Miranda

Miranda isn't your average girly girl. At 6 ft 1, Miranda gets called Sir once too often, much to the amusement of her childhood friend Stevie who manages Miranda's joke shop. Miranda bumps into her old friend Gary, who is working in the restaurant next door as the new chef. When he asks her out for a drink she gets over excited by the prospect of her first real date and decides it's time to try to be more girly.

Miranda is rather British when it comes to sex, or shenanigans as she likes to call it. Trying to overcome her hang-ups she decides the way forward with Gary would be to create a romantic moment so he'll see her in a sexual light. Meanwhile, Stevie persuades her to join an evening class to learn French, the language of love.

Miranda's mother Penny is constantly disappointed that Miranda runs a joke shop rather than having a proper job. Penny bumps into one of Miranda's old school friends, Tilly, and lies that Miranda has a great new job, so Miranda decides to prove everyone wrong and find a new career. After getting caught by Tilly when helping out as a waitress, she finally decides to come clean and be proud of her real job.

Miranda knows she is not exactly cool, but being young, free and single has its advantages, like jetting off to Thailand on holiday for a few days. Although, when it comes down to it, she would rather not bother with the hassle of going quite so far, so she books herself into a hotel across the road instead.

Miranda has spent most of her life avoiding being set up by her mother Penny. Old school pal Tilly sets her up on a blind date with an army doctor friend, Dreamboat Charlie. The date doesn't go quite to plan and so Penny insists on throwing a party to introduce Miranda to a suitable man. When Miranda sees a photo of her intended date he's so bad that the only option left is to lie and to come out to her mother.

When a handsome guy leaves his wallet in the shop, Miranda and Stevie think it could be a sign, especially when they discover he's called Robert Husband. They become highly competitive and try to find out who he'd prefer to take to dinner if he had to choose one of them. Meanwhile, Tilly has invited Miranda to Henley Regatta under the strict proviso that she doesn't embarrass her.