Three years ago, before the phone call from his agent telling him to pack his bags for a long trip to New Zealand, Berlin-born actor, best known for his role as Geoffrey Shawcross in the BBC drama Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. Now he's an internationally recognisable face, with three guaranteed block buster movies to his credit, and is working on directing and producing his own film with Billy Boyd, one of his hobbit co-stars in LOTR.

As such, his role as Merry Brandybuck couldn't have been more appropriate. More than any other character in the trilogy, Merry's quest to destroy the One Ring takes him on a personal journey that leaves him completely transformed. When we first meet Merry, he's a likeable, light-hearted rogue, causing mayhem with fireworks stolen from Gandalf the Wizard and always on the lookout for mischief and fun. But by the end of the third film, Merry will have become the more serious and war-hardened of the hobbits, choosing to serve as a knight to a king - having changed enough physically to make that possible.

Monaghan admits the changes Merry undergoes made his role especially challenging. "It's really interesting as an actor to play a character who is only his element for the first 20 minutes of the movie," he says in a soft Mancunian accent.

"In the beginning, Merry and Pippin use humour as a way of making friends with people," he explains. "But then they start to move in circles where they have to fight instead. At the start of the film, Merry is very sure of himself. He sees himself as a young boy becoming a man and embracing his destiny. But as soon as he leaves his home, he realises the world is nothing like he thought it would be.

"He's in the prime of his life and to be thrown suddenly into such a conflict is terrifying," continues Monaghan. "I think it symbolises what people go through in a time of war. So many young men think it's going to be the making of them but a lot of the time it ends up destroying them."

Monaghan was thrilled to be offered the part of Merry and have the chance to work with Peter Jackson, whom he famously (and quite accurately) described as understanding hobbits better than anyone "because Peter Jackson is a hobbit."

"There were so many reasons I wanted to do the films," he says. "The book itself, for one. For the first time, someone was going to attempt to film the trilogy. It was such a long-awaited project and I knew it was going to be big, on a worldwide scale.

"Also my dad is a really big fan of the books. He gave them to me to read when I was about 15. I had also seen the cartoon as a kid. My dad's been saying to me since I started acting that someone should make a film of it, so it was great to have the chance to be involved in it when someone did!"

Considering the legendary status of Tolkien's Rings trilogy, Monaghan admits he had a certain degree of nervousness about the reception the films would receive, fears that will surely have been put to rest by now following the commercial and critical popularity of the first instalment, The Fellowship of the Rings.

"In England, the interest was particularly avid. People hold the book in such high regard. But I was always aware of the limitations of film. If you're reading a book, that's infinately more imaginative than watching a film. Lord of the Rings is Peter's Jackson's version of the book, not yours or mine."

It's a version, he claims, that should have received far more recognition than it did. "Did I think Peter was robbed at the Oscars? I sure did!" he exclaims. "I think it would have been a tremendous feat to make just one movie but to make three was absolutely incredible. The sheer expanse of the movie he made was just mind-blowing.

"But, you know, the Oscars are all about politics and keeping people sweet," he sighs. "I think if you were to ask the public what they thought, it would have come out differently."

When asked how he's found being part of the biggest, most talked about film of the year, he struggles for words. "Um, I don't know! I don't really have any perspective on how big it's been. When you're at the centre of something big, you're kind of protected from it," he muses. "It was actually only when people started saying to me. 'I can't believe you're a toy', that I started to get some idea. But I shy away from that kind of thinking. I'm only a very small cog in a very big wheel."

Having his likeness cast in plastic was no doubt the last thing on his mind when Monaghan first discovered a passion for acting during his high school years in Manchester.

"Becoming an actor was a very unconscious decision for me," he recalls. "I really loved films when I was a kid. On Friday nights, my dad used to pick up a couple of videos from the video shop for my brothers and me to watch. I'd get up at 6am on Saturday and watch the movies and then at 10am my brother would get up and I'd watch them again with him. I was fascinated by them.

"Then when I was at school, acting was one of the few things that I was really good at, where I could fend off everyone. I just used to cruise through my subjects but acting was something that was really natural for me."

His first inspiration for acting was Han Solo in Star Wars, he says. Now in one of those strange turns life takes, Monaghan finds himself starring in a flim in direct competition wit the new Star Wars trilogy, the last film of which is expected to be released in May 2003, sandwiched between the release dates for the next two LOTR films.

"It is a bit freaky to think about that!" he laughs. He pauses for a moment. "It's funny how things sometimes mirror life like that."

Despite having endured more than a year's worth of pre-6am wakeup calls to be slathered in chilly glue to attatch his hobbit ears and feet, he says he would do LOTR all over again in an instant. Not least in his decision would be the camaraderie that built up among the nine members of the Fellowship, which continues to this day.

In particular, Monaghan has remained close friends with Billy Boyd, who played hobbit Pippin. After spending time surfing in Florida after LOTR finished shooting, Monaghan and Boyd moved to Los Angeles in February this year and are writing a film script together. If Monaghan's eloquence when speaking is anything to go by, it won't be half bad. "It's kind of a vehicle for ourselves!" laughs Monaghan. "It's about two young boys who are trying to make their fortune in America and they end up setting up a diving school in Miami."

Diving, along with surfing, bungee jumping, horse riding and sword fighting, was one of the skills he acquired during the LOTR shoot in New Zealand and one that he was keen to try out again while back for re-shoots.

"I've enjoyed being back very, very much," he enthuses. "It's been fun but we haven't had enough time this time. I didn't manage to get any diving done but I've had a couple of surfs and I've seen some old friends, so I'm pretty happy overall!"

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