Nicola Walker thought her canine co-star passed away on 'Alice and Steve' sets after spotting realistic prop at the location

Nicola Walker, best known for her role in 'Unforgotten', has made a surprising admission about her experience filming her new series 'Alice and Steve'. The 56-year-old actress revealed that during the shoot she genuinely believed her canine co-star had passed away after spotting what she thought was the dog laid out on a table.In an interview with the Mirror, Walker explained that the culprit was an elaborate prop rather than the real thing, but the moment left her understandably shaken.Walker explained that the scene in question required her dog character Crosby, played by real-life dog Mabel, to appear lifeless. Since Mabel was unable to play dead on cue, the production team created a highly realistic rubber prop. "There's a scene where obviously something awful we think has happened to Crosby, and you can't make a dog pretend to be dead," Walker said. "So they made this prop dog. And the prop dog, I walked through set one day and I thought that Mabel was dead on a table. But they'd made this amazing, which as you got closer, you realised it was a rubberised dead dog."She added with a laugh, "Really peculiar and it's one of those days where you think, 'This job is really odd.'"Clement, 52, who worked closely with Mabel throughout the production, shared his own memorable anecdote about the dog. After a month of training, Mabel had apparently learned to sneeze on command in order to receive a reward, with Clement often bearing the brunt of it. "Sometimes I'd have her on my chest and she would sneeze on my face. So, it wasn't pleasant for me. But she was very popular amongst the rest of the cast," he said. The 'Flight of the Conchords' star added, "For the rest of the cast, it was really funny when she sneezed on my face."He also revealed an unexpected challenge on set. "I had to carry Mabel the dog who plays Crosby and I had to carry Nicola. It's easier to carry Nicola, more co-operative," he joked.'Alice and Steve' is being billed as an anti-romantic-comedy and comes from writer Sophie Goodhart, who also wrote 'Sex Education' and 'Rivals'. The show delves into what happens when a woman discovers her best friend is dating her daughter. Walker stars as aggrieved mother Alice, who is left heartbroken to find that her 26-year-old daughter Izzy, played by Yali Topol-Margalith, is in a relationship with her 50-something best friend Steve, played by Clement. As Alice tries to separate the two, all hell breaks loose after Steve fights back and things escalate further than either of them could have imagined.'Alice and Steve' is available to stream now on Disney+.