Miranda Hart goes from outcast to castaway: Comedian reveals she is slowly coming to terms with her appearance on Desert Island Discs

Miranda Hart says she only developed problems with how she looked after she left school and went to university

Comedian Miranda Hart admits on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs today that part of her feels like an "outsider in the world of femininity". The 6ft 1in comedian with a face she describes as a "jellied horse" tells presenter Kirsty Young that she is slowly coming to terms with her appearance.

Hart says that she became self-conscious about her looks only when she went to university. "At school I didn't think anything of it. It was just useful," she says. "Then suddenly at university you don't feel like the girl that you suddenly have to be.

"There's still elements of me that feel like that outsider in the world of femininity, but slowly I'm beginning to think come on, I'm bored with this now; we're all beautifully unique."

The Bafta-winning comic describes her school days as "the best days of my life". They certainly provide plenty of comic titbits, such as the time she went to a school disco using bread rolls as shoulder pads. She then went to the lavatory to eat them, reasoning that if bread was on offer then "Crack on, have a carb."