Sir Kenneth Branagh recalls drunken night with Harry Potter stars

Sir Kenneth Branagh had one of the most "daft nights" of his life when he hit a hotel bar with the Harry Potter cast.

The actor joined the franchise playing Gilderoy Lockhart in second movie, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and he's revealed he enjoyed spending time with veteran stars including Richard Harris, Alan Rickman and Dame Maggie Smith - and he'll always remember one particular night when the acting greats started drinking together and sharing stories.

During an appearance at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), Branagh said: "I had one of the great privileged, daft nights in my life, in a hotel just outside Cheltenham – we’d been at Gloucester cathedral shooting.

"Holding court, the man telling all the stories was Richard Harris. But around the tables, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Miriam Margolyes, David Bradley, and me, and a large amount of stimulus in the form of alcohol, which I do not recommend. You felt this massive weight of experience."

Branagh revealed he expected to be working on the film for several weeks but it actually nine months to shoot because it was such a massive project.

He added: "They gave me a 'welcome to our world' paper; it was the size of a telephone directory. It seemed like everybody in the British film industry, from every craft department, technical department. It was just immense."

Branagh also explained he was amazed by the ability to shoot scenes with stand-ins while the main child stars were doing their school work.

He said: "Every single character had been completely replicated. Then their stand-ins came in for the afternoon; then 10 to 20 minutes before they had to go, they [the main actors] came in and did their bit. And I never saw them again ...

"When they finally arrived for their 20 minutes, everything was going on that you might expect. Notes were being passed, darts were thrown at people.

"They had morphed into their characters and into the institution of fictional Hogwarts, surrounded by the entire British film industry."

Branagh was speaking during a question and answer session at the festival after picking up the Outstanding Contribution to Cinema Award from festival director Paul Ridd.