Sharon Horgan has said that the late Carrie Fisher's role in the new season of sit-com Catastrophe, which returns tonight, will be "bigger, chunkier" than in the previous two series.
The comedy show wrapped filming on the third season just days before the Star Wars actress had a heart attack on a flight home to Los Angeles from London.
Fisher died four days later on December 27, with her mother Debbie Reynolds passing away the next day.
The renowned actress had a memorable guest role in Catastrophe as the mother of Rob (Rob Delaney), the American man who has to face unplanned parenthood with Irish woman Sharon (Horgan) after just one week of hooking up - forcing them to press fast forward on their relationship.
Fans however will have to wait to wait for the sixth and final episode of the new series to see Fisher make an appearance.
Speaking at a press conference in London for the show Horgan said: "The first series and even the second series we didn't have her for very long: she flew in and did her bit over a day or two and, of course, we wanted to get to know her better.
We idolised her but just didn't really have a chance to, and then in series three we wrote this bigger, chunkier part for her in episode six and got to spend time with her.
"She was part of the gang and we really feel very privileged and honoured.
"She was funny all the time and incredibly witty company and loved saying a**holey things to everyone but also was just a kind, lovely, supportive person", she added.
Horgan's Catastrophe co-star and co-creator, American comedian and actor Rob Delaney, said that they first approached Fisher to play the role through Twitter.
"We wrote the pilot and then later went to the Attitude Magazine Awards where Graham Norton was getting the lifetime achievement award and Carrie Fisher was giving it to him," Delaney said.
"Her speech was just amazing and we were watching it and Sharon said 'What if she played your mum?' and I was like, 'Sharon you're crazy', and we looked up who her agent was.
"I tried to tweet her first, no response. Then we got her agent the scripts for series one and the pilot and she said, 'Okay, sure'. And thank God."
The new season begins after things left off in series two, with Rob rightly suspecting Sharon of adultery, having discovered a receipt for the morning-after pill.
Coupled with his unemployment following an accusation of sexual harassment, it leads to alcoholic Rob to start secretly drinking again.
#Catastrophe returns Tuesday, but here's a sneak peek to tide you over.... pic.twitter.com/Kbb6Dd0p5H
— Channel 4 (@Channel4) February 26, 2017
The award winning sitcom has already been confirmed for a fourth series, but Horgan said they have not yet thought how the show will deal with Fisher's death, explaining: "It's a bit hard to think about it yet so I'm hoping a bit of time will pass and we will think of a fitting finish to that story."
Horgan and Delaney have won several awards since the show's 2015 debut, and the plot, which originally focused on her character Sharon's unplanned pregnancy, has seen them get married, have two children and set about leading a family life.
Catastrophe returns to Channel 4 at 10pm tonight.
