NORTH Yorkshire will rival Hollywood yet. The county's magnificent countryside has been lined up for another starring role, this time in the eagerly awaited first Harry Potter film.

Leading movie studio Warner Brothers is planning to shoot scenes on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. Young Harry Potter will arrive at Goathland Station on the Hogwarts Express, ready to enrol at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Our younger readers will get the picture.

Even those who have not read a word of the Potter series will realise that this is a major coup. The boost to the region's profile and economy is incalculable.

Forget about the Hogwarts Express: young Master Potter will be riding the gravy train into town. These children's books are nothing less than a phenomenon. We only have to look at author JK Rowling's earnings - £25 million last year alone - or recall the excitement that surrounded her visit to the National Railway Museum this summer.

Once transferred to celluloid, Pottermania will get bigger. The movie promises to be a worldwide hit. That should generate huge interest in the locations where it was shot, boosting visitor numbers to North Yorkshire.

If any place can cope with life in the spotlight, it is Goathland. The village has grown used to the advantages and drawbacks of public exposure, having hosted the popular ITV series Heartbeat for many years.

In fact, much of North Yorkshire now has some expertise in reaping the rewards of being a media spin-off. Location managers are keen to capitalise on county's moorland, coast, dales and historic capital city.

Castle Howard is still known to millions as Brideshead, after the award-winning television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's book. Vet Alf Wight's bestsellers and the TV series based on them transformed Thirsk into Herriot country.

As for the big screen, movies such as Kes, This Sporting Life, Captain Jack, Little Voice and Elizabeth have been filmed here. Harry Potter should feel quite at home.