Meera Syal's much anticipated TV adaptation of her book Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee will air on BBC1 in the first week of April.

The writer and actor told AiM she was "pleased" that a drama featuring three Asian women characters in lead roles was getting primetime positioning on Britain's most popular channel. That she said was "a real breakthrough."

It was however a result of three and a half years of re-writes, hard slog and pushing for the slot, she revealed.

"We wanted to do something fresh and contemporary, getting away from this assumption that anything feauring us [Asians] has to be issue based, which is why the focus is very much on universal emotional experiences like friendship, marriage, betrayal, motherhood and especially the changing landscape of male-female relationships."

The script was developed in the early stages with a "fantastic" drama writer called Abi Morgan, she said. She also admitted that finding the right crew was a very tricky exercise for her.

"The casting process took ages as we saw pretty much every suitable Asian actor around. However, I kept well away from the casting process and left the final choices up to the director and the BBC execs as I work with so many of the actors who auditioned and don't want to be in the position of judging my friends!"

Filming for the drama finished near the end of last year and was mostly shot around Ilford and Chigwell, East London, where the book is set. The popular novel, published in May 2000, follows the life of three Asian women: Tania, Sunita and Chila, trying to deal with a changing cultural landscape. The three friends grow up together from school days but find their bonds severely tested by men, marriage and careers.

Sunita, a former law student and activist played by Meera, marries her university sweetheart Akash and is settled into an unsatisfied life of under-appreciated motherhood. Tania, a raven beauty played by Laila Rouass, rejects marriage and anything traditionally Asian for a high-flying TV career and a compliant Indophile boyfriend called Martin.

Ayesha Dharker meanwhile plays Chila, an innocent, kind, funny qualification-less woman who is considered backward by her family.

Playing alongside the three women will be Sanjeev Bhaskar and Ace Bhatti. The supporting cast includes Lalita Ahmed, Indira Joshi, Rani Singh and the comedian Inder Manocha.

Meera told AiM she was glad Ayesha and Laila didn't mind ageing up as all the women are supposed to be in their mid to late thirties.

She added: "We're all thrilled that the BBC have decided to give it such a great position in their schedule and hope it opens the door for many other dramas which tell our stories right bang in the mainstream like this."