Sarah Hadland interview

CultBox caught up with actress Sarah Hadland, who plays Miranda's best friend Stevie, to find out more about the show...

Happy Tuesdays: Mr and Mrs Smith

I listened to Will Smith's Mr and Mrs Smith the other day - part of the Happy Tuesdays season of pilots on Radio 4. It was a show about a married couple undergoing counselling, and starred Will Smith and Sarah Hadland. I rather liked it. In fact, I like it a lot.

For several years Miranda Hart has been cheerfully stealing scenes from under the noses of her more illustrious co-stars, so it was only a matter of time before TV producers rewarded her with a comedy series of her own.

Episode one of Miranda would appear to justify their faith. It has a genuine sense of fun, a distinct style, several very sharp lines and some cleverly constructed set-pieces. But, God, it was manic. In the words of Michael Winner in that memorably atrocious insurance advert: "Calm down, dear."

Hart, who also wrote the script, works very hard for her laughs, but an occasional change of pace would have been very welcome. It might also have afforded a little breathing space for some character development, which was in seriously short supply. A disproportionate amount of the jokes were predicated on Hart's size, which, personally, I don't find particularly disproportionate.

When not addressing the camera, Hart is busy bantering with joke shop co-owner Stevie (Sarah Hadland), being socially inept and lusting after hunky chef Gary (Tom Ellis) who, in an interesting reversal of traditional sitcom gender objectifying, is underwritten to the point of non-existence. Hart is much more generous towards her female co-stars, providing Patricia Hodge and Sally Phillips with the opportunity to do some scene-stealing of their own as neurotic mother and bitchy best friend respectively.

New sitcom Miranda is the first television series from stand-up comedian Miranda Hart. It's set in Miranda's joke shop, run by Stevie (Sarah Hadland), as Miranda has no business acumen herself. The show has a semi-autobiographical style as she struggles with her boarding-school background, body shape and a mother who's keen to get her married off.

Although very much a traditional sitcom, the show entertains due to Miranda's wit and large helpings of silliness. It also breaks the fourth wall by having Miranda talk directly to the audience in her asides to camera; this is hard to pull off, but it works well.

I warmed to the show because of Miranda's charm and I'd spend more time with her - but please, oh please, don't make me marry her.

Kids can learn to love history just so long as it's told to them in a way that brings it to life. And this new series, based on the colourful books by Terry Deary and Martin Brown, does precisely that, with Sarah Hadland, Steve Punt and Meera Syal among the cast re-enacting some gory ancient tales.