British Comedy Guide
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Miranda. Image shows from L to R: Gary (Tom Ellis), Penny (Patricia Hodge), Miranda (Miranda Hart), Stevie (Sarah Hadland), Clive (James Holmes). Copyright: BBC
Miranda

Miranda

  • TV sitcom
  • BBC One / BBC Two
  • 2009 - 2015
  • 20 episodes (3 series)

Hit sitcom starring Miranda Hart as a woman desperate to fit into society and find a man. She runs a joke shop with childhood friend Stevie. Stars Miranda Hart, Sarah Hadland, Patricia Hodge, Tom Ellis, Sally Phillips and more.

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Episode menu

Series 1, Episode 5 - Excuse

Penny decides to throw a Pride And Prejudice party in a bid to introduce Miranda to some eligible young men.

Preview clips

Further details

After a mortifying wedding experience when the bride just passed Miranda the bouquet, her mother, Penny, is determined to find her daughter a husband. She decides to throw a Pride And Prejudice party in a bid to introduce Miranda to some eligible young men.

In a panicked attempt to get out of going to the party, Miranda gives her mother a number of increasingly bizarre excuses, but Penny is having none of it and insists that the party is happening, regardless.

When Tilly introduces her to "dream boat Charlie", Miranda realises that, despite her hatred of being set up, this could well be her lucky escape from going to the party. Their date at Gary's restaurant starts with Charlie telling her that his nickname comes from an experience he had on a floating brothel and that he likes Miranda because she looks like she could beat him in a fight. The date ends when Miranda throws a glass of wine over herself in an attempt to make a quick exit.

In a last-ditch attempt to stop the party from happening, Miranda announces to her mother that she's a lesbian, much to Penny's delight, who admits she always had her suspicions and understands fully the "lure of the lily". The party is changed to a Tipping The Velvet-themed "coming out" party where Miranda meets someone who could well be the man of her dreams - if only it wasn't for one small problem...

Broadcast details

Date
Monday 7th December 2009
Time
8:30pm
Channel
BBC Two
Length
30 minutes

Cast & crew

Cast
Miranda Hart Miranda
Sarah Hadland Stevie
Patricia Hodge Penny
Tom Ellis Gary
Sally Phillips Tilly
James Holmes Clive
Guest cast
Adrian Scarborough Charlie
James Bachman Quentin
Dominic Coleman Customer
Alex Hassell Edmund Dettori
Sarah Flower Yoga Instructor
Tom Meeten High-Pitched Voiced Man in Club
Writing team
Miranda Hart Writer
James Cary Writer
Paul Kerensa Writer (Additional Material)
Paul Mayhew-Archer Script Editor
Production team
Juliet May Director
Nerys Evans Producer
Jo Sargent Executive Producer
Jake Bernard Editor
Harry Banks Production Designer

Video

Miranda - Smooth Operator

Penny announces she is hosting a themed party. Miranda has to come up with an excuse quite quickly.

Featuring: Sarah Hadland (Stevie), Miranda Hart (Miranda) & Patricia Hodge (Penny).

Press

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.

Brian Viner, The Independent, 8th December 2009

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.

Lynn Rowlands-Connolly, Unreality TV, 8th December 2009

Miranda is such fun

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

Miranda Hart, BBC Comedy, 7th December 2009

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.

Alison Graham, Radio Times, 7th December 2009

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