Footage shows the moment they decided to cast Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter

Before he became the Boy Who Lived and one of the world's highest-paid actors, Daniel Radcliffe was just an 11-year-old kid with a flair for the dramatics who was dipping his toe in the TV pond.

Incredibly, it was his debut role in BBC One's adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield which helped him muscle his way into the wizarding world and earn his spot as Harry Potter.

Fans of the legendary film franchise have unearthed old footage of the youngster's first ever screen test, which is where director Chris Columbus realised he could stop his desperate search for the perfect kid to bring his vision to life.

The baby-faced actor managed to impress the crew and Columbus with his enthusiasm while reenacting a scene about a dragon egg as well as a heart-wrenching conversation about his dead parents.

Although the contents of the screen test might have been a mix of both magical weirdness as well as doom and gloom, Radcliffe seamlessly switched between each mood and expertly recited his lines.

Recalling the big day, he said previously: "I remember I auditioned and it was a whole scene about a dragon egg in the first film. Chris Columbus broke the real egg and made me laugh."

Radcliffe might have been responsible for the filmmaker's butter fingers though - as Columbus was well and truly captivated by the lad's acting abilities, so it's no wonder the dragon egg suffered.

Warner Bros.

The 65-year-old said: "Dan's screen test was amazingly charming and soulful. He was inexperienced as an actor, but there was one thing that Dan had that you couldn't teach anyone, which was this sort of haunted quality.

"I just saw it in his eyes in more serious moments. That was the moment I think that we all felt when we saw that screen test to hire Dan as Harry Potter."

He had quite a battle on his hands before Radcliffe walked through the door, as he had been unable to find anyone perfect for the part - until he sat down in a hotel room and stuck on the BBC's David Copperfield back in 2000.

Warner Bros.

After watching the youngster's role as the title character, Columbus quickly came to one conclusion: " This is Harry Potter. "This is the kid we've been looking for for months."

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Radcliffe has also revealed his hilarious reaction to the moment his life changed forever when he got the call that he would become the kid with a lightning scar on his head.

He explained: "Dad comes in and says, 'I've just spoken to David Heyman, you've got the part'. And I cried. And I was in the bath."

The actor fondly recalls it as the 'best moment of his life' - and let's be honest, being in a nice hot bubble bath while receiving that news is just the icing on the cake.