Dara O'Briain has revealed how he spent time with J.R.R. Tolkien fanatics for a new ITV1 show.

The Irish comedian was sent to the forest to entertain Orcs and Goblins for Tough Gig, a programme which forces stand-ups to perform in front of unusual audiences.

"It's a series that ITV are showing where they take comedians into unusual communities and then at the end of spending three or four days with them you have to do a stand up show in front of them and tell them jokes about themselves, which makes it kind of weird," Dara told Parkinson.

"I ended up in a Scout camp in Kent with people who dress up as Orcs and Goblins and pretend to fight wars against other Orcs and Goblins. And they're lovely people, yeah they were carrying foam axes at the time but they are lovely people. They're called Larpers, live action role players and essentially they live out any Tolkien fantasies they have. And they are sweethearts."

Parkinson airs at 10.25pm tonight on ITV1.