Andy Serkis is reading J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit, for 12 hours online for charity.

You can hear the actor that plays Gollum, read this novel for 12 hours continuously, without any breaks to raise money for NHS Charities Together and Best Beginnings.

“I want to invite you to come with me on an adventure. So many of us are struggling in isolation during the lockdown. While times are tough, I want to take you on one of the greatest fantasy adventures ever written, a 12-hour armchair marathon across Middle-earth, while raising money for two amazing charities which are doing extraordinary work right now to help those most in need.”

The reading started today at 5:00 a.m. ET, so at 3:00 a.m. in Edmonton. In the first hour of the reading, there were already 15,000 people watching. Everything is recorded live, and the only time he will interrupt the reading is for quick bathroom breaks. It’ll be interesting to see how he goes about doing voices because he stated: “I’m not going to be doing impersonations of the great voices like Ian McKellen’s and Martin Freeman’s in our film but I will probably nod to them in some way”.

Watch it all here:

For any other information about the charities or the reading, click HERE.