Meera Syal

Meera Syal: I've been invisible since I turned 50

Goodness Gracious Me star bemoans ageism and sexism afflicting industry, and says actors who played her husband five years ago are now being cast as her son.

Video - Meet the author: Meera Syal

This week's Meet the Author is with Meera Syal, an actress best known for her comedy roles in Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at No. 42. She is also a screenwriter and successful novelist.

Her third novel, and first in 16 years, is called The House of Hidden Mothers, which she was inspired to write after viewing a documentary about India's multi-billion pound surrogacy industry. She describes the book as a "thriller", following the stories of two women: Shyama, a British Asian woman, who is desperate for a child and Mala, an Indian, who needs money and agrees to become a surrogate.

Amar Akbar & Tony: exclusive trailer

Watch the world exclusive trailer for the new British independent comedy Amar Akbar & Tony, written and directed by Atul Malhotra and featuring Meera Syal. Named after the 1970s Bollywood film Amar, Akbar, Anthony, it's a coming of age romantic comedy about three childhood friends - a Sikh, a Muslim and a Catholic - taking stock of their lives in contemporary London.

David Walliams' children's story is one of the bolder festive family offerings this year - and not just because it isn't set in a soft-focused past. If you've read the novel, you'll know it's about a 12-year-old cross-dresser who comes into his own after a chance encounter with a fashion mag. Walliams stars alongside Jennifer Saunders, James Buckley, Meera Syal and Kate Moss.

The Frequency Of Laughter was a simple but effective idea: the history of British radio comedy from the late 70s to the present-day, presented in the form of interviews with pairs of participants, ranging from Graeme Garden through Angus Deayton to Meera Syal, all talking to Grace Dent, who asked the right questions.

In the therapy room of Rebecca Front's psychiatrist - where some of history's most iconic and eccentric women go to get their psyches soothed - will be the likes of Michelle Gomez, Kathy Burke and Samantha Spiro (back as a maddeningly annoying Audrey Hepburn); while new patients include Morgana Robinson playing Anna Nicole Smith, Meera Syal as the goddess Hera and Alexa Chung as The Girl With A Pearl Earring.

Meera Syal interview

The Goodness Gracious Me star on why she's campaigning for more black and Asian faces on television.

Radio Times review

The impressive adult storybook series continues on its dark and disturbing way with the usually jolly Johnny Vegas (somewhat incongruously) narrating a creepy story about a bric-a-brac collector who finds everything he has ever owned suddenly coming up for sale before a dark vengeance horribly unravels.

Then comes Meera Syal with a comparatively cheerful yarn about a local newspaper obituary writer who embarks on a killing spree in order to keep her name in the paper and her job alive. Sweet it ain't.

Meera Syal to star in Broadchurch series 2

Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars writer and actress joins David Tennant, Olivia Colman and the cast of the much-awaited new series of the ITV drama.