War of the Rohirrim's Brian Cox "envious" not to be in Lord of the Rings trilogy

And speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, he revealed that although he's by no means a Tolkein scholar, the chance to star in the new film made up for not getting to appear in the earlier epics.

"You know, I did this [Lord of the Rings] audio book a few years ago," he explained during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com. "And I think it was through the New Zealand guys... and I thought, 'Oh, maybe this is an oversight for not casting me in any of those movies!'"

He added: "But, you know, it just never came about. You know, Sean Bean, the late wonderful Bernard [Hill], I just thought that was a great bunch of actors who did that. And I was always envious.

"And of course, seeing Ian Holm pop up in the end, I just always thought was... and, of course, Christopher Lee, not to mention, of course, my dear old friend Ian McKellen…"

Despite that ambition to appear in the films, Cox explained that he had "real ignorance" about the War of the Rohirrim before signing on to voice the role of Helm.

"I didn't know about it, I didn't know what it was," he explained. "I just thought it was some kind of, you know, some spin-off thing.... of course, I knew it was animated, but I thought it was just a very small scale.

"I was a million miles away from knowing what this was, this wonderful film."

Clearly, he's delighted with the end product – and he described the experience of making the film as "extraordinary".

"It really is [wonderful]. I mean, I'm not bulsh**ting," he added. "I just think what they've done is... I'm in awe of [it], and as I said before, we're a very small cog in a huge and magnificent wheel, you know.

"We do our job, and we love doing our job, and they pay us, you know, which is good. Well, that's always good! But that's it, it's the joy of the work, you know.

"And then you realise that it's so much more than what you are. You are part of the sum of the whole, but you're only part of it."

The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim is now showing in UK cinemas.

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