They were joined by co-stars including Orlando Bloom, Elijah Wood, Sean Bean, Karl Urban and Viggo Mortensen, as well as director Peter Jackson, for the latest instalment of Josh Gad's YouTube show Reunited Apart.

He has previously reunited the casts of The Goonies, Back To The Future and Splash to raise money for charity No Kid Hungry.

Sir Ian revisited his role as Gandalf, while Serkis slipped back into the voice of Gollum, as the cast members performed some of their favourite scenes from the trilogy and shared memories.

Sir Ian said: "There was nothing better in my life than coming to New Zealand and seeing that beautiful country. It's been an absolute blessing."

Jackson added: "We were all on the same side, which was incredible. It had all the trappings of a Hollywood film but we shot it as a Kiwi home movie."

The cast also paid tribute to dialect coach Andrew Jack, who taught them Elvish for the film, who recently died after contracting coronavirus.

They also showed off their matching tattoos, after a group of them got the world nine tattooed in Elvish script, referring to the nine actors who played the Fellowship.

The cast all got the same design inked on different parts of their body, and Sir Ian pulled back his shirt to show off his tattoo on the back of his shoulder.

The reunion also featured a message from Sir Ian Holm, who could not join the reunion, but said: "I am sorry to not see you in person, I miss you all and hope your adventures have taken you to many places, I am in lockdown in my hobbit home, or holm."

The reunion also featured a quiz hosted by surprise guest and filmmaker Taika Waititi and Jackson concluded by saying: "Now it's up to everybody to decide what the world after this pandemic is going to be like so everyone has got to really lift their game and turn the world into a good place.

"It's a reset moment and it's up to all of us to make sure that what comes out of it is something better."

Australian Associated Press