EXCLUSIVE: THE TV director husband of ex-Eastenders star Nadia Sawalha was caught on the M4 near Chippenham at more than two times over the drink-drive limit.

Shamed BBC director Mark Adderley, who married the popular actress in June after a whirlwind romance, was banned from driving for 28 months and fined £900 by magistrates in Chippenham on Monday.

Patrolling Wiltshire police officers pulled over 32-year-old Adderley at 9.45pm on April 2 as he was driving back home to London from a business lunch at the BBC's Bristol offices.

Breath tests clocked his lowest levels at 87mg of alcohol per 100ml of breath. The statutory limit is set at 35mg.

Defence solicitor Michael Wills said Adderley was planning to stay at the Marriott Hotel in Bristol but got a call from his wife Nadia telling him to come home.

Adderley's drink-drive ban is the latest in a string of traumas to hit the BBC actress who left her EastEnders role as nightclub boss Annie Palmer four years ago.

Nadia's first husband musician Justin Mildwater committed suicide six weeks after she broke up their five-year marriage in 1997.

A three-year relationship with fellow EastEnders star Marc Bannerman who played Italian stallion Gianni di Marco ended in 2001.

Nadia met director Adderley while filming the BBC show Perfect Partners a few months later.

Adderley had just split from his first wife, who now lives in Frome with his two children aged nine and four. The couple married in a private ceremony at Dulwich College in south London in June.

Nadia gave birth to the couple's first child Maddy on Christmas Day.

Magistrates heard how Adderley's career at the BBC was safe despite the driving ban.

Solicitor Mr Wills said the TV director was shocked at his drink-drive levels.

He said: "Mr Adderley didn't think he had had too much to drink. He was horrified to find he was over the limit and is ashamed at what happened. It is going to be very, very difficult for him to see his children. His personal and social life will be affected."

A BBC spokesman refused to comment on the drink-driving conviction.

The showbiz couple live in the trendy London superb of Upper Norwood, close to the homes of Nadia's younger sister Julia, who starred in Absolutely Fabulous, and her actor-father Nadim.

Since leaving EastEnders Nadia has gone onto front ITV shows Loose Women and Live Talk. More recently the actress took part in BBC's Celebrity Driving School for Red Nose Day.

Adderley, who directed the 1999 TV show One Night Stand with Gail Porter, is working out of the Bristol office on a new TV project. Adderley, who admitted the charge at the first possible hearing, was told to pay £55 prosecution costs in addition to the fine.

After leaving the Chippenham courthouse on Monday morning he was forced to hail a taxi.

Recent government figures revealed how more people are injured during the Easter holiday period in drink-driving related accidents than at any other time of the year.

The Wiltshire Times and Chippenham News have been running a Shame A Drink Driver campaign since December, which has received praise from the police, RAC and RoadPeace. Westbury MP Andrew Murrison is supporting the newspaper's bid to reduce the drink-drive limit in line with other European nations.