Miranda

Any thoughts that the third series would expose a lack of ideas or run out of energy have been swiftly elbowed into a pile of cardboard boxes. Miranda Hart has been on fighting form, and re-creates the mother-and-daughter two-hander that worked so well when the pair attended a psychiatric assessment.

This time Miranda is gritting her teeth as she tends to a sick, pedantic Penny ("And when I say a fresh towel I don't mean Febrezed and flapped outside the window"). But it's not long before the boot is on the other foot.

We've missed Miranda's dad and camp Clive this series, but the remaining cast have kept the laughs flooding in.

Ten things Miranda Hart has done, other than Miranda

See Gary and Miranda get it together before they were Gary and Miranda, and much more...

Miranda loses 2 million viewers

BBC1 sitcom attracted 6.8 million on Monday night, with Mrs Brown's Boys pulling in the same audience on Monday night.

Bear with, bear with. Our Miranda is a bit busy preparing a dinner party. Well, it's one way to prove she's all grown up now, a real woman who's more than capable of handling adult responsibilities. After all, she's got a proper boyfriend now and everything. So it's into the bin with her fruit friends and 'vegetepals' and on with the pashmina to whip up a fabulous sophisticated feast. With a little help from her mum.

Our cack-handed heroine is still together with Mike (Bo Poraj), and tells us she's every inch the sophisticated girlfriend (she now owns a pashmina). But is the strain getting to her? Miranda's inappropriateness reaches new heights during a chaotic dinner party, ending with what seems like a hefty broadside at her critics. You go girl!

It's a riotous episode, and many of the best lines fall to Patricia Hodge. Thanks to her role as Miranda's eccentric mother, Hodge is fast approaching national-treasure status. Such fun.

With Miranda desperate to seem sophisticated for new boyfriend Mike, Operation Maintain Dignity trundles into action. For anyone else, this might not be a challenge, but events - such as expelling pent-up silliness in controlled bursts or using a dishwasher for laundry after a plumbing mishap - prove that Miranda does nothing the easy way. To emphasise her functioning adult status, she throws a dinner party to impress Mike's exacting father - a stern test for someone so easily outwitted by clingfilm.

On Tuesday morning rumours from within the Miranda camp suggested the current third series would be the last.

But I'm more concerned about the fact that the fewer actual belly laughs an episode contains the louder the bullying laughter track becomes.

Yes, I know it's filmed in front of a live studio audience, but having heard some of the out-of-kilter shrieking and hollering lately I cannot believe things are not helped along a little in post-production.

Let's be honest: a) nothing is that funny and, b) no one in the audience can be on that much medication.

Is it me, or is 'Miranda' not at all funny?

Bryony Gordon wonders what all the fuss is about.

Miranda pulls in big New Year's Day audiences

The sitcoms Miranda and Mrs Brown's Boys were the two most watched programmes on New Year's Day, pushing BBC One head of other channels.

Why Miranda is not guilty of misogyny

Several critics accuse Miranda Hart of misogyny and self-loathing. The fact that Hart has created, writes and stars in her own show on her own terms should be celebrated, loudly and lengthily, not scoured for faults.