EXCLUSIVE: Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan’s food travelog series Billy and Dom Eat the World gave the pair a chance to renew their Lord of the Rings fellowship with Ian McKellen.
In the first episode of their six-part series from Dash Pictures and new distributor Abacus Media Rights, Boyd and Monaghan, who played Pippin and Merry in Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy, visit Gandalf — sorry, McKellen — at his east London pub The Grapes on the bank of the River Thames.
“It happened we were looking at London pub culture and it just so happens Ian McKellen has a pub,” Boyd told Deadline in an exclusive interview. “He told us why he ended up in that part of London, and what pubs mean to Britain.”
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Monaghan recalled how he, Boyd, McKellen — who has recently returned to work after his fall during a West End performance — and many other Lord of the Rings cast and crew members would go for dinners each week while filming the features in New Zealand, “sharing plates and ideas about food.”
That concept partially inspired him and Boyd to create Billy and Dom Eat the World, in which the real-life best friends travel the globe on a string of adventures discovering food cultures and quirky secrets about six specific and very different locations. Each episode will show how food and drink can give real insight into places such as Texas and the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. Watch an exclusive trailer above.
Boyd and Monaghan previously hosted a Lord of the Rings-inspired podcast, The Friendship Onion, in which an ‘Eat the World’ segment became popular. They later met producer Daniel Sharp on the recommendation of Harry Potter twins James and Oliver Phelps, who worked with the Dash Pictures boss on their travel series Fantastic Friends.
“The podcast folded, but Billy and I had said right from the start that is we could find something in the podcast that we could build out into a show, we would,” said Monaghan.
“One of our favourite ways to get to know a city is to check out a local restaurant,” said Monaghan. “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.” A recent Instagram pic of the group at the Liverpool Comic Con confirms just that.
“If you ask someone to bring you something from their childhood or their country, it opens a door to conversation,” added Boyd. “We felt food is a great in to finding out about people and communities. Dan loved the idea and very quickly we started making it.”
Sharp, Martin Blencowe, Boyd and Dominic Monaghan are exec producers. The series is in post-production and will be launched at MIPCOM in October, having first been announced back in 2021. Unusual for TV, it does not have a commissioning broadcaster and funding will be recouped mainly through sales. We can reveal Abacus recently picked up the rights and has also boarded sales for both seasons of Fantastic Friends, in which the Phelps brothers go on travels with famous friends and celebrities.
Boyd and Monaghan are now hoping the series goes to multiple seasons. “Because Dom and I know each other so well, it becomes an easy thing to do,” said Boyd. “We’re not always looking for the easiest travel route, and we will spend six hours on a bus to make sure we get the story we want to tell. That makes it authentic.”
Monaghan added that Sharp’s Dash Pictures has relationships in many countries the pair would like to experience, so ideas for new seasons already in discussion.
The Lost actor is currently attached to psychological period drama Long Shadows, which Concourse Media was selling in Cannes, and we revealed last year that he was cast opposite Jacqueline Bisset and Dermot Mulroney in Last Dollar, an 1880s-set Western inspired by European cinema. Boyd’s credits include home invasion pic An Intrusion and in 2022 he reprised his role from the original Chucky movie in the NBCUniversal series adapted from the film.
Monaghan is repped by Buchwald and Yorn Levine Barnes Krintzman Rubenstein Kohner Endlich & Gellman. Boyd is represented by SMS Talent Inc and attorney Matt Saver.