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Gary Preston
 
 
[defaults to 250]
Portrayed by
First seen
Last seen
The Final Curtain
Appeared in
20
Mention(s)
{{{Mentioned}}}
Episode count
{{{Count}}}
Name
Gary Preston
Also known as
{{{AKA}}}
Gender
Male
Age
36
(Anglo British)
Origin
Surrey, UK
House
{{{House}}}
Profession
Chef
Family members
{{{Family}}}
Series(s)
1, 2, 3


Quote1
Alpha male enough for you?
Quote2


Gary Preston is the chef at the the restaurant, the long time best friend, and main romantic interest of Miranda.

Biography[]

Before Miranda[]

Gary attended University with Miranda, Tilly, Fanny. Miranda and Gary became friends, because he was the only man she felt she could be herself with - she developed a romantic crush on him that was never acted upon, until the events of Let's Do It, at his suggestion, after which, it was a constant undercurrent of their relationship.

Series 1[]

Date
The beginning of series 1 showed Gary returning from his lengthy travels in Malaysia, and taking the position of chef in the restaurant next door to Miranda's joke shop. When he saw her come into the restaurant, he was genuinely pleased, and immediately suggested that they get together and catch up. He told her he picked up cooking while traveling, having worked in numerous restaurants. He "really got into it...I finally found what I really want to do." They are shown to know each other well enough that she knows his parents, and asks after his mother, who is "frantically trying to find me a wife." He had apparently been away at least a year or two, long enough to need to inquire if she had married or had kids while he was away, and after listening to her ridiculous panic lie, immediately asked for confirmation that none of that had been true. They then got together at the closed restaurant and had a very pleasant catch up, he accompanied her home, only fleeing at the sight of a load of baby merchandise in her flat.

Teacher
Miranda and Gary had begun hanging out on a regular basis, and she is a constant presence in the restaurant. He points out his friends Chris and Alison who had agreed to be each other's 'safety spouse' but had, in fact, fallen in love, and he had taken her to Paris to propose. Miranda suggested that she and Gary be each other's 'safety spouse.' He agreed, suggesting they get married at 55 if they have not found 'the one.' Miranda found 55 to be rather an insulting age mark.

Hoiday 2

Holiday
In Miranda's shop, Gary and she are immediately tempted to play with the new toys after Stevie tells them not to. The caterpillar on a string and the duck on a stick then race across the shop, but they are pulled up short when a customer comes in and asks them about their children - both immediately leap into a lie, feeding off each other's lead, about having two boys called Cliff and Richard, and that they are Mary and Joseph Richards. When Miranda later hides out in the local hotel, and says she is in Thailand, it is Gary who gets drunk photos from her and works out where she is, and makes sure to check up on her. A drunken Miranda suggests he spend the night with her to prove the ease of their friendship, then passes out on top of him. He leaves her a glass of water and departs.

Dog
Gary tells Miranda and Clive he's been offered the chance to manage a restaurant in Hong Kong. He then protects the half dressed Miranda from Tilly and Fanny when he finds her stuck in the park gates, and blocks their view of her, then helps her escape and gives her his jacket to wear home. Miranda calls his actions 'majestic.' She then tries to tell him how she feels, and daydreams about stopping Gary going to Hong Kong with a lucid, cogent argument for them to try being together; "...my heart skips a beat every time I see you, and I'd say I'd miss you because you're the one person I can be myself with and underneath all the fear, the only person I could consider a relationship with." His response in her daydream, "...I'd say that's what I've been wanting to hear for ages, and I'd turn down Hong Kong and say let's give us a go" was probably close to the truth. In reality, her plea for him to stay failed utterly when he got distracted by Titