Matt Lucas has revealed that he almost died laughing filming Vic & Bob's 2004 sitcom Catterick.

The Little Britain and Fantasy Football League star was resting between takes on the BBC Three sitcom, when one of his co-stars caught him off-guard.

Lucas told the Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer fan podcast Quite A Boast! that "we were in this garden centre and Mark Benton said: 'Did you hear Samantha Janus has changed her name by deed poll?'

"And I went, 'oh no, I didn't know.'

"'She's now called Samantha J'Arsehole!'"

Lucas was drinking water at the time and rather than spit take, he "couldn't co-ordinate" he told the podcast's hosts, Matt Price and Paula Wiseman.

The comic, whose big television break was playing George Dawes on Reeves & Mortimer's anarchic BBC Two panel show Shooting Stars, recalled: "I started drowning on the water.

"And I was on the floor and losing consciousness through laughing. And I thought: 'oh my God, I'm going to actually die laughing!'

"It must have been very disturbing for everybody. It certainly was for me. And it really was one of the scariest moments of my life. It was also one of the funniest moments of my life. I really, really, really was a split-second away from losing consciousness."

Sympathy only extends so far on a sitcom shoot however.

"Here's the thing," Lucas said. "When you're on a set, everyone's like, 'you alright?'

"You alright?'

"'Ok! Turning over!'

"I remember having to act, still gasping for breath in a garden centre."