More recently, Lee Evans brought slapstick physicality to his stand-up comedy and acting work; Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley’s characters did inimitable, drunken pratfalls in Ab Fab; and The League of Gentlemen examined the darker side of the genre. In recent times, sketch act We Are Klang have been described as the new Goodies, bringing silly violence to a traditional sitcom set.
These days, stunt doubles for comedians are more necessary due to health and safety requirements. In a reunion show for the three members of The Goodies, the producer insisted that they didn’t ride the famous three-seater bicycle because they couldn’t insure them.
Miranda has confessed to occasionally using a stuntman, but does perform many of the stunts herself. On director David Baddiel’s video diary for his film The Infidel, he spoke to Hart about slapstick. She had cuts and bruises all over her arm and he apologised, asking if she normally has a stunt double. She admitted she sometimes does, but the last time she did she had to have a man to match her height. ‘It was actually embarrassing for us both. He had to wear a wedding dress, put his hair up, and the worst thing was someone came up to me thinking that I was the guy.’
Although a double is used, the majority of slapstick moments – falling off stools, over boxes, into a hat stand – were performed by Miranda herself. This took its toll on her body, as she revealed on Twitter: ‘Day 2 of rehearsals and a packet of peas has come out to stop bruising. I am basically an athlete. One look at me and that is obvious.’
As more rules and regulations hit TV, the public went elsewhere for their hit of slapstick. Internet video sites such as YouTube became the go-to place for computer users and You’ve Been Framed, Hole in the Wall and Total Wipeout have been feeding the technophobes’ appetites. With things getting more and more violent and uncensored slapstick testing out limits, it was about time for a gentler form of slapstick to fill the gap. Cue Miranda.
As slapstick has reinvented itself many times over the years, comedians have had to find new ways of performing the same old gags. Miranda has become its poster girl with her impeccably timed pratfalls that add to her social awkwardness. It shows the joke-shop owner doing her very best to fit in and be liked, but ultimately failing, and often embarrassing herself through her physicality. One of the most memorable moments from the second series is when she is walking with her mother Penny talking about how embarrassed she was at a funeral. She didn’t know who had died and was forced to make a speech about the deceased. Pacing through the graveyard to escape the awkward situation, she says that it was ‘mortifying! I wish the ground could have swallowed me up’, and instantly falls headfirst into an open grave. Despite being quite clearly telegraphed, the gag is so perfectly timed that most viewers quite understandably emitted a raucous belly laugh.
On set, immediately after the scene was filmed, Miranda said, ‘It was actually quite frightening because normally, if I fall over, the crash mat is just there, and this was like a massive hole. You know, so I was falling quite fast. I was a little bit nervous.’ But the comedian was so sure about the gag that she committed to the laugh and, quite literally, threw herself into it. On Alan Carr’s talk show Chatty Man, she said that, despite being scared, she loved doing it because she knew it would work: ‘It’s not that often I’m confident that something will get a laugh but I kind of thought, If this doesn’t get a laugh, I’m in trouble. So I really enjoyed it.’ On her blog, she revealed that it is her favourite ever pratfall and she is very proud of it.
Another favourite slapstick moment is the yoga-ball stunt in the series one episode ‘Job’. The crew members were concerned about Hart performing it, but she reassured them by saying, ‘I am going to put two yoga balls slightly apart, run up to them, my torso will be on the front one and my legs on the second and I will travel across the gym.’ Her insistence she had done it before calmed their insurance worries, but she actually did it before with two large rolls of bubble wrap while working in an office. She spectacularly re-enacted the yoga-ball moment live on The Graham Norton Show, much to the delight of her fellow guests and the studio audience.
