The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival opened last night with Hollywood’s most glamorous man on the red carpet.

But for all George Clooney’s charisma and the plaudits heaped on his performance the real glory was being directed towards a team of unsung craftsmen working in a little known studio in East London.

Bill Murray, who plays a badger in Wes Anderson’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic story, said yesterday that the stop motion animated film could not have been made anywhere else in the world but London and paid tribute to Three Mills studios, the less well known younger sibling of illustrious British film factories like Pinewood, Ealing and Elstree.

The film was designed and filmed at Three Mills in Bow over two years, using traditional animation techniques that required every model or puppet to be posed 12 times for each second of footage. Around 420 of the 535 puppets used were also made on site.

Mr Murray admired the work of the puppeteers, set builders and designers there so much that to their universal astonishment he joined them on a long night out after work in June.

The actor, who has starred in a string of hit comedies including Ghostbusters, Lost in Translation and Groundhog Day, stayed at the Palm Tree, one of the East End’s finest traditional boozers, into the early hours of the morning drinking rum and cokes, making sure he talked to as many people as possible and enjoying the evergreen inhouse jazz band.

On Monday night he invited the whole crew back there, accompanied by Anderson and Jason Schwartzman, one of the stars of the film.

Mr Murray told the world’s film press yesterday that: “This film could not have been made anywhere in the world but in London. To me one of the most exciting days I have ever had in the film business was the day I spent with the artisans and artists at Three Mills.

“There was more talent in one little factory than I have ever been closeted with. They do things here in the sets and design and building of the models that America doesn’t dream about. We can put a man on the moon but we could not have made this movie. That to me is a celebration of all the people that worked on this film.”

Then he added: “They are fun after work too. I want to make a special point of saying that.”

Andy Gent, head of puppets at Three Mills said that Mr Murray had come to the Palm Tree the first time “because it’s my local.”

“There were a lot of double takes. You are in an East End pub and then an incredibly famous Hollywood actor walks in. But the people in there don’t make a fuss and I don’t think there was any change at all in the staff - they all took it in their stride.

When he came back again on Monday he rounded everybody up and invited us back there”. Mr Murray was wearing “The Fantastic Puppet Hospital” apron that all the puppet makers had signed for him on his first visit, he said.

Val Barrrett, the landlady of the Palm Tree for the last 32 years, said that Mr Murray had tipped the barmaids generously and clearly “enjoyed his night.”

“He’s a very pleasant man and he mixed very well”, she said. “He said he liked the pub but we’ve had lots of (famous) people in. We used to be John Hannah’s local until he moved to Richmond, Lionel Bart used to come in before he died and what’s his name who did Bully… Jim Bowen (presenter of Bullseye) used to come in on a Sunday. He’s a good jazz trumpet player.”

London is used to A-list American stars flying over for the film festival and paying lip service to how important the festival is. But at a time when Greg Dyke, the chairman of the BFI and Sandra Hebron, the artistic director of the festival, are trying to raise its profile internationally Murray’s ringing endorsement of Britain as a film-making destination is particularly welcome.

Amanda Nevill, the director of the BFI, said “the whole point of the festival, as well as getting people to see fantastic films is to drive the profile of London as a place to make films all year round.”

Fantastic Mr Fox is the latest Roald Dahl book to be adapted for the big screen following Tim Burton’s Charlie and The Chocolate Factory four years ago. Several others, including The Twits and The Witches are in various stages of development.

Anderson first approached Roald Dahl’s widow Felicity about a decade ago for permission to film “the first book I ever personally owned.” He and his friend Noah Baumbach stayed with Felicity in Gispy House, the home she shared with Dahl, while they wrote the screenplay and Dahl’s writing hut is meticulously recreated in the film as Mr Fox’s study.

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