Larry Lamb has admitted that filming 'EastEnders ' was a "piece of cake" when compared to 'Gavin and Stacey.'

Larry Lamb

Larry Lamb

The veteran actor - who starred as Mick Shipman in the hit sitcom alongside James Corden and Ruth Jones and also spent over two years on Albert Square as Archie Mitchell - claimed scenes of the comedy required up to 60 takes.

Speaking on the 'What If' podcast, he said: ""I mean doing 'EastEnders' is just a piece of cake compared with the comedy.

"We used to have more laughs because most of the time people are threatening murder, but are having hysterics in the corner."

The 74-year-old star claimed BBC soap - which airs multiple episodes a week - was far easier to film than the sitcom.

He added: "I'm sure there were things that were really funny in there but what you remember is the relentless, relentless work of doing comedy on screen.

"With 'EastEnders' a lot of the time you've got one or two goes at a scene and you'll have it.

"With 'Gavin & Stacey' you'll do six, seven, eight, nine goes at doing a scene. And then you'll have to do it from every person's point of view."

And Larry claimed the beloved Indian takeaway scene in 'Gavin & Stacey' was a difficult one to shoot as it took a "relentless" 12 hours to get everything filmed.

He explained: "So like if there are 10 of you in the room by the time you’ve had like four or five goes at every person's point of view you would have spent 12 hours working on one of those famous scenes like when everyone's ordering Indian food.

"That [scene] went on to the point where I think everyone ran out of that room screaming."