The camera pans slowly across a kitchen, past the table, a family photograph and a cuckoo clock, before it alights on Raj, a 13-year-old boy.

Nothing unusual for the first scene of a new BBC1 sitcom, except that Raj uses a wheelchair and the actor who plays Raj, Jamil Dhillon, is disabled himself.

All About Me, made by the independent production company Celador, has been described by BBC1 controller Lorraine Heggessey as "one of the bravest comedies to appear on British TV for years".

Not only does it feature a mixed race couple, who each have children from previous marriages, but one of those children, Raj, has cerebral palsy (cp).

However, producer Mike Whitehill says the sitcom is simply an attempt to put together "some of the common elements of life which you never see on television".

Jamil appears alongside comedy veterans Jasper Carrott and Meera Syal and four other young actors.

Although Raj has no speech, he has a central part in the sitcom. "A lot of the programme revolves around this character, because everyone tells Raj their feelings and their thoughts ­ he keeps the family secrets," says Jamil.

Jamil got an audition through the Half Moon Young People"s Theatre in Stepney which he has been attending on and off for several years.

"They saw a lot of people for the part," says Jamil, "but a lot of people they saw couldn"t control their muscle movement. They wanted somebody who could stay still on camera and they found it hard to find somebody who could do that."

I meet Jamil in a break from rehearsals at Elstree Studios in north London. He has already been filming and rehearsing for about a month.

He is a fan of both Carrott and Syal. "I like both of them. They are very nice people. I think they feel as if somehow they should make friends with me because I am in a wheelchair, which is really nice. They have made more of an effort.

"Because Meera is a mum herself and has that sort of mum feel about her, she acts like a mum on the set and is really nice to all the children and adults. And she"s a great actress."

But he admits that sometimes there can be a focus on his disability on set which makes him uncomfortable.

Although Jamil is a pupil at Homerton College of Technology in Hackney, he previously spent some rather unhappy time at a special school.

But he has been able to use that experience. For instance, he has used memories of friends with cp who were more disabled than himself to develop the character of Raj.

Before rehearsals began, Celador worked with the Bobath Centre for children with cp in East Finchley and the National Institute of Conductive Education in Birmingham in an attempt to learn more about the condition.

Even so, the first month was not easy for Jamil.

"It"s not their fault, but because they have not done this before, they are very inexperienced with having disabled actors and they are not very prepared," says Jamil. "But it is not one of those things you can learn in a day."

Filming on location was particularly tough. Changing facilities were cobbled together. On one occasion, he even had to change outside.

The first hotel Celador booked for Jamil and his actress mum Kavita turned out to be not nearly as accessible as it had claimed.

Celador was also unable to find a single catering company that had a vehicle with disabled access, so staff had to organise separate facilities for Jamil.

But Jamil sees a positive side to the lack of disability awareness he has encountered.

"To me that is excellent, because if somebody comes and they are not prepared, next time they will be prepared. The reason why they have not bothered before is that there are hardly any disabled actors on telly," he says.

Mike Whitehill admits Celador has been on "a learning curve" and is anxious to remedy the problems.

"We prepared for Jamil as best we could, but I think it is fair to say we have made mistakes," he says. "The TV and film industry itself is not set up for the disabled."

As for the future, Jamil has watched the career ups and downs of his mother over the years ­ she appears in episode two under her stage name, Vinny Dhillon ­ and is not convinced that his future lies in acting. He is considering instead a career as a web-designer.

In the meantime, he has a job to do. All About Me is expected to be shown in a prime time slot on BBC1 early in the new year.

• The show begins on Friday 8 March at 8.30 pm on BBC1.

Posted: 7 Mar, 2002