Sally Phillips: Miranda has scaled back her slip-ups

Funny girl Sally Phillips has told how filming Miranda frequently left her co-star battered and bruised.

Miranda Hart: Just a funny, old-fashioned sort of girl

Critics once accused Miranda Hart of producing dated and corny comedy - but the hugely popular TV comedienne is having the last laugh.

While it may be simplistic, archaic and just a little cheesy, Miranda Hart is so tragically loveable that we won't be able to help getting drawn into her ongoing relationship struggles with Gary (Tom Ellis) or attempts to please her mother (Patricia Hodge) by getting a new job. Episode two, which sees Miranda mortified after Penny decides to stand for local government, airs on New Year's Day. Miranda haters be warned - for the next few weeks you will be hearing the phrases "what I call", "bear with" and "such fun" everywhere.

Miranda Hart: this much I know

The comedian on getting drunk, being lonely and why she'd be a hopeless midwife.

I was initially resistant to the charms of Miranda Hart's award-guzzling sitcom, but having watched it with my ten-year-old daughter I have found her enthusiasm contagious and am a convert.

Miranda Hart has no plans to write sex scenes

Miranda Hart says she would never write a sex scene for her sitcom - because she couldn't get through it without laughing.

Miranda: many hapless returns

As Miranda Hart's award-winning sitcom embarks on a third series, the cast reveal the secrets of the show's extraordinary success.

Sip that sherry and surrender to the festive charms of Miranda. Even if you think falling over again and again doesn't constitute comic genius, there's something irresistible about a Christmas special. Miranda and the impossibly handsome Gary are on the brink of romance, but will they go any further? If past experience is anything to go by, that's as likely as Miranda joining a gospel choir. Which she does. There are giggles aplenty as she spectacularly fails on her first day in an office job, before going into business with her mother (Patricia Hodge, who's great).

Of course, Miranda is mainstream, gentle, mum-and-dad comedy. But it is very good mainstream mum-and-dad comedy. As ever, it's Miranda's chronic want of an edit button from which most laughs derive, but in tonight's episode Penny's political aspirations (a right-wing crusade in which she is ably assisted by Tilly) is a great sideshow. Meanwhile, envious of Gary, his new girlfriend Rose and their very public displays of affection, Miranda is spurred into direct action to find a boyfriend: going clubbing. The most over-acted show since Ab Fab - but no worse for that.

Tom Ellis: Trying to keep a straight face

My sense of humour, a bit like Miranda's, is based around bodily functions and the timeless hilarity therein. Basically I'm a child trapped in a man's body.