Miranda Hart

by Sophie Johnson

  The second half of the special, which appeared later in the evening, begins with Lenny Henry and Fearne Cotton introducing JLS to the live studio to perform their single ‘Eyes Wide Shut’. But at the point where rapper Tinie Tempah would usually join in, Miranda storms the stage, supported by her back-up dancers Penny, Stevie and Gary. It was a performance that drove the studio audience wild; Miranda’s rap could hardly be heard for the screams of delight. One critic simply said, ‘Miranda strutting her stuff around Pineapple Dance Studio was amazeballs.’

  Red Nose Day 2011 was a colossal success, raising a total of £75 million – the highest amount raised on the night in the 23 years the show’s been running. And it was a fantastic moment for Miranda, too. She stood out in a show of excellence that, at its peak, was watched by more than 12.4 million people.

  21

  WHAT’S NEXT?

  ‘This has been my ambition since I was six – it is literally a dream come true.’

  – Miranda

  From comedy sketches at university, to stand-up and character comedy on the circuit, to Edinburgh Fringe stints and to the BBC in London, Miranda Hart’s had quite a journey. But she was something of a late starter due to her politics degree, a difficult period of agoraphobia and rejection from casting agents. After a dalliance with radio, and supporting roles in other people’s work, her considerable breakthrough in 2009 made a great impression on the BBC Two schedule. In June 2011, repeats of the series were shown on BBC One for the very first time, in preparation for the channel showing a third series, probably in 2012.

  Miranda-fever had spread beyond Britain too. Eén, a television channel in Belgium (similar to our own BBC One), broadcasts the show, leading Hyperdrive writer Andy Riley to tweet in April 2011 that such was its popularity there that ‘seriously, Miranda would have trouble walking down the street in Antwerp now’. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) finished showing the first series in April 2011 and immediately ordered the second series, which is expected to air there in late 2011.

  So, while other parts of the world get to know and love Miranda, we in Britain are eagerly awaiting the third series. On The Graham Norton Show, she revealed that she would start writing series three in May 2011 and her website stated that filming will not begin until sometime in 2012. Fans may be left panicking – making a cushion with Miranda’s face on, obsessively watching the series one DVD until they know the outtakes off by heart, re-reading this book (thank you), or making fruit friends called Miranda, Penny, Stevie, Gary and Tilly. But stop – let’s just regroup for a moment. Miranda isn’t going anywhere. Since series two, she has been entertaining the nation in various situations that are not a joke shop in Surrey.

  Following her stint as charity goddess for Comic Relief, she continued her good work with two live benefits in quick succession. On 21 March 2011, the Teenage Cancer Trust Comedy Night kicked off the annual series of concerts curated by the charity’s patron: Roger Daltrey, frontman of The Who. John Bishop compered a line-up of top acts including Kevin Bridges, Greg Davies, Angelos Epithemiou, Seann Walsh and star of Comic Relief Smithy (aka James Corden). It was the third time Corden had appeared at the charity’s Royal Albert Hall shows. He said, ‘It’s going to be an incredible night! The atmosphere at the Teenage Cancer Trust gigs is always electric and we’ve got a fantastic line-up, I’m really looking forward to it!’

  But written underneath the line-up on the Trust’s website was this teaser: ‘There will be a surprise appearance by a very special comedy guest.’

  After all of the acts had performed, ‘television icon du jour Miranda Hart came galloping through the audience’, wrote comedy critic Bruce Dessau. ‘Corden returned and they reunited for a dirty dance to ‘(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life’, though Corden drew the line at hoisting up Hart Patrick Swayze-style. Fair enough, this was already a high-flying show.’

