Last-minute move by 'too busy' star

Meera Syal has unexpectedly quit the BBC sitcom All About Me, blaming a busy schedule.

She has left the show, about a mixed race couple and their disabled son, just weeks before filming was due to start on the second series.

Syal's Goodness Gracious Me colleague Nina Wadia has stepped in to take her place opposite Jasper Carrott.

The first series was critically slated, but made a decent showing in the ratings.

Since then, Syal has adapted her novel Anita And Me for the cinema, and co-written the West End hit Bombay Dreams.

A spokesman for the show told actors' newspaper The Stage: "Meera was very sad that she could not take part in the second series, but she has left the part in capable hands."

Published: 18 Dec 2002