Meera Syal

Meera Syal's teenage daughter 'glassed friend's ex'

The teenage daughter of TV actress Meera Syal launched a vicious attack on a friend's ex-boyfriend, a court heard today.

Chameli Bhatia, 19, glassed Christian Pannell at the birthday party of two friends, Snaresbrook Crown Court was told.

The 18-year-old victim needed surgery to treat cuts to his cheek and eyelids after the alleged dancefloor assault.

Video - Five Minutes With: Meera Syal

Actress, writer and comedian Meera Syal talks to Matthew Stadlen about starting out in acting, the sacrifices her family made, why every performance is different and her love for boxing.

My Teenage Diary, now halfway through its second series, is proving a gentle, amusing listen. Julian Clary, last week, was a tad mournful about his young self, but this week Meera Syal positively revelled in reading out her entries, treating us to her original Midlands accent and 70s angst. It was lovely. Generally unsuccessful with boys, her teenage self did meet one fellow at judo she rather liked. "He is very intelligent, has epileptic fits and reckons God is a spaceman."

Tonight's diarist is Meera Syal, remembering growing up in a small West Midlands village. The diaries (and she shows them to the studio audience, taped up to keep out strangers and in tiny writing) were her friends, she says. The year she's picked is 1976 and she confides her anxieties about her weight, followed next day by a rapturous account of eating a Chinese takeaway followed by chips. She's philosophical about how hard we are on ourselves in our teens, sharp about how much has changed in 25 years, honest about why she did so much sport.

Meera Syal: My family values

The writer and actor talks about her family.

My perfect weekend: Meera Syal

For Meera Syal, Friday is film night before the games begin in the garden.

Video: Meera Syal on family being her work inspiration

Meera Syal tells Andrew Marr about starring as a middle-aged housewife in a new production of Shirley Valentine.

The actress devised, wrote, and starred in the hit comedy series The Kumars at Number 42 and Goodness Gracious Me.

She says her family and her experiences growing up in a Punjabi community have inspired her work.

Meera Syal's funny Valentine

The Asian comedian and writer is taking on the title role in Willy Russell's Shirley Valentine, and doing it in Scouse.

Talented comedian Shappi Khorsandi has been about quite a bit recently - whether appearing on Have I Got News for You or giving interviews about her satirist father's longtime exile from Iran and her upbringing in the UK from the age of six (a rich source for her stand-up material). So I was a bit bemused by the first of her four shows - this one's about racism. Initially sounding like a traditional stand-up with an audience, her routine is then punctuated by an interview with Meera Syal, a short set by Felix Dexter and a comedy song from Hils Barker. There are some funny observations from Shappi about the "rainbow of thuggery" in today's multicultural gangs and what being of mixed race really means. Perhaps she should do more of the talking and less of the interviewing/introducing.

New comedy series from Shappi Khorsandi, whose lilting voice and ingenue manner have brought lots of bookings on chat and panel shows, whose Anglo-Iranian background comes in handy for longer interviews (on a recent Front Row, for instance). Here she will explore four themes, talking to people whose views compare, compliment, maybe contradict her experience of being from a non-British family. Today it's racism. Khorsandi's guests are Meera Syal, writer, actress, comedian (whose early big breaks came on Radio 4) and St Kitts-born comedian Felix Dexter.