and Ralph Fiennes, who plays Voldemort.

“It’s a world where you can do anything and there’s a big kid inside of me, which responds to all these resources.”

He admits making Half-Blood Prince was “tricky”.

“You had to leave it with a hunger for what comes next, so my ambition was to make a film that left you wanting more.” That’s one of the reasons why he ultimately decided not to shoot an epic funeral from the book.

“I always feel that storytelling in a movie has a rhythm and the rhythm felt wrong. To crank it up at the end felt a bit like we didn’t know when to let go.”

He’s referring to one of many deaths in the series, with the material getting considerably darker as the series continues. But it’s not something David’s shying away from.

He says: “I think young people really hate being patronised. They know if they are being short changed when it comes to the intensity of things. They like feeling that the movie is grown up enough and they appreciate that.”

On that note, Daniel fans prepare yourselves because Harry is stripping off, not once but twice, in Deathly Hallows, and one scene involves Hermione Granger, played by Emma Watson.

“There’s an intriguing scene when Harry and Ron try to kill a Horcrux and the Horcrux tries to defend itself and induces all these nightmarish visions, one of which is an image of Harry and Hermione embracing and kissing,” says David.

“We want to create something that feels sensual and intriguing for Ron to react to.”

While filming is due to come to an end in April, the second part of Deathly Hallows isn’t due for release until 2011, so David has a while to come to terms with finishing the franchise.

He says: “After four films I will be ready for a gear shift and will go out and make an obscure art house movie that no-one will ever see apart from my nan and that will be very good for me.”

Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince is available as a 2-disc DVD and a 3-disc Blu-ray pack.