ACTOR and singer Jimmy Nail has accepted substantial damages over a newspaper allegation that he had behaved like an uncooperative prima donna during the filming of the new series of Auf Wiedersehen Pet.

His solicitor, Keith Schilling, told Mr Justice Eady at the High Court in London that the Daily Mirror article, published in May last year, caused grave damage to the star's personal and professional reputation.

He said Mr Nail, who played Oz in the award-winning series based on a group of builders from the North East, had suffered considerable embarrassment and distress.

Mr Schilling said the article had the headline "Pampered Pet" and ''included the allegation that during the filming of the new series of Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Nail behaved like an uncooperative prima donna and that he had upset the BBC and the cast.

The defendant, MGN Limited, publisher of the Daily Mirror, accepted that the allegations had "no foundation".

Mr Schilling said: ''The defendant wishes today to publicly set the record straight and, through its solicitor, to personally apologise to the claimant for the distress and embarrassment it has caused him.

''The defendant has also agreed to publish a prominent apology in the Daily Mirror and has agreed not to repeat the allegations and to pay a substantial sum by way of damages to the claimant, together with his legal costs."

The damages sum was not disclosed in court.