Ted Danson had a near-death experience from glitter on the set of A Man on the Inside

Ted - who plays retired professor Charles Nieuwendyk - recalled to Collider.com: "I made this idiot mistake. The first time we had it, some student runs up, and I think it maybe was one of his first days at work ever as an actor.

"And he was timid, throwing it in my face, and it kind of went in my hair and missed my face, and we had to do it again, and I said, 'Just really throw it right in the middle of my face,' encouraging him to have a big, huge handful.

"I made the mistake of having my mouth open, and literally, they had to put umbrellas up around me so the rest of the world couldn't see me trying to get it out of my mouth. So it got irritating as an actor, not just as a character."

With a mouthful of glitter, Danson said his line: "Did anyone see that?", and show creator Michael Schur, 50, decided to keep the take in the show.

It took "20 minutes" to remove all the glitter from the actor's mouth.

And in that time, Schur panicked that Ted would ingest "too much glitter" and would "die" on the programme.

Schur remembered: "It's the take we used, by the way. It's when he says, 'Did anyone see that?' His mouth is full of glitter, and it took 20 minutes to rinse it out and get it out of his mouth.

"We were a little bit worried that he was gonna die - that he was gonna ingest too much glitter and this would be the end of Ted Danson. What an ignominious death that would have been."

Ted's 72-year-old wife, actress Mary Steenburgen - who plays his on-screen spouse, music professor Mona in A Man on the Inside - added: "What a death."

Season one of the sitcom saw Charles go undercover as he investigated stolen jewellery in a retirement community.

In season two, Charles attempts to crack a case at the fictional Wheeler College.