IF you’d gone down to the woods on Saturday, you’d have been sure of a big surprise – in the shape of an international film star sitting in a tree.

Brideshead Revisited, Die Hard, Lolita and The Mission star Jeremy Irons treated fans to storytelling while perched in a tree near his home in Watlington.

The fun was part of the town’s postponed Oxfordshire Artweeks celebrations and saw the town transformed into an open air gallery for the day.

The Outdoor Hidden Art Trail celebrated the community’s support during the pandemic and explored how local artists responded to lockdown with pieces installed around the town.

An exhibit called Back to Our Roots saw more than 40 local artists producing miniatures of the work and setting them in a secret location in a large beech tree.

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The work was than videoed, incorporating a fairy tale called the Little Girl with No Voice read by the the Oscar-winning actor. An accompanying piece of poetry was also recited by his wife Sinead Cusack.

Mr Irons said: “What a wonderful unravelling surprise to experience the exhibition nestled in the woods on the outskirts of Watlington. The unexpectedness of it all was truly uplifting.”