Miranda Hart says a Miranda film WAS in the works - but now it will never happen

Now the comic actress has revealed that she had, in fact, been in talks with BBC Films about making a movie. But it was not to be.

"I considered it and worked towards writing a script," she told BBC Radio 4 Extra. "Then I kept thinking, these films never work."

Why not? Apparently it's all about the studio audience.

"The transition from a studio sitcom to a film never works - The Inbetweeners is a perfect example of it working brilliantly, because it was filmic anyway," the Call the Midwife star explained. "But what are [the characters] doing on location? And we're not hearing laughs [from the audience], so it's such a different thing."

The nail in the coffin came when Dad's Army writer Jimmy Perry wrote an article warning that it would be a terrible idea.

Hart said, "I read that Jimmy Perry randomly wrote this article talking about that transition from studio sitcoms to films, and he said, 'I hope Miranda doesn't do it because what she's written is a studio sitcom and that's what it should be'.

"And I thought, well he knows, so I'm going to honour that. So he inadvertently told me not to do the film."

Miranda lasted for three series from 2009 to 2013. But having abandoned her plans to make a movie, Hart re-purposed the film's plot for two Christmas specials in 2014 and 2015.

"I wrote what was the film script for the finales," Hart said. "They split up and then got back together and the beautiful galloping along the beach on a horse. It would have been a good movie story, but I've done it."

Still, there is still some good news for fans of the hit sitcom who have been missing their dose of Miranda. She has previously suggested that the next stage of Miranda's life be brought to the small screen, and it's clearly still on her mind.

Hart suggested: "I think you could do married life as a sitcom, with Miranda and Gary and see how they're getting on."