Comedian Miranda Hart Triumphs at the British Comedy Awards!

Awards host and presenter Jonathan Ross  hosted the British Comedy Awards on Saturday night in London and comedian Miranda Hart scooped three of the night’s gongs including Best New TV Comedy Show (for her BBC2 series Miranda), Best Female Comedy Actress, and the People’s Choice Award.

Jo Brand  won Best Female Comic and Michael McIntyre  skipped away with the male equivalent, while Samantha Spiro received the award for Best Female Comedy Breakthrough.

Miranda’s new show has been gaining in popularity and there is speculation that the upcoming third series will move to BBC1. Miranda’s last series averaged 3.7 million viewers and the year ahead looks busy with a planned appearance on Comic Relief in April and potential for performances on the stage. As Miranda says, "To just do something completely different would be really nice. What I'd love to do is make my West End debut. That would be lovely and then I could write in the day." When asked what she planned to do with her awards Miranda replied, "I will probably actually put them in a cupboard as I'm essentially too middle class to be a true show-off."

The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain award went to Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong – writers of the Peep Show - and Roy Clarke received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Roy has been a lifelong writer on shows including Ronnie Barker’s Open All Hours and shows such as Last of The Summer Wine.

The full run-down of accolades for 2011 included:

Best Comedy Panel Show -  Would I Lie To You
Best Comedy Entertainment Programme - Newswipe
Best Comedy Entertainment Personality - Harry Hill
Best Male Comic - Michael McIntyre
Best Female Comic - Jo Brand
Best New British TV Comedy -  Miranda
Best Male Comedy Breakthrough Artist - John Bishop
Best Female Comedy Breakthrough Artist - Samantha Spiro
Best Sketch Show - Horrible Histories
Best Sitcom - The Inbetweeners
Best Comedy Actor - Peter Capaldi
Best Comedy Actress - Miranda Hart
Best British Comedy Performance in Film - Kayvan Novak
Outstanding Contribution To Comedy - Russell Brand
Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award - Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong
People's Choice Award For The King Or Queen Of Comedy 2010 - Miranda Hart
British Comedy Academy Lifetime Achievement - Roy Clarke