PATRICIA HEATON - HEATON RETURNS TO TV IN FAMILIAR ROLE

HEATON RETURNS TO TV IN FAMILIAR ROLE

Actress PATRICIA HEATON is set to return to a familiar role - the EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND star will play a stressed-out mum in a new U.S. TV sitcom.
The star has signed to appear in new comedy The Middle, which centres around the lives of an American Midwestern family in the eyes of a mother - Heaton.
And the role won't be too much of a stretch for the 50-year-old, after she played Ray Romano's long-suffering wife Debra in the hit show, which ran for nearly ten years before ending in 2005.
Heaton, a two-time Emmy award winner, beat out competition from chat show host Ricki Lake, who in 2006 was originally eyed by TV bosses for the new role.
The actress made an unsuccessful return to TV earlier this year (08), starring opposite Kelsy Grammer in Back To You. The show was cancelled in May (08).
The Middle will start shooting in February 2009.