... that we talked about that I think would be really helpful to unpack.

Okay.

So, um, I, I kind of deal with this stuff all the time, r- so I wrote, co-wrote the first two series of Miranda, and I wrote a BBC Three show called Bluestone 42.

I wrote, uh, a sitcom for Radio 4 called Think the Unthinkable, and I wrote another one called Hat 33.

Um, so I...

this is what I...

this is my job and my life.

Sure.

Not get

rid of it completely, but I would just make the point connected to the text and move on.

But what I tend to do is just note how the text can delight you.

I think that's the thing.

I've been trying to work out what is my comedy voice.

This isn't necessarily everybody else's, but the idea is essentially...

Every time I look at scripture, I realise that God is kinder and more gracious and more patient than I thought, that I could barely even believe.

It would make

And, you know, it is possible that... to write very dark stuff in comedy isn't it and and i think you know what that for me is one of the joys i mean i haven't done as much uh i'd love to have done more audience sitcom writing as as you've done but um in the shows that i've worked on and these are shows that go out at sort of family family friendly times you know 7.30 on a Friday night or whatever but it's still possible to cover very dark subjects isn't it I mean did you find that I mean I think there was Miranda there's quite a lot of not the Tempest Miranda we're talking about the hit sitcom version for the Shakespeare buffs in the audience so I mean that was nobody would say oh that's a very dark sitcom would they no but You did deal with a lot of quite serious stuff in there, didn't

you? Well, yeah.

I mean, Miranda itself was pretty bleak in the sense of just this domination of her mother and never being able to please her and all that kind of stuff.

And her coping was by being trivial.

I mean, the shop that she had, when it was on radio, it was called Miranda Hart's Joke Shop.

And so the shop in the TV show wasn't technically a joke shop.

It was like a gift shop that just sort of sold useless crap and gifts and that kind of stuff.

they did, which one did they do?

You know... fraser and friends basically defined american tv and they dragged everything along with them when they were successful any idea why we no longer have these things

i think you're right in terms of i've too and puzzled by the fact that surely if nothing else bare-faced greed would make people invest in sitcoms because they are gigantically profitable They are the only, I mean, I think I wrote an article about this a while ago.

They're the kind of television where you don't just watch it.

You then want other people to watch it.

And then 20 years later, you're going to make your kids watch it.

It's important.

So I'm making my oldest watch Red Dwarf, which she's kind of okay with.

Yes,