Alison Steadman on 'torturous' Gavin & Stacey scene that left Larry Lamb swearing at her

has recalled the hilarious moment 'patient' Larry Lamb shouted at his onscreen wife to "say the f***ing line" while filming .

Following the sad news that the cast have , Alison's has recalled a memory from her time on set with the her castmates. But when Alison got the giggles, she couldn't stop, and she wrote about how it played out in her new book, Out of Character.

When character Pamela was sitting with Dawn, talking about a film she was going to watch, Alison just couldn't get her words out, with comedian and castmate Julia Davis making the whole situation worse.

Alison recalled: "Julia, Adrian and I are sitting around the table in the kitchen, I'm directly opposite Julia and Larry is standing just to the left of me.

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"Dawn asks Pamela what she has planned and my bit was to tell her about some films that we were going to watch, including one called Doubt, which Dawn doesn’t remember, and Pam says something like 'You know the one. Meryl Street plays a nun and it's got that big strawberry blond fella from Patch Adams in it.'

"Well I just couldn’t get the words out. It was impossible. And so, taking a deep breath in, I went again, “Meryl Streep plays a...“ and then I was gone."

Alison remembered how Julia Davis - who played Dawn Sutcliffe in the much loved sitcom - was holding a wine glass to her lips, but Alison could still see her trying not to smile.

She continued: "She’s one of those people who can keep a poker face, but their laughter is all in the twinkle of their eyes, and she had the worst twinkle in her eye at this point. I tried again - 'Meryl Streep'. Gone. By this time Adrian had caught the bug too. It’s like a disease. Julia managed to keep it together, just about. She was laughing hysterically inside but kept her composure on the outside and every time I looked up, there it was, that twinkle, and I was a goner whenever we made eye contact - which we had to."

Alison said it was "torture" to try to keep her involuntary giggling in, but there was no controlling it.

When director Christine Gernon decided it was time for a break, she broke the whole set, to give her time to 'sort it out'. Alison added: "Larry, who is the epitome of patience, even ended up saying to me 'For god’s sake Alison, just say the f***ing line will you!'."

But there was no bad blood between the cast, who grew incredibly close over the years, partly down to drinking sessions she planned for them in the hotel bar, which was dubbed 'Ali's Parlour'. She writes: "I found myself going into full event organiser mode at the end of each day in an attempt to bring us all together. And the bar very quickly was christened Ali's Parlour by the producer, Lindsay Hughes.

"Very soon, there would be no need to herd the troops, as people could be heard saying 'Ali's parlour' to each other, which became our recognised shorthand for an end of the day drink and get together.

"It was such a happy cast. Through the brilliance of the writing, everyone had their moment, and we could believe in all the characters leading full lives. Being able to have such confidence in the writing is so liberating as it allows you to be playful with your part within the scripts, with no need for improvisation at all."

* Out Of Character by Alison Steadman is out now, published by HarperCollins.

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