Who’s Harry Potter, and what’s all this about a cursed child?

Yeah, very funny. Harry Potter is, of course, the most famous boy wizard in literature, and probably now eclipses Gandalf too as the most bankable wizard of them all. JK Rowling’s seven-book cycle ranks as the best-selling book series of all time (more than 450m copies worldwide) and its last four books broke records for fastest-sales too.

The celluloid spin-offs form the second highest grossing film series, raking in $7.7bn. Just when it looked as though Pottermania was subsiding after the final installment of Deathly Hallows (in 2011), last June it was suddenly announced that Rowling was going to add to the franchise in a theatrical way. Harry Potter and The Cursed Child will form the "eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage". In other words, the saga continues…

When will all be revealed, and what do we know about the show so far?

The official opening is on July 30 at the Hogwartsian Palace Theatre, a magnificent gothic pile (built in 1891) bang in the heart of the West End. Expect a red carpet affair to out-dazzle even Leicester Square movie premieres – especially as the theatre was bedecked with Cursed Child paraphernalia three months before the show's official opening: