United Kingdom, June 10 -- Simon Helberg has recalled a "very strange, macabre" version of The Big Bang Theory with Sheldon Cooper as a "womaniser".

The 45-year-old actor, who played awkward aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz in all 12 seasons of the classic sitcom, has opened up on how the original pilot had a "very different" mood to the show fans know and love.

He told the Dinner's On Me podcast: "Well, they reshot the pilot. So the pilot I was in was the reshot one.

"They shot a very strange, macabre version of it, where [Jim Parsons' Sheldon] was like a womanizer. Very strange.

"Like, a guy drinking beer - kind of like the Neil Patrick Harris character, I think. Very different."

Jim actually audience for Neil's Barney Stinson in...