A recurring theme in Miranda’s slapstick is her trying to look cool or attempting to impress someone and ending up falling off, on to or over something. She is constantly trying to ‘sweep’ out of Gary’s restaurant, only to tumble against the coat rack. In the very first episode, she falls over some boxes and tries to regain her composure, saying, ‘It’s all about the recovery, isn’t it?’ before collapsing into a second pile of stock. With all this falling over, you might expect Miranda to be covered in cuts and bruises and you’d probably be right. But, thankfully, there’s nothing more serious than that. When Stuart Husband interviewed her for the Telegraph, he discovered the star ‘receiving visitors in a horizontal manner’. No, not in that way (how rude!), but because of her damaged knee. Rather than from an elaborate stunt, it was nothing more than bending over to tie up her shoelaces while filming the second series.
Miranda isn’t the only cast member to regularly fall over. Stevie, the dedicated joke-shop manager played by Sarah Hadland, is forever pushed off her stool for landing her friend in trouble or embarrassment, or for simply being competition for a man. Hadland has said of the series’ use of slapstick and cartoon violence, ‘It’s not cruel, it’s not being horrible – we’re all completely flawed characters, all of us are a bit inept. So I think that helps. It’s not cruel in any way. Except the pushing that goes on, which is fairly cruel.’ But this sort of behaviour only endears us even more to the characters, resulting in even bigger laughs. Sarah jokes, ‘I mean I’m in hospital when we’re not filming. I’m basically undergoing reconstructive surgery.’
The relentless tripping, stumbling, galumphing and falling is one of the show’s biggest appeals, but some were unsure about sitcom slapstick returning to our screens. ‘Physical humour has become as unfashionable as Jim Davidson in the world of television comedy and much of Miranda’s work comes across as camp and a bit daft,’ remarked one Metro reviewer.
Others were converted, including one writer for website Unreality Primetime: ‘It’s funny; it’s very funny, and I really wasn’t expecting it to be, primarily because before I watched it myself, I’d heard the word “slapstick” in relation to it, and I’m always wary of that.’
But Miranda proved her worth in the ways of stacking it, and fellow comedian David Baddiel extolled her talent: ‘The idea that a tall woman falling over is just a tall woman falling over is nonsense. Slapstick is the most complex weapon to employ in any comic armoury: it requires enormous technical skill and choreography not to look naff.’
So, despite cynics, Miranda has proved that we have an appetite for slapstick and filled the hole created by mockumentaries and health and safety constraints. Miranda retains her childishness and avoids the boringness of adulthood by slipping on social banana skins. She looks at adult problems with an immaturity we can enjoy vicariously. I’m sure not many of us would have the guts to attempt to get out of gym membership by threatening to wee in a ball pool or fill the swimming pool with dogs. Miranda does that for us. ‘Anything for a gag. I’m committed,’ she has said.
Slapstick will always be around, it may go in and out of fashion, but we have a basic urge to laugh at people falling over. For comedy historians, it’s fascinating to see how silent comedy stars from decades ago still inform what comedians do today. And it’s universal – it doesn’t matter what gender you are, how old you are, or where you’re from. As Vic Reeves says, ‘The first things as a kid that you laugh at are poo and falling over. I’ve brought up kids and I’ve studied them to see what makes them laugh and that’s it. And it should carry on through the rest of your life.’
18
THE DIFFICULT SECOND ALBUM
‘More Miranda? That news puts an enormous smile on my face. From its life on radio and all the way through to B BC One – that’s a great story.’
– Mark Freeland, Head of Comedy at the BBC
It was a combi
nation of all these previously discussed aspects, then – the old-fashioned style, the slapstick, the characters, the casting and the brilliant writing – that helped make the first series of Miranda such a success in late 2009. It was, however, something of a surprise hit, audiences growing as word spread. It became one of those shows talked about at work the next day, and it seemed inevitable that a second series would be commissioned.
News that the BBC would make another series came as something of a relief for the show’s star and creator: ‘I was far more nervous than I thought I would be about the series going out,’ Miranda said in December 2010. ‘I am not only relieved but totally overwhelmed by the response and thrilled that people have enjoyed the series. I am very grateful for all the support and to the BBC for giving me the chance to do another series next year. A daunting, but delightful Christmas present!’
