BRITISH comedienne, Dawn French, is reportedly far from amused at having shed many pounds sterling through an excess weight of company debt. Ms French saw a neglected niche in the dress market for overweight women; correction, make that women blessed with generously proportioned figures.

Unable to find stylish outfits to fit her size 20 frame, Ms French and a business partner, Ms Helen Teague, established a dress design company five years ago for large ladies of discernment.

Unfortunately, the venture has produced some far from flattering financial figures. At the end of the first year's trading, the company imaginatively named 1647 had lost £70,000, and last year the excess weight of indebtedness had ballooned to an outsize half a million pounds.

Ms Teague, confident the business can achieve "critical mass", blames its difficulties on lack of adequate investment capital. She said: "We have grown to 10 times the size we were when we started." A reference presumably to the company, not the girth of the management. With two such plucky free enterprise women losing pounds in all the wrong places, can a sitcom be long delayed?