FUNNY lady Miranda Hart, whose comedy series begins on BBC2 on Monday, has often been compared with fellow comediennes French and Saunders. She has, after all, appeared in their sketch show as well as in The Vicar Of Dibley and Absolutely Fabulous.

But she doesn’t see the similarities herself.

“In a way most female comedians get compared with them because there weren’t many others around before us new lot,” she says.

“It was Victoria Wood and French and Saunders as the big names and that was about it, but now there are more, so I don’t think it will be the same in the future.

“I think if I am ever compared with them it would be amazing, and if I have even an ounce of their brilliance, then that’d be even better.”

Hart, who recently guest hosted BBC1’s Have I Got News For You, is both writer and star of Miranda, which is derived from her Radio 2 series Miranda Hart’s Joke Shop.

“My instinct is very traditional. I love the light entertainment of comedians like Morecambe and Wise and Joyce Grenfell,” she says.

Miranda the show features many of the conventions that defined sitcoms of the Seventies. The central character addresses the audience just as Eric Morecambe used to in many of the duo’s sketches. There’s a good old-fashioned You Have Been Watching end credits section too, where each cast member waves goodbye, and it’s filmed in front of a studio audience.

“It’s more like Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em than Curb Your Enthusiasm,” says Hart whose height – she’s 6ft 1in – ensures she stands out in a crowd.

“I wanted to make sure it could appeal to everyone. There’s no swearing and it’s not edgy, but it is definitely for 2009 and there’s an element of quirkiness. I aimed to get the balance right.

“I loved filming in front of the audience.

There’s that instant reaction. I think it’s harder – you have to really work to get the laugh.

“I know people will say, ‘why did you put a canned laughter track on it?’ but we didn’t, it’s just filmed in front of a live audience and they were laughing.

“We’re steeped in audience sitcoms in the UK, and I think we forget Friends, Father Ted and Seinfeld all have laughter tracks. It’s just on shows that aren’t funny where it gets annoying.”

The script is semi-autobiographical.

“That means it’s either true or an exaggerated truth,” says Hart, whose Miranda is seen falling from one social disaster to another. She’s a character who can’t seem to do anything right, even getting out of a park before it’s locked up for the night.

“That actually happened to me,” she explains. “I was walking my dog at dusk, and suddenly I saw the car headlights of the park warden closing the park.

“I tried to squeeze through the fence, but got caught between the fence and a gate. In reality, I removed a jacket and a jumper to get through the gap, but in the programme I’m there in just my bra and jeans.”

In real life, she’s not so socially inept these days. Miranda, she supposes, is the twentysomething version of her.

“She finds social occasions very difficult.

I did then, not so much now. Isn’t everyone dysfunctional in their 20s? I certainly was back then, working out how to play the games society throws up, but not wanting to.

“She’s terrible with men, despite lusting after her old friend from university, and she owns a joke shop. There’s something quite eccentric about someone who would put all of an inheritance into a potentially failing business.”

■ Miranda: Monday, BBC2, 8.30pm.