Miranda Hart has written a touching article for Glamour magazine describing the grief she felt when losing a close friend, and how she has tried to turn that pain into something positive.

The actor and comedian, known for her eponymous sketch show Miranda and her role in BBC One’s Call The Midwife, describes in devastating detail how she felt upon learning that her fellow drama school student Joanna Dugdale (nicknamed Bella) had died from liver cancer.

Recalling the moment she heard the news, Hart writes: “Tears flooded my eyes and the breath was whipped from my throat. But I had to return to the shoot for my new book – which had seemed so important just minutes before – and put my grief on hold.”

The actor explains that having to maintain a positive persona even when she feels low is “one of the hardest things about my job – carrying on through tough times; doing stand-up comedy when I least feel like laughing; signing autographs with a smile when no one knows what’s going on behind the mask”.

Miranda Hart on what losing her best friend taught her about life