A best-selling author could see her life mirror the hit BBC show Episodes when she jets off to Hollywood to work with top TV producers on her film script.

Lyndsay Russell wrote Making it Big, a satire about a world where curvy woman are loved and skinny women pitied.

The novel’s success grabbed the attention of Lee Aronsohn, the co-creator of Two and a Half Men and executive producer and writer of The Big Bang Theory, who asked to read a copy.

Twelve hours later she got a phone call saying that Mr Aronsohn, a “cool, laid-back American New Yorker” wanted to co-write a film with her.

She said: “I have been a huge fan of the show [Two and A Half Men] for way over five years. I was like ‘Whoah. He’s calling me.

“I’m in a bit of shock actually. We have exchanged hundreds of texts and emails so I know our humour is the same, thank God.”

The former feature-writing journalist will leave her husband, Mike Hanson, deputy of BBC Six Music, at their home in Borough Road, Kingston, and jet off to Hollywood for five weeks to work on the script while staying in a top hotel.

The 47-year-old author signed the contract last Friday and was due to fly out on Thursday as the Surrey Comet went to press.

Her life is now taking a similar turn to that depicted in Episodes, which stars Friends actor Matt LeBlanc and Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan, who are both known for their characters in Green Wing.

After watching the show, which satirises the story of a British husband and wife who struggle to deal with US TV culture when they are lured by Hollywood to produce a new version of their TV series for a US network, she said: “The words Christians and Lions keep coming to mind.”

She admitted there may be pressure to change her story, but said she was not precious and trusted Mr Aronsohn to bring the skills which have made his TV shows such a success.

Mrs Russell co-wrote her first animated children’s book The Rainbow Weaver with her eight-year-old daughter Talor Hanson, who is now 15 and a student at Teddington School.