Miranda

Last Night's TV: Miranda - Series 1, Episode 5

The main source of the comedy in Miranda is that she is a human stegosaurus, huge and hugely unfanciable, which as others have noted is politically not very correct. And if political incorrectness isn't reason enough on its own to love Miranda, there are plenty of other reasons, not least, in our house anyway, that it is the first new primetime sitcom I can recall that unites the whole family, all laughing our socks off. The hugely engaging Miranda Hart also deserves a medal, or better still a Bafta, for reminding us that slapstick can be funny. Not an episode goes by without her tripping over something, or getting stuck in something, which in less assured hands would be justification for throwing a heavy object at the telly, but it takes real deftness to appear as galumphing as that. She might even be the reincarnation of Tommy Cooper. At any rate, she deserves to have her name in the title.

Last Night's TV: Miranda - Series 1, Episode 5 (Link expired)

I'm finding it - unusually for me - hard to find even one fault with this BBC2 comedy. 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.

That was a word used when describing Big Top and that 'show' should be lined up and shot. Thankfully, Miranda doesn't need putting out of its misery, but I think it does need moving to a more prestigious timeslot on BBC1.

And the main character, Miranda, played by Miranda Hart, is wonderfully engaging. She's not only comedically self-deprecating, she's witty too with rapid fire and genuinely funny character interplay.

Her supporting cast are great too; Patricia Hodge has lost none of her chameleon like acting abilities in the time she's been absent from our screens and the relative newbies in the show are, I'm sure, destined for good things if their performances in Miranda are anything to go by.

One of the most charming things for me about this show is that Miranda Hart has perhaps laid bare some of the things that have most probably been burdens for her to bear in her real life, and opened them up to comedic interpretation.

The jokes and running issues about her size, looks, accent and so on are of course funny, but I can't help but wonder if at times, the real Miranda has found them hugely hurtful? But if she has, she's managed to parlay those barbs into he-who-laughs-last as the cheques roll in for this show. And others that may follow - I hope.

And another pleasing fact about the show is that there's something in it to which most of us can relate. The snipes from mother, the odd friends, the unsuitable job... there really is something to appeal to pretty much everyone in Miranda, and I hope when this series ends, there's another already in the pipeline.

Miranda is such fun

"Hi team. Pleasure to be virtually with you again. So here we are, penultimate episode."

Well-meaning Miranda faces yet more social horrors when her friend sets her up on a blind date and her mum organises a themed party. Even worse, it's Valentine's Day. "I don't know who St Valentine was, but I hope he died alone surrounded by couples," shrieks Miranda before she falls over the furniture, yet again. There's too much falling over in Miranda. Yes, I get it, Miranda Hart is very tall and she's an accomplished physical comedian, but enough. She's much funnier when she's hopeless without being pathetic, like when she goes on an excruciating blind date arranged by her mobile-phone-obsessed friend, Tilly. Hart's artlessness is winning and in her own roundabout way she makes some good observations.