  The following week, Miranda co-hosted Mencap’s April Fools benefit gig at London’s Hammersmith Apollo. It was a truly impressive line-up, with Chris Addison tweeting it as ‘the best bill I’ve ever been on’. Miranda and her fellow compere Jo Brand introduced to the stage the likes of Kevin Eldon and young stand-up star Jack Whitehall, as well as Catherine Tate and Lee Mack. The latter pair revived a sketch from their ten-year-old Edinburgh show which introduced Tate’s foul-mouthed Nan character to the world. Also appearing were Harry Hill, who entered the stage on a tiny bicycle, Canadian gag merchant Stewart Francis, Lucy Porter (who should have been off work on maternity leave) and, closing the show, Sean Lock. The Telegraph’s comedy critic Dominic Cavendish described the event as ‘like a time-compressed Comic Relief night’.

  For those who prefer to stay in, though, there remains plenty of scope for Miranda-spotting. Hart will host a new panel show for TV called Britain’s Favourite. At the time of writing, it is still in development after a pilot recording at BBC Television Centre on 21 February 2011. The format pits teams of comedians against each other in ranking famous people from a group, who have nothing in common but their first name. It was summed up as being ‘like Top Trumps with celebrities’. The pilot attempted to find the best Steve, with the creators offering some suggestions: ‘Is Stephen Hawking better than Steve Davis? Is Six Million Dollar Man Steve Austin superior to Steven Seagal? What about England captain Steven Gerrard? Is Shakin’ Stevens even a Steve?”

  The producers promise plenty of silliness in Britain’s Favourite, including ‘a battle to do the best impression of Steve McFadden, a challenge to find the best Steve in the audience, a list of people who didn’t make the shortlist, such as Seve Ballesteros (out by just one letter) and a chance to see all the best bits from Steve Guttenberg’s career (a 15-second montage)’.

  Miranda has mixed feelings about panel shows. She has enjoyed appearing on formats such as Would I Lie to You?, but she has also commented, ‘It is quite hard because male banter is quite different’ and ‘The kind of comedians that go on panel shows are often very clever and know a lot, which I don’t – I’m coming at it from a characterful, clowny, comic persona.’ So a show with such silly games as the producers described seems just like Miranda’s sort of thing.

  There has been some criticism that British panel shows are male-dominated and a hard gig for female comics. Miranda has said, ‘My theory of why women find it hard on panel shows is that it can be as simple a thing as the quality of your voice. Because it’s a different register, when you speak, everyone turns to look at you, so what you’ve got to say has to be even more pithy. It’s hard to join in that rolling chatter. As it would be for a woman down the pub with ten male friends.’

  Isy Suttie (who plays Dobby on Peep Show) told one interviewer that she tried out for panel shows but found it difficult to ‘get a word in edgeways’. She said, ‘I don’t necessarily want to fight to get my voice heard. Maybe that is a male thing – who’s got the biggest conker in the playground.’

  Similarly, in Giles Coren’s piece about the shortage of women in comedy, he quoted an anonymous female comedian who told him about her experience on Have I Got News For You: ‘I ended up garbling my jokes because I had to talk so fast to stop Paul Merton interrupting. Pause and he steals your punchline. Then they edit it down and, by the time they get to the final cut, even my mum wouldn’t have noticed I was on.’

  But Miranda has proved herself as a good panel-show guest and even host. She first appeared on Have I Got News For You in 2008 and the show interviewed her for their website, asking what her hopes, fears and dreams were of being on. ‘My hopes, fears and dreams are all based around some kind of love tryst between me, Ian, Paul and Jack [Dee],’ she told them. She went on to talk about how making the panel show more like her radio series Miranda Hart’s Joke Shop could improve it: ‘Jack Dee opening the show with a fart could only be a great start to an episode of Have I Got News For You. Particularly if there wasn’t a whoopee cushion on his chair.’

  When the topical panel show reached its 38th series in October 2009, Mira
nda was invited to be a guest host. She was quite nervous at the prospect, as she candidly revealed on Twitter: ‘Tomorrow night I will be hosting Have I Got News For You. Tomorrow day I will be shitting myself.’ She told the Telegraph how she wasn’t quite prepared for the job: ‘It’s a bit tricky to go on Have I Got News For You when you haven’t read a newspaper in 20 years. But I’m pleased about it, too, in many ways; it means I’ve been able to hold on to a kind of innocence.’

