MAGICAL mayhem hit Huddersfield when the town's cinema complex began showing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Audiences sat enthralled as the adaptation of JK Rowling's third book about the boy wizard's adventures cast a spell over them at the UCI.

People queued from the cinema to the McAlpine Stadium leisure centre to get into the first showing at 10.15am. Several screens were dedicated to the film, with every showing until 4.30pm sold out.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban has been directed by Alfonso Cuaron and is described as much darker than the first two film instalments - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. These were both directed by Christopher Columbus.

So, what did the first viewers at the UCI think?

Melinda Trowsdale, of Mirfield, watched the film with her daughter Stephanie, eight, and son Joshua, four.

She said: "I thought it was really good. I haven't seen the first two, but the kids have.

"Josh is only four and two and a half hours is a long time, but he sat through it so it must have been good!"

Stephanie said: "I thought it was better than the first two."

Thomas Townend, eight, thought the new film was scarier.

He had travelled from Halifax with parents Karen and Nigel Webster.

He said: "I thought this one was scary. They are getting scarier each time."

Mrs Webster disagreed.

She said: "I don't think they are getting better. I much preferred the style of the first two."

The third film sees Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) change from angelic boy to stroppy teenager as he and his friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) return for their third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The trio face the threat of dangerous escaped prisoner Sirius Black and the fearsome, soul-sucking Dementor prison guards sent to recapture him.

But Harry and Ron provide some comedy as they begin to take an interest in something even more terrifying - girls.

With a strong supporting cast - including Gary Oldman as Black, Alan Rickman as sneering Professor Snape and Emma Thompson - the film has received rave reviews at premieres in London and New York.