Amanda and Les start own business

Actress Amanda Holden is quitting television for a year to start a production company with her husband Les Dennis.

Holden, who had an affair with Men Behaving Badly star Neil Morrissey last year, is back with gameshow star Dennis, although she failed to turn up with him at a 40th birthday party thrown by her friend Jonathan Shalit at the Victoria and Albert Museum last night.

The actress did, however, turn up at the party with her mother Judy, and said: "I'm taking some time off - at least a year. I have been setting up a production company with my husband.

"The way we view it is that there are so many comedy actresses like me and there about 10 of them waiting to take over my part standing right behind me right now, so we have to have a plan."

Holden, 32, of Primrose Hill, added: "I would say that I have almost come to the end of the road at the moment as far as being a comedy actress goes. I really need something different and I'm dying to go into production.

"I'm quite bossy so I'd be quite good at it, I think. We have done a lot of thinking about the company but I can't tell you the name since we haven't announced it yet - it starts with the letter 'B' and that's all I can say."

Holden has starred in TV's Cutting It, Smack the Pony, Goodness Gracious Me and The Grimleys.