By Jennifer Bradbury PETER Howitt, the writer and director of the film Sliding Doors, has a venomous loathing of writers who insist on describing him as the "former Bread star". "It's like you find you've got three new first names," he spits. "It gets a bit boring after a while." He stares at me defiantly with his deep blue eyes. His wariness of journalists is palpable - which can be a bit disconcerting when you are sitting two feet away from him, with only your pen as a means of defence. Howitt, might be best known as the heart-throb Joey Boswell from the Carla Lane sitcom, but it's a role that he seems intent on divorcing himself from. Which might go some way to explaining the way he looks.

Because of his size - he's over six foot and sturdily built - heads turn as he strides towards me at a hotel in Manchester. And his torn jeans,and long, dark hair tied back are a million miles away from the blonde, clean cut, fresh-faced Joey.

But he's far from unattractive, although he seems pathologically intent on berating his looks. "I'm too fat to act," he claims, adding that he has no desire to go in front of the cameras ever again.

However, if the initial reaction to the romantic comedy, Sliding Doors, starring Gwyneth Paltrow (she turned down Titanic to do it) and John Hannah is anything to go by, in future he won't have to wind himself into a fury about writers who continually harp back to the past. He'll be known for what he's doing in the present: a highly successful British writer and film maker.

Howitt was in Manchester to promote the film, which has taken six years, and most of his money, to get to the big screen.

It's a lovely film that explores how everyday events can change the course of our lives. What if Gwyneth Paltrow (Helen), who has just been fired from her PR job, had not caught the tube and not met John Hannah (James)? The beauty and charm of this film is that it explores both alternatives, and reveals how on this one, undramatic event, hangs Helen's whole future. Personally, I loved it. And I also loved the fact that unlike, Four Weddings and A Funeral, which it is constantly compared to, most of the best, and wittiest, lines go to the female lead.

Born in Stockport, Howitt moved to London when he was three, after his dad, a journalist, landed a job in Fleet Street.

At 14 he joined a South London dramatic society, and his first job at 17 was as a filing clerk at the BBC.

It was at this point that he wrote to the Bolton Octagon.

"I wrote something like, 'Dear Sir, can I come and be an actor at your theatre.' I got a charming letter back, which I've kept, suggesting I go to drama school. It was a very polite rebuttal."

He shot to fame in the mid-1980s when he landed the role of Joey Boswell in the popular sitcom. But he turned his back on acting and everything that went with it, to try his hand at writing and directing, following a 'menopausal moment' when he was 35. It was a brave decision that cost him much more than six years of his life. It also took its toll financially.

He admits that at the moment he's skint. "That's basically because all the time that you spend writing, you're not earning money, but you still have to pay the bills. Suddenly your outgoings exceed your incomings.

"I'm still in debt but I don't mind. As an actor you spend most of your life wondering why you haven't got any money. You kind of get used to it, and it's healthy in a way. It makes you work harder. Having financial security can be a rather bad thing, because it can encourage laziness."

Howitt, who has been seeing the Bishop of Bolton, David Bonser's daughter Liz, for the past two years, says the idea for the film sprang from an everyday, almost mundane event. One which most people would have dismissed, and then carried on with their lives.

He recalls: "I was walking down the street and I decided to cross the road to make a phone call. I was going to go home and make it, but I decided on a whim to make the call, which I didn't need to make, there and then. And I nearly got run over. It struck me that that if I'd been knocked down, that split second decision could have changed my life as well as that of the driver and all the people connected to us both. I just thought what an interesting idea for a film."

The idea whirled around in his head for the next two years. "The big test was coming up with a story that I could tie up and that had an end. For years I thought maybe that's all it is, a good idea. Because if I can't make some kind of point then this good idea ultimately doesn't matter."

It took three years and 20 rewrites to get the script right, and three years to raise the money.

He did the rounds of film companies with producer Phillipa Braithwaite, who is married to comedy actor Martin Clunes. It was a continual round of rejections.

"They all said they loved the idea but no-one would take that leap of faith and give us financial backing."

But Howitt, 40, had a blind faith in the film. "I told Phillipa that it was a film that was meant to be made. And because I believed that I was never disappointed when we were knocked back."

Events turned in his favour, when by a fluke the actor, John Hannah, who stars in the film, was on a trip to Los Angeles to meet American producers, following his success in Four Weddings. He was at the offices of Sydney Pollack's Mirage Enterprises at Paramount Pictures, when he mentioned Howitt's script. Pollack was intrigued by the film's premise, and John, who just happened to have a copy of the script in his bag, left it with him.

He takes up the story: "Sydney loved the script and called Guy East at Intermedia in London. Chances are, if we'd gone to them cold we would have had the same reaction as we'd had from everyone else. But going along with the backing of Sydney made a difference. They put the money up straight away. It's another 'what if' situation. If we'd not gone with his backing I doubt we would have had the reaction we did. But luckily we were never in the position where we did not have Sydney Pollack, because we did."

And now at last, the idea which came to him nearly six years ago, has hit the big screen.

But he's sad that his dad, the late Daily Express reporter Frank Howitt, is not around to see his son's success.

"He would have enjoyed all this," he sighs. "I think he would have been pleased that I've taken up writing. Secretly I think he wanted me to be a journalist, but I just didn't fancy it."

The success of Sliding Doors has opened up new doors for Howitt, and his production company Power Pictures, which he set up with actor Douglas McFerran, who plays Russell in the film.

They are now in the process of signing a two year deal with the US company Miramax, and the UK company Intermedia.

And Howitt is set to rewrite an existing Spanish film, Boca a Boca, or Mouth to Mouth. And at the same time he and Douglas are adapting David Copperfield for the big screen.

"It's a mammoth task," Howitt admits. "Some mornings I wake up and wonder what I'm doing. But it's like falling off your bike. I feel like I've fallen off my first bike, and if I don't get back on I never will."

But you suspect that there is little that would stop the boy from Stockport getting back on his writer's bike agai n.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.