Catherine Tate’s representative has clarified that comments made by the sketch comedian about co-star Mathew Horne during a recent live show were intended purely as a joke.

Earlier this week, the comic began her ‘Catherine Tate Show Live’ run at the Wyndham’s theatre in London’s West End, where she reprised a number of characters first seen in her hit BBC comedy series.

During the show, she made a joke – in character as Joannie Taylor, aka Nan – that her usual co-star Mathew Horne had “left her in the lurch” after landing another theatre role.

However, while several media outlets, including HuffPost UK, reported her quotes as fact, her spokesperson has now clarified that they were merely a joke, stating that not only did Mathew not “leave her in the lurch”, he was never supposed to appear in the show in the first place.

They also pointed out the same joke had been made during the Australian leg of ‘The Catherine Tate Show Live’ tour.

In addition to his work in ‘The Catherine Tate Show’, Mathew is best known for playing the titular role of Gavin Shipman in James Corden and Ruth Jones’ sitcom ‘Gavin And Stacey’.

He and James reunited in the sketch series ‘Horne And Corden’, which was met with a lukewarm reception, and ended after one series.

They also starred in ‘Lesbian Vampire Killers’  and hosted one series of reality TV spin-off ‘Big Brother’s Big Mouth’ together, though their comedy partnership ended shortly after the final series of ‘Gavin And Stacey’ aired on TV.

Since then, Mathew has appeared in ‘Bad Education’ and its spin-off film, as well as repeated appearances in ‘Drunk History’.

‘The Catherine Tate Show Live’ will be on at the Wyndham’s theatre until 26 January.

CORRECTION: This article has been updated to reflect that Catherine’s quotes were intended solely as a joke.