She will appear opposite Peep Show’s Olivia Colman in Beautiful People, which is about to go into production for transmission later this year.
The series, set in 1997, is based on the childhood memoirs of flamboyantly gay style arbiter Simon Doonan, in which he dreams of escaping the grey gloom of suburbia.
It has been written by Jonathan Harvey, whose previous credits include Gimme Gimme Gimme.
Colman plays the mother of 13-year-old Simon (to be played by Luke Ward-Wilkinson), while Syal is the family lodger, blind Aunty Hayley.
The executive producer will be Jon Plowman.
