A FORMER star of the BBC television show Teachers, launched an American style diner on Friday night.

Tamzin Malleson who is the partner of well-known actor Keith Allen showed off her traditional ice cream sundaes as a taster of what is to come.

The Diner has replaced The Fishy Chipper chip shop in Nelson Street, Stroud and will sit next to a new nightclub in Stroud also part owned by Keith.

Although she has done pop-up stalls at festivals in the past Tamzin has never owned her own restaurant/diner before.

“My mum opened a café when I was younger and she soon made me realise it will be very hard work.

“I’m not really sure why I got involved with the diner to be honest, we saw that the space was up for grabs and thought it was a perfect location and everything went from there.

“Keith has been the real driving force behind the design of the diner, while I’ve been doing the boring stuff.

“I’ve been told the diner looks good from the outside and lots of people on the street are getting excited about it.”

The diner was open for a couple of hours on a Friday night, selling simple things such as ice cream and milkshakes but will expand when it opens fulltime on Wednesday.

“The menu will be quite traditional for an American diner to start with, with things like hot dogs, burgers and knickerbocker glories,” said Tamzin who has also starred in Midsomer Murders and Dangerfield.

“However, further down the line we might expand to a more seasonal stuff and even open for breakfast.

“With the new club next door there is also the chance of staying open quite late, although I’m not sure I’ll be flipping burgers at one in the morning.”

Opening hours for The Diner will be Wednesday-Saturday 11am-11pm.

The venue is well known by many in Stroud as the former Smith’s chip shop, where popular Dave Spratt worked for many years.