After Life creator Ricky Gervais has said that he had no problem approaching veteran actress Annette Crosbie over a part in the show.

The 86-year-old - best known as Victor Meldrew's long-suffering wife in One Foot In The Grave - had a small role in episode one of season two, playing a woman in a nursing home who has just turned 100.

"It's fucking awful. It hurts just to be alive," her character tells Gervais's Tony. "I've seen fuck all. I may as well have been a tree."

Speaking about her fellow nursing home patients, she went on: "They're not friends. They're c**ts. All of them. I hate every single one of them. And when I outlive one of them, they bring a new c**t in to take their place. C**ts!"

Asked by a fan on Twitter if he felt awkward asking Crosbie to say the lines, Gervais replied: "Haha. No not at all. You send people the script and they tell you whether they want to do it or not."

Following the success of After Life season two, Gervais has recently admitted that he is considering plans for a third.