---

Saturday, January 12, 2002 

 

David Irving reads more into Harry Potter

THE latest grown-up to declare an interest in Harry Potter is that sinister old Holocaust revisionist David Irving.

On Monday, Irving — still facing an estimated £2.5 million legal bill after the collapse of his libel case against Deborah Lipstadt — took his daughter, Jessica, to see Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. He left convinced that the film is riddled with covert racism and anti-Semitism.

“The film is pure joy. Eton College meets Wizard of Oz,” he enthuses. “As a High Court-authenticated and fully fledged anti-Semite and racist, I am alert to the movie’s undertones, like the beautifully crafted goblins who are the bank tellers and cashiers in the Gringott’s bank sequence, with their evil, leering faces, shifty eyes and pointy ears.”

Most pleasing of all, he adds, is the “shameless Sloaniness” of the child actors’ voices: “a delight for unabashed court-certified racists like myself to hear”.

The outlandish review, published in Irving’s internet diary, finishes by alleging that the film’s producers digitally planted “a few token black faces” among Harry’s fellow pupils.

Producer Warner Brothers refused to comment on Irving’s review.

— Richard Eden

Edited by Guy Adams pboro@telegraph.co.uk