Fulham Palace Gardens was transformed into The Shire from Lord of the Rings to celebrate The Hobbit's 75th anniversary.

To the delight of those attending, young and old, Andy Serkis, who plays Gollum in The Lords of the Rings trilogy and in upcoming movie The Hobbit, was at the event reading from the book in the voice of his character.

Speaking about taking up the role of Gollum again, he says, "Part of the difficulty of doing the Hobbit 12 years later was kind of reclaiming him."

He added, "I have heard that many impersonations and people ask me to do that many telephone messages for them...so the first days of doing the character again I really had to...it all sounded right it's just really connecting with him again."

The Hobbit will be released in the UK in time for Christmas.