Comedian explores her fight with anxiety

Miranda Hart is making a film about anxiety for BBC One, Chortle can reveal.

The comedian will be exploring her own struggles with the condition and investigating treatments for managing mental health.

Currently untitled, the hour-long documentary will see Hart undergo a 21-day 'brain detox' which purports to help the anxious 're-wire their brains and overcome toxic thoughts'.

Aiming to help young people improve their emotional well-being, the comic set up Miranda's Fund with Comic Relief last year, with all royalties from her book Miranda's Daily Dose Of Such Fun going to the cause.

In the book, she wrote: 'Life during times of acute anxiety has been like wading through treacle and on bad days getting to the end of the street to post a letter was hard, such was the extreme level of fear in my body.'

She had previously disclosed how she suffered from agoraphobia and body image issues in her early twenties.

'I thought the world was a bit scary. A sort of anxiety runs in the family' she told the Guardian in 2010. 'Some people get depressed for six months then pull themselves together. I just hid in a room in the house and didn’t really go out. It was my blip.'

'I think I'll always be a slightly anxious person. It's just bad genes, bad luck, really. I'll always have to force myself to see the positive, because I'm wired badly, I'd say. I'm just naturally a bit under, a bit depressed.'

The film is being made by Fulwell 73, whose credits include The Late Late Show with James Corden and the Ibiza-set film White Island starring Joel Dommett.

The company's documentary strand has previously been more concerned with sport and music, with its back catalogue including I Am Bolt, the Manchester United-related Class of '92 and One Direction: Where We Are.

- by Jay Richardson

Published: 10 May 2018