An expected party: ‘Lord of the Rings” Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan reunite with Ian McKellen in new food show
Written by ABC AUDIO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on July 12, 2024
Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan had a chance to reunite with their fellow Lord of the Rings fellowship member Ian McKellen thanks to their new food travelogue series, Billy and Dom Eat the World.
A filmed spin-off of a segment of their now-defunct Friendship Onion podcast, the show has Boyd and Monaghan spanning the world for good eats — and Deadline reports the first episode landed them at the door to a London pub called The Grapes.
The establishment is owned by McKellen, who of course played Gandalf to Boyd and Monaghan’s respective Hobbits Pippin and Merry in Peter Jackson‘s epic Tolkien trilogy.
“It happened we were looking at London pub culture and it just so happens Ian McKellen has a pub,” Boyd told the trade. “He told us why he ended up in that part of London, and what pubs mean to Britain.”
Boyd offered, “We felt food is a great in to finding out about people and communities. [Producer Daniel Sharp] loved the idea and very quickly we started making it.”
Monaghan noted, “One of our favorite ways to get to know a city is to check out a local restaurant. Myself, Billy, Elijah Wood and Sean Astin go to conventions very often, and one of the things we do over these weekends is pick a restaurant, and go and eat.”
It is yet to be known which platform will carry the six-episode show, which spans from Texas to the Thames and, according to a preview, has the longtime friends working in a high-end kitchen, toiling in a food truck, making beer and eating all over the world.
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