'Royle Family' star Aherne returns to the spotlight with new TV sitcom

Caroline Aherne is to direct a new sitcom she has written for the BBC only months after quitting the celebrity spotlight in Britain for a new life in Australia.

The creator and star of the award-winning comedy The Royle Family has written a new series that will feature an Australian cast including Anne Charleston, whose Neighbours character Madge Bishop was killed off earlier this year, and Michael Caton, the star of the Australian movie The Castle. She begins directing the six-part sitcom, called Dossa and Joe, in Sydney next month and it will be delivered to Jane Root, controller of BBC2, next year.

Ms Root, who originally broadcast The Royle Family on her channel before it was moved to prime-time BBC1, flew to Australia over the summer to discuss the comedy idea with Aherne.

The deal is due to be finalised any day. But as with Aherne's previous productions, the new show will be made by Granada television for the BBC.

Aherne, 37, left Britain in June saying she wanted to take a year out of showbusiness after a long battle with alcoholism and a suicide attempt. "I've decided I just want to take some time away from it all for a while," she said. "I want to take myself off somewhere exotic and possibly write a book about my life. As long as I'm a TV personality, I can't moan about people being interested in my life."

Paul Jackson, a former head of entertainment at the BBC who now runs Granada Productions Australia, suggested she might enjoy life Down Under and she arrived in Sydney a week later. A Granada insider said: "She went out there to get away from everything here and she's really, really happily settled there. She absolutely loves it, though I don't know whether she'll stay there for ever."

Ms Root said she was delighted to be working with Aherne again. "Caroline is one of the most talented people in television and it's fantastic that we're continuing our relationship with her."

No further series of The Royle Family are planned at present, but a BBC insider said the door would always be open if Aherne wanted to return to the winning comedy.

She told a photographer who spotted her soon after her arrival in Australia that she was enjoying the anonymity of her new life. She said: "I have only been here a week but feel so much better already. Australians are so friendly – I really love the atmosphere and the people."

She had quit Britain after a turbulent decade of success in the public eye combined with private trauma. She was divorced from her husband, Peter Hook, a musician, and had to cope with the death of her father and the death of a former boyfriend. She made a suicide attempt in 1998.