Miranda Hart’s moniker gives birth to mirth

A self-proclaimed “showbiz exclusive” from Miranda Hart. She confessed last night that she had acquired an unusual nickname during her school days at Downe House. “They called me Sperm,” she told the audience at Katy Brand’s Book Group Live, at the Tabernacle in Notting Hill.

“I was very tall and very thin. It was an all-girls boarding school, so I guess looking at me was their guess of what sperm looked like.”

Comedian Emma Kennedy, who joined Hart on stage, encouraged new writers to “understand that at the beginning, whatever you write will be s**t”. “Speak for yourself,” Hart quipped back.