I owe Christopher Columbus an apology. No, not the explorer but the film director.

I thought he was too much of a Hollywood journeyman to bring out the dark and scary side of JK Rowling's splendid novel.

I thought a more creative director was needed but I was wrong.

Columbus turned out to be exactly the right man for the job because the glory of this film is that both he and the scriptwriter, Steve Kloves, were content to bring the results of Rowling's fertile imagination to the screen without adding trickery of their own.

The result is that, for once, the millions of people who loved the book will love the movie as much.

The Gothic splendour of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry looks just as you thought it would, and so do the characters.

The three children - Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) - are wonderfully likeable and, best of all, normal, without a hint of cuteness.

Around them hovers a meticulously chosen cast of adults, headed by Robbie Coltrane as the huge, hairy Hagrid.

I saw the film twice and the second viewing expunged any doubts I had the first time around.

Indeed, my only complaint is that there wasn't enough of the adults, especially Alan Rickman as the sinister Professor Snape.

Maybe there'll be more of them in the sequel. It had better be good because Columbus and company have given themselves one hell of an act to follow.

Barry Norman