Miranda Hart - Such Fun. Sophie Johnson
her brand of silliness.’ Shuttleworth went on to describe one of the key things that people find appealing about Miranda: ‘I usually have trouble with comedy of embarrassment, because I keep sympathising with the embarrassed party. One of Hart’s strengths is that she can put herself in awkward situations without generating that kind of uneasiness.’ Arguably, she still adopts this key skill in her current work, having spent several years developing her likeable alter ego.
However, the show wasn’t perfect, and other critics picked out where they saw room for improvement. Comedy website Chortle gave it a three-star review and, while content with her performance, expressed concern for the sections when she is on stage alone: ‘These stand-up sections are easily the weakest – sub-standard observations, a bar-room gag about an inflatable school and a recurring joke about the household hints found in women’s magazines that are surely beyond parody, thanks to Viz.’ While warmer towards the sketches, the same reviewer suggested that they might have been improved by being shortened, and that Hart’s finest moments occurred when she interacted with the other characters, ‘an insecure, sexually confused director, a safety-obsessed techie and the nervous work experience girl – producing some fertile comic friction. These running gags help make the whole a great deal more than the parts, thanks also to some neat callbacks and some likeable unscripted banter.’
All in all, the reviews concluded that, while Hart was an endearing performer, and was certainly getting noticed, there was room for improvement in Miranda Hart… throb. And at Edinburgh, there’s always next year. So Hart returned in 2003 with It’s All About Me: ‘Unique character comedy from a delightful, talented and funny performer. Come and see why this comedy actress is raved about. A mix of unique character comedy, stand-up and there are attempts to sing and dance’. Prior to the Edinburgh run, the show played at the Finborough Theatre in London and, for the first time, the press releases could use references to last year’s sell-out run. In It’s All About Me, Hart played an aspiring but talentless actress trying out a show that she hopes will be discovered by Sean Connery and taken to Broadway. Audiences were treated to the physical prowess that would later attract millions to the BBC – her dance was of course clunky and clumsy and she decided to combine speech and mime (and call it “smime”) as her movements weren’t speaking for themselves. Miranda was brave enough to shave off the extra cast members, but retained just one technician, played by Anne-Marie Draycott. Draycott, ironically, later joined up with Charity Trimm to form the sketch group 3 Girls in a Boat. They were originally a trio but, as they put it, ‘the third girl jumped ship’.
Once It’s All About Me reached Edinburgh, Chortle gave Miranda another middling three stars, claiming there wasn’t enough originality. ‘The character of the theatrical, show-off madam convinced she’s onto a fast track to adulation despite negligible skill seems to be to the aspiring comedienne what Star Wars and masturbation is to the stereotypical male standup.’ There was little criticism of Miranda’s performance, however: ‘Hart pulls it off with aplomb, though. The semi-autobiographical character is utterly believable and the enthusiasm rubs off as she encourages us all to celebrate her poshness.’ This is another quality that matured and is still a prominent theme in the Miranda sitcom.
Word started to spread about Hart during the 2003 Fringe. There was even talk of her as a potential contender for the comedy awards. Writing for the FT, Ian Shuttleworth listed her among Sarah Kendall, Lucy Porter and Nina Conti as one of the funniest females on the Fringe: ‘Miranda Hart is now delightfully accomplished at self-parodic character work: imagine Dawn French at her best, but shaped like a classical caryatid.’
There was even talk of her as a potential contender for the Fringe’s comedy awards, though she would be unsuccessful on that front. That year, Demetri Martin got the main gong, while Gary Le Strange (Waen Shepherd’s eccentric Rock character) got best newcomer. But to be considered at all shows that she was stepping up to the challenge. Commercial success couldn’t be too far away.
Miranda took a year off solo shows to work on her act, hone her stand-up and refine the character. Back in London, she performed a run of It’s All About Me at the Soho Theatre in October 2003 and started hosting a regular comedy night for female performers called ‘Lipstick and Shopping’, at the Albany on Great Portland Street. Each night would accommodate one male performer. Stewart Lee was to become a near-regular – in January 2004, his newsletter read: ‘These nights are ace and full of all-female talent, except for the token man, which I am now for the third time running.’
Miranda’s 2004 Edinburgh found her in two daily productions: Dogman, a children’s play based on the book by John Dowie, and Finger Food, written by and starring Helen Lederer. With one beginning at 2.15pm, the other at 7.45pm, the lifestyle of going to bed at 6am and sleeping into the early evening (standard for many Edinburgh comics) was not an option for her. She told the BBC what she planned to do with her time not spent performing: ‘When I’m not working I will be seeing as many shows as possible. Plus for Helen’s show I’m turning into a bit of a chef as I have to prep some nibbles and other food stuffs for her show where we cook on stage.’
Finger Food was a spoof cookery show, where Helen Lederer’s wannabe presenter character gets her chance to fill in as the regular host is stuck in Paris. Miranda played the floor manager who is more concerned with her relationship woes than the situation in hand. The Fringe programme description sums it up as ‘Three women in search of a nervous breakdown meets Noises Off!’
The reviews varied wildly from a one-star thrashing from Chortle, to a glowing review on EdinburghGuide.com: ‘[Their] verbal interplay is worth many chuckles on its own, and the script is rich with gags, too – and, to cap it, there’s an admirable turn at the end of the show towards slapstick and the surreal.’
Dogman, meanwhile, was adapted for the stage by Leisa Rea, whose production is described in the programme as ‘off beat, with daft physical comedy, a ukelele, toy piano, swanee whistle, accordion, clarinet, melodica and guitar’. Miranda was joined by Janice Phayre, Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Richard Vranch and Tom Price. One happy audience member logged on to Chortle to leave the comment: ‘I took my five-year-old daughter to see dogman last week at the Gilded Balloon, we both enjoyed it. It is a fantastic show and I would recommend it to anybody.’
An audiobook CD was later released in 2005, narrated by Phill Jupitus and with songs from Neil Innes.
After that busy Edinburgh, Miranda took the ‘Lipstick and Shopping’ showcase to Stratford-upon-Avon in October 2004, as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s second ‘Week With Laughter’ festival. Also appearing were Paul Merton’s improv group The Comedy Store Players, as well as Jimmy Carr, Mark Thomas, Pam Ann and Al Murray. Throughout the year, she perfected her stage skills and really got to know her character.
Looking at the programme synopsis for her 2005 Edinburgh show, Miranda Hart’s House Party, we see a pretty precise description of a Miranda who will, in not too much time, be on our screens: ‘Miranda doesn’t fit in! She was born into an upper-class background she can’t relate to; she is 6’1” and finds it hard to feel feminine and fit in with the “girls”; she is single but has no flirting skills; and has always been a liability at social functions.’ The show sees her holding a party to help her meet new friends, complete with a timetable of how the evening will run. She’s desperate to please and cater for every taste, as she has Tennent’s Lager, After Eights, Quality Street and a bowl of Es. The audience play a game of pass the parcel while Miranda tells them about her middle-class friends.
Also in the cast for House Party was Neil Edmond, who played Miranda’s cousin. Edmond was a member of sketch group The Consultants with Justin Edwards and James Rawlings, and they had won the Perrier Award for Best Newcomer in 2002. More recently, he has appeared in such series as BBC7’s Knocker, and in TV shows such as Jack Dee’s Lead Balloon and indeed Miranda itself. In the Edinburgh run of House Party, as her cousin, Edmond fills in for Miranda while she changes into costume for the various party guests she plays. They include Poo, her ‘jolly hockey sticks’ horsey friend; the guy she had a crush on at university; and the girlfriend who tells gushing tales about her fiancé,