“On this most auspicious of dates, I say unto you, my brethren, ‘May the 4th be with you’.”

The gala launch date is one of many in-jokes in this lavish Star Wars exhibition that will raise a smile with the faithful. And if the worship of Star Wars can achieve a near-religious devotion – officially it is the fourth largest religion in England and Wales, after 390,000 people recorded their faith as “Jedi” in the 2001 Census – then this touring exhibition, which comes to London from Portugal, is like the travelling relic shows of the Middle Ages.

Then, there were enough so-called fragments of the True Cross to build Noah an ark. Now, the infinite variations on Star Wars memorabilia could fill several County Halls. Google the phrase, and 1.5 million results come up. Even the C3PO and R2D2 robots on show here are just two of several used in shooting. More than 200 life-size pieces and 70 sketches are on display, all the more remarkable because usually, when films finish shooting, the costumes and props are destroyed.

Background

• It was 30 years ago today...

• Their future in the stars

• That Frodo Skywalker ...somehow it rings a bell

• George Lucas and Luke Skywalker reunited

• Geeks baring rifts - Star Wars on the web

Background

• Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith

• 1977: The original Times review

• 1977: Alec Guinness talks about Star Wars

They’ve Star Wars in their eyes

We meet the hardcore Star Wars fans heading for London

Star Wars: The Exhibition

Behold Darth Vader in his glass case. So impressive are the costumes, which are fully finished, they are catwalk-perfect

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It is a pleasure to see them at County Hall, where the Saatchi collection was until recently displayed. Behold Darth Vader in his glass case, not a million miles from Gavin Turk’s life-size model of himself in a glass case dressed as Sid Vicious. Hello Han Solo, screaming and frozen into a vast slab of carbonite, a worthy successor to Damien Hirst’s Mother and Child, Divided.

Equally impressive are the costumes, which are fully finished, catwalk-perfect, right down to the loops on the boots and the inner garments no one would see. Or at least, that’s true of the second trilogy. The celebrated Princess Leia slave bikini (further glorified when worn by Jennifer Aniston in Friends), looks as if it was knocked up in half an hour for a Hallowe’en party.

And suddenly, as you admire the delicate embroidery on Queen Amidala’s exquisite dresses, it hits you that this is where George Lucas’s saga went so wrong. While the first trilogy was a western set in space, its props and costumes thrown together with anarchic abandon and its dilapidated spaceships flying on a wing and a prayer, the second trilogy is a period drama, its actors cosseted and corseted into immobility, scared to change a single clunking line of dialogue, in thrall to the “heritage” of Lucas’s epic creation.

Orson Welles once said that film-making was like “the greatest train set a boy ever had”. For Lucas it evidently became more like a doll’s house. The unwitting fascination of this exhibition is that it charts how.

Throw in a full-sized Naboo Starfighter and a pod-racer, video monitors in every room showing relevant scenes, an interactive green screen simulation that puts you into the movie, and a light-sabre training session with “Jedi masters” and you have an exhibition that, for the faithful at least, very nearly justifies the exorbitant admission (£16.50 adults, £12.50 children).

Star Wars: The Exhibition opens tomorrow: www.starwarstheexhibition.com

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