Janice Hadlow, controller of BBC Two, announced by way of a press release: ‘Miranda is a fantastic talent and it’s no surprise that her first television series has been an instant hit.’
The show’s executive producer Jo Sargent, who originally cast Miranda when she was producer of Absolutely Fabulous, commented, ‘We are delighted to be working with Miranda on a second series. She is a unique and extraordinary comic talent who has the ability to talk to a broad audience who can identify with her and all her quirks and foibles.’
Would series two see Miranda struggle with ‘second-album syndrome’? Anticipation was high among journalists and fans alike. Jack Seale, writer for the Radio Times, wrote, ‘For us fans, Miranda and chums are a fun gang that we feel a part of – and, while it’s funny when she gets stuck in a chair or trips over a hat stand, the scripts are much sharper and more heartfelt than they initially appear.’
Filming for series two began on 19 September 2010. Hart announced on Twitter on that date: ‘First scene of series two in the bag. Oooooh.’ But the shoot hit its first obstacle when an unexpected injury for one crew member meant further filming had to be delayed. People who had audience tickets for the filming expressed their disappointment on Twitter, so Miranda replied to each of them with an apology: ‘SO sorry. There was a serious injury we hoped would be overcome for show but will take longer. Did all we could. We’re equally gutted. [sic]’
The disappointed fans were given tickets to alternative recordings, where possible, and on Monday, 15 November at 8.30, less than two months after filming had begun, ‘The New Me’ became the first episode of series two to be broadcast. As usual, Hart wrote a trailer blog on the BBC website: ‘The first question people are asking me is: did Gary go to Hong Kong/will he come back? Well, the answer to that is so top secret that not even I know the answer – and I wrote the episode. I will reveal this though: this series there are some serious boy problems and excitements along the way. Oooh, web exclusive alert.’
The series opens with Miranda in a state – she’s not coping well with Gary having left for Hong Kong. She spends all day in her pyjamas and a dirty fleece, eating biscuits and generally sulking. Stevie shows her a postcard that arrived from Gary – it’s a very brief generic message and Miranda is hugely disappointed, so she decides it’s time to move on and be a better person. She dreams up a brilliantly observed monologue that sums up just the sort of woman Miranda despises – most likely because she knows she can never be like them. But things don’t exactly start off well. At a sushi lunch with Tilly and their old head girl Stinky (Belinda Stewart-Wilson), Miranda gets her necklace caught and ends up having to mount the conveyor belt. They go to Conky’s Grill instead, where they meet Gary’s replacement, Danny (played by Michael Landes). They all swoon at his good looks and American accent. Miranda makes her usual glittering first impression – as she later recounts to Stevie, ‘I farted in front of him, blamed it on an imaginary dog and sang in his face.’
She goes shopping for a new bed to replace the one she broke by jumping up and down on while listening to S Club 7, and trying to catch the sweets that Stevie was throwing at her. A customer assumes that she is working as the shop’s new assistant Sandy and, despite Miranda’s protests, she ends up working a four-hour shift. She does find new strength, though, when she talks to the girls in the staff room. They talk about how rubbish men are, and encourage Miranda to move on. The only trouble is, of course, that they are talking to her as if she’s their new colleague, Sandy. Having decided to renounce men, Miranda quickly changes her mind when Danny comes into the shop to ask her out. The date goes miraculously well and he ends up at her flat. Despite the fact that Penny is present the entire time, trying to hide but topping up his whiskey glass when he turns his head, Miranda manages to make a good impression.
The next day, she goes to the restaurant and Tilly, Stinky and Clive are all astonished when Danny kisses her. Everything seems to be going according to her ‘new me’ plan, but then… Gary walks in! She immediately falls off her stool, a cake falls and splats all over her. Gary gets his old job back and Danny decides to take a job in Birmingham that he saw advertised. Everything is back to normal again.
And critics and fans were delighted with it. Miranda’s Twitter account was flooded with adoration from fans. Phil Hogan wrote for The Observer, ‘The second series of Miranda started as her fans hope it means to go on, with a taxi whipping off her party dress and roaring away with it caught in the door. Magnificent… what a show! Listen to that live studio audience – a pit of hyenas feeding on their own laughter. More! More!’
Miranda obliged the following week in an episode called ‘Before I Die’: ‘So, here we are: episode two. Bit of a strange episode this – I usually choose a theme for each episode and try and make the stories as interesting as possible with as many twists and turns around that theme, but this episode I remember throwing more threads than normal at it. So hopefully it will gel and not be too manic!’
The first storyline begins – bam! – as Miranda struggles to work her fancy new phone and accidentally deletes a message she missed the beginning of. This means that she ends up at a funeral without knowing who has died. The situation gets worse when she is asked to give a eulogy for the deceased and has to play something of a parlour game, responding to the congregation’s reaction to make her next guess. She manages to scrape through the situation but is mortified with embarrassment nonetheless. Charging back through the graveyard, Miranda tells her mother that she wishes the ground could have swallowed her up when… she falls into an open grave. She is naturally shaken and starts to consider her own mortality and what people might say at her funeral. She decides she needs to make more of a difference so puts her name down to do voluntary work at the local hospice but, in typical Miranda style, she ends up getting thrown out for scaring them into a screaming state. Even singing wartime classic ‘The White Cliffs of Dover’ doesn’t manage to calm them down. She decides to try something else and signs up for a parachute jump.
Chris and Alison (who previously appeared in the tango-lesson sequence of the series one episode ‘Teacher’) make another appearance in this episode. Hart informed her blog readers that they aren’t based on anyone in particular, but they represent the sort of couple ‘who are nauseatingly “couple-y”…’ She went on: ‘Couples that speak at the same time, think it is fun to wear matching jumpers, show far too many public displays of affection and give far too much information about their personal life when we really really really don’t want to hear it. Particularly when it comes to breast feeding or how somebody’s labour was – shush, shut up, we don’t want to know.’
Miranda’s character is similarly appalled when they ask her and Gary to be godparents to their unborn child, impressed by all the good that she is doing. Not because she doesn’t want to be a godmother, but because it means Miranda would also be Alison’s birthing partner. She tries to get out of it, but, when Alison is sickeningly supportive of her doubts, she realises there is only one thing she can do: ‘I will have to do something intrinsically evil.’
So she goes to the library to borro
w Mein Kampf. However, she falls asleep in the children’s area with a kids’ book on her lap and the librarian assumes she is there to read a story. Miranda goes along with the charade, but regrets it when a delighted Chris and Alison spot her. ‘She’s going to be our own Mary Poppins!’ they exclaim.
Now at her wits’ end, Miranda decides the only way to get out of the situation is quite simple. Having punched a vicar (‘I just punched a vicar!’), she then begins to get recognised – firstly by someone who knew she was volunteering at the hospital, and then by a lady who also signed up for the parachute jump. Penny is astonished to see this and proudly introduces her to other guests.
The third episode, ‘Let’s Do It’, is what Miranda has called the ‘sexi-pode’. Hart heralded its broadcast with a blog announcement: ‘Oh yes, my alter-ego gets some male attention this week. So prepare for my attempt at romance. Hopefully, I will have pulled it off – as it very much were. (Steady on, family show.)’
It begins with Tilly’s husband Rupert back home on leave, so Penny is even more desperate than usual to find Miranda a man. They are planning for Tilly’s wedding and Penny is dreading Miranda turning up without a date. But Stevie and Clive know who Miranda should go with, and so stage an intervention, forcing Gary and Miranda to go on a date. Gary agrees but Miranda is a little more wary and answers his question: ‘Humiliation, embarrassment, fire, explosions, collisions, tears, nudity and death. But that was just bad luck including a rogue crème brûlée torch – it’s very unlikely to happen twice. So let’s go for it.’
Miranda Hart Page 19