Miranda Hart

I don't get Miranda, the sitcom. I've tried, and I can sort of see why other people do when it's at its giddy best. On the other hand, I do absolutely get Miranda Hart, who is a great comedian. When the sitcom humiliates her character, I can't laugh. But when Hart plays a line that is about attitude alone, I can't not. Odd, but true.

Miranda Hart on mirth, marriage - and Matthew Perry

The comedienne is galumphing, gorgeous and game for a laugh - not even turning 40 can wipe the smile off her face...

Well, hello to you. And let's welcome back the Clown Queen
of Television for a tinsel-strewn edition to open series three.

It's been a long, two-year wait for fans - we don't just like Miranda, we love it - but you'll recall our unwieldy heroine (Miranda Hart) hadn't quite got it together with Gary. They've agreed "just friends", but she's determined to have fun at Christmas, despite starting a new job and being forced to diet.

Nearly all the regulars, and their catchphrases, are back: mum Penny ("Such fun") is still hopeless with new technology; friend Tilly ("Bear with") posh-mangles the English language; and joke-shop colleague Stevie ("What have you done today..?") supplies the crucial love/hate dynamic with Miranda.

It's all effortlessly, irresistibly funny, brimming with gags and glorious silliness. Hart's woman-child persona and total lack of vanity in the cause of comedy should be celebrated... with a biscuit blizzard, perhaps.

Tom Ellis: People ask when Gary and Miranda will unite

Tom Ellis has become hot property since he started playing Miranda Hart's love interest Gary in the acclaimed BBC sitcom. And he says the one thing that everybody always wants to know is whether the pair are ever going to get together.

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 and her troupe of japers return for a third series of the popular sitcom - and it is more delightfully bonkers than ever. Despite the Christmas rush, Miranda's toy shop has succumbed to the recession and her mother (Patricia Hodge) is threatening to cancel the festivities altogether if her daughter doesn't shape up (well, down actually, as in dieting). Worst of all, though, she and Gary (Tom Ellis) have decided to be "just friends".