Harry Potter's Dudley Dursley – AKA Harry Melling – Shows Off Stage Puppet

Harry Melling has come some way since playing Harry Potter’s sturdy, spoiled cousin Dudley Dursley.

Now 26, he’s become an accomplished stage actor, and yesterday appeared on ITV’s ‘Lorraine’ talking about his new play.

He’s starring in the black comedy 'Hand To God’ – described as 'Sesame Street meets The Exorcist’ at the Vaudeville Theatre in London’s West End, playing US teenager Jason, who joins a puppet club in a Lutheran church in Texas.

However, the story takes a troubling turn when Jason’s sock puppet Tyrone starts to take on a life of its own, becoming a foul-mouthed interpretation of Satan.

Melling appears in the show alongside 'Waterloo Road’ and 'Between The Lines’ star Neil Pearson.

And so far, he’s received some serious plaudits, The Independent calling his performance 'superb’, while the Evening Standard called him 'one of the most interesting actors of his generation’.

Melling is the from the Troughton acting dynasty on his mother’s side, so the grandson of former 'Doctor Who’ star Patrick Troughton and nephew to Shakespearean actor David and 'New Statesman’ star Michael Troughton.

Post-Potter (he was in five of the movies in all) he’s appeared in numerous stage productions, including 'King Lear’ and Pinter’s 'The Hothouse’, and also playing in Brecht’s 'Mother Courage and Her Children’ at The National Theatre.

He memorably lost a huge amount of weight between making 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’ and 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One’, meaning that he had to wear a fat suit to resume the role.

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Image credit: Rex Features/Warner Bros