Helen Lederer: Finger Food: Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh, 2004
Frank Skinner’s Credit Crunch: Lyric Theatre, London, 2009
Miranda Hart is notable as being the first ever act I saw at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival when I first went in August 2004. As I sat in my seat at the Gilded Balloon and the lights went down, Hart appeared in character on stage alone as a harassed, desperate floor manager who took charge of a spoof cookery TV show satirically presented by comedian Helen Lederer. Lederer’s character was an unsuccessful, lifestyle journalist given the chance to host a pilot episode of a daytime TV show Finger Food while the real host was away. The Fringe show was devised and written by Lederer and Hart displayed her accident-prone, pratfall character that was to feature so heavily in her very successful TV comedy series Miranda five years later.
I also saw Hart appear as a guest on Frank Skinner’s Credit Crunch at the Lyric Theatre in London in 2009. Again, her bumbling persona won over an encouraging audience and the act has made Hart one of Britain’s most popular comedians.
