Radio Drama Review

In 2008, Comedienne Miranda Hart piloted her comedy, aptly named 'Miranda', a semi-autobiographical sitcom of her life, on BBC Two; this then went on to become the highly successful radio sitcom 'Miranda Hart's Joke Shop' and then finally fulfilling it's purpose into the six part TV sitcom.

The story focuses on Miranda (Miranda Hart), who after trading in her family inheritance to buy and co-run a joke shop with her best friend Stevie (Sarah Hadland), much to her mother's, Penny (Patricia Hodge), dissaproval, and her unfortunate luck with the man of her dreams, Gary (Tom Ellis). Also cast are Miranda's shrill and la-de-dah boarding school friend Tilly (Sally Phillips) and a slightly camp wannabe performing artist waiter at the restaurant Clive (James Holmes).

Miranda injects a fresh light hearted and much needed relief to radio comedy, that often recently has swayed more to satire or black humour, and reminds us of the origins of comedy, without smut, foul language and offensive humour. Her cheeky and playful attitude to comedy is clear and also refreshing; with her signature 'asides' to the audience, we see a novel attribute to the comedy of being unfortunate, what is going on inside the main characters head - think Bridget Jones minus the inner poise. The array of characters that inhabit Miranda's life are both larger than life caricatures but also that of atypical stereotypes. For example, Penny, Miranda's mother, is a middle class mother, one who prides herself on demure and the way the world perceives her, even if this pushes her to obsession with trying to marry off her daughter and lying about Miranda's day job. 

I believe this show will appeal to a mass audience for the simple reason that the comedy is simple yet highly effective, what is going on is very easy to follow with the aid of sounds effects and the topics breached within the show are all of a simple class. Personally, I enjoyed the show due to the simplicity and highly ridiculous yet believable power of sods law to affect people at the worst times possible, combine that with an array of fantastically constructed associable characters, for myself, personally, Penny reminds me a lot of my own mother, to create a definite recipe for comedy gold for the masses.

What this show has taught me is to be wary of construction of the radio piece itself - for example, if comedy is to be contended with then as a creator I must be aware of timing and appeal-ability of punchlines and also that of setting the scene correctly through sound effects and script. Radio, especially when dealing with comedy, is a tricky business as the creator has to always bare in mind that the visual is not there. Such a statement sounds a relatively simple but yet we often tend to forget how much we rely upon visual aids (facial expressions, props and sets) to aid the atmosphere/tone of a piece and how much more thought will be needed to ensure the medium of radio does not jeopardise the piece.