Miranda's not the only Brit to have a Hollywood-over

Talented, funny, well on her way to becoming a national treasure, yes, but glamorous is probably not the first word one would land upon to describe Miranda Hart. I wouldn't be so uncharitable as to call her frumpy, but she'd have been unlikely to make it on anyone's best-dressed list in the party pages. Until this week that is, when 42 year-old Hart slinked up the red carpet at the London premiere of her new film, Spy, with an infinitely more polished appearance, svelte in a chic black jumpsuit and beaded sandals, with softly waved hair and stylish jewellery.

She has claimed in the past to be unconcerned about the aesthetics of being an actress. "I don't feel any pressure to look a certain way at all," she told this newspaper in November 2013. "It is hard because you see images of yourself in this job that people don't normally. And you're confronted with the fact that you've got vast thighs and enormous upper arms. But that's where being a character actor is great because I don't have to be the leading lady. Who'd want to be the beautiful one?"

Since then, however, Hart, best known for her BBC comedy Miranda and the drama Call the Midwife, has undergone something of a 'Hollywood-over'. And while she may not be lining up the leading lady roles quite yet, Spy - also starring Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Jude Law and Jason Statham - is Hart's first shot at a breaking America.