  Although she was received well, there was some criticism of a joke she read from the autocue. They were talking about Prince Philip meeting the Indian president Pratibha Patil and him saying to Atul Patel, the businessman, ‘There’s a lot of your family here tonight.’ Miranda said, ‘There is no place for racism in the modern world and the sooner that Greek twit and his Kraut wife realise it, the better.’ The Daily Mail reported that 50 of the show’s five million viewers had complained, but comedy website Chortle pointed out that, on the BBC’s Points of View website, only one comment was made.

  As Miranda did not write the joke, focus fell to the broadcaster to explain its actions just weeks after it was lambasted for clearing an offensive joke Frankie Boyle made about the Queen on Mock the Week. A BBC spokesman said, ‘[Have I Got News For You] is a topical, satirical news quiz and as such tackles issues of the week in a comedic and challenging way. The joke Miranda delivered was about abusive racist language following on from the news story that Prince Philip had made what were considered offensive remarks at a meeting of Indian representatives.’

  When they appeared together on Channel Five’s daytime discussion show The Wright Stuff a few weeks later, Scott Mills asked Miranda about the incident and her view on censorship of offensive comedy. She joked that it wasn’t relevant to her as ‘a chocolate willy is about as racy as I get’, but went on to say that she thought there was a place ‘for comedy to be anarchic and anti-establishment’ and that comedy shouldn’t be confined by rules. ‘But equally,’ she added, ‘I think people – weirdly – do knock My Family and those sorts of shows and say it’s uncool. So both are getting attacked. It’s weird.’

  In the autumn of 2010, Hart returned to host Have I Got News For You for a second time, but now they knew what to expect. ‘The producers know how badly read I am,’ Miranda said, ‘and are very good at not making me feel like an idiot.’ They also managed to make the most of the popularity her sitcom persona had garnered: ‘Series 40 saw a host – Miranda Hart – falling off the chair for the first time, albeit deliberately. The same episode also saw a radical new camera angle being used to allow for Miranda’s trademark looks to camera.’

  Miranda’s favourite panel show, though, was Would I Lie To You?, presented by Rob Brydon. After playing the game for the first time in August 2009, she said on Twitter: ‘Would I lie to you has become the only panel show I have actually fully enjoyed doing. Its a fun game. [sic]’ The object of the game is for contestants to relate stories and facts about themselves, and the other team must guess whether they are true or not. Miranda was on David Mitchell’s team with the Welsh comedian Rhod Gilbert. It was her job to convince Lee Mack, Rufus Hound and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall of her statement: ‘I always test the temperature of my bath with my ear.’ Hugh asked why she didn’t use the conventional elbow method and she said, ‘Firstly, it amuses me to test it with my ear. Secondly, I’m a big fan of the bath and I like to get it right and I think it’s more sensitive.’ To further convince them, she explained that she uses her ear to test the temperature of hot food as well. But they didn’t believe it.

  Rufus said, ‘The physics of this is all wrong,’ so, to win them over, she demonstrated the bending action, with Rhod Gilbert playing the role of bath. Their demonstration was so convincing that the team changed their minds, now firm in their belief that the story was true. It was, in fact, a lie.

  Until the arrival of Miranda series three in 2012, fans can keep themselves amused with further Hart interviews and panel-show appearances. But what is still to come? Will Miranda join the likes of Only Fools and Horses and My Family as a long-running BBC sitcom? Or will Hart eventually decide she’s had enough of the show and want to try something else? Backstage at the British Comedy Awards in January 2011, she said, ‘To just do something completely different would be really nice.’ Perhaps she’ll take to treading the boards: ‘What I’d love to do is make my West End debut. That would be lovely and then I could write in the day, though that is probably completely unrealistic.’ With her teenage love of musical theatre, she said that she would love to play Miss Hannigan, the cruel lady who runs the orphanage in Annie. Then again, as she told Dominic Maxwell at The Times, ‘I’d love to do farce, I’d bring back Ray Cooney.’

  Having shown she can look the part when in costume for the Tipping the Velvet party in series one, Miranda has also said she would like to try some acting away from comedy: ‘It’d be great to do something like Downton Abbey.’ Her roles in Magicians and The Infidel gave her a taste for the big screen, and maybe her awards in television could act as a springboard into major film exposure. She said that people ask her if she thinks about trying America: ‘I’m like, really? Let’s just see how it goes. I like to take my time and don’t like to take anything for granted… So, one step at a time.’

  Whatever Miranda’s career goals are, her fans have had ideas for her. On 7 April 2011, BBCMiranda on Twitter posted: ‘Miranda has came #11 in @SFXMagazine’s Recent poll “Who would make the best first female Doctor Who?” [sic]’

  Meanwhile, a Facebook group has been created where fans plead for Miranda to star in the iconic time-travelling show, even suggesting character ideas and traits. The creator of the group said, ‘I’d want her to play an alien but a nice one who helps them’, while someone added, ‘that wud be fun… you cud be a alien who likes Abba n like sherbert dip! [sic]’

  Outside of her comedy career, there are dreams that she has not yet realised: ‘It’s a cliché but swimming with dolphins is on the list, along with being able to cook, going to see Polar Bears in the wild,’ and Miranda’s long-held ambition of ‘winning the Ladies Singles Championship at Wimbledon’.

  Emma John at the Guardian asked her about her tennis hopes. ‘Don’t let the dream die,’ Miranda said to her. ‘Laura Robson, she should watch out – I had some tennis lessons this summer and it went very well.’ Perhaps something Hart could consider for a future Sport Relief challenge?

  But her ultimate ambition – to star in her own sitcom at the BBC – has now been realised, and was successful beyond anything she could have hoped for. She has been showered with critical acclaim, awards, attention and affection from the British public and beyond. And to think that she was so close to giving up before she got offered the part in Hyperdrive. She has laughed off the idea that she is a role model to budding comedians and writers, but it has become clear that there are many people out there who idolise and revere her. So for those of you after Miranda’s advice on how to approach getting into comedy, here are her wise words: ‘Write what you think is funny, not what you think broadcasters want. Just write what you want to write.’

  Her story is surely nowhere near ending; it has hardly yet begun. Keep your eyes and ears open for where she’ll be next because one thing’s perfectly clear – Miranda Hart’s story is one that is to be continued…

  David Hart Dyke with wife Diana and children Miranda and Alice, 11 June 1982.

  © Rex Features

  As frisky pensioner Maureen in Cruising at the Bush Theatre in 2006.

  © Alamy

  Invited to No 10 as part of Sport Relief in 2010. From left, with Helen Skelton, Sarah and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Christine Bleakley, Lawrence Dallaglio, Fearne Cotton and Jimmy Carr.

  © PA Photos

  Cycling with, top, David Walliams and other celebrities, including Russell Howard (bottom, centre) and Davina McCall (front, right).

  © PA Photos and Rex Features

  Miranda cast Tom Ellis, Patricia Hodge and Sarah Hadlan
d join the star on the red carpet.

  © PA Photos

  Miranda and James Corden engage in unlikely Dirty Dancing for the Teenage Cancer Trust Comedy Night 2011.

  © PA Photos

  Miranda and her on-screen hunk, Tom Ellis, at the British Comedy Awards.

  © Rex Features

  Fooling around with fellow comic Rhod Gilbert on Would I Lie to You?

  © Rex Features

  Miranda and Would I Lie to You? host Rob Brydon stand either side of cultural guru Melvyn Bragg at the South Bank Sky Arts awards.

  © Getty Images

  At the 2011 British Comedy Awards, flirting with Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon.

  © Rex Features

  Miranda with her mentor and comedy icon, Dawn French.

  © Rex Features

  Once a PA temp at Comic Relief, Miranda now warms up for a busy year of fundraising.

  © Getty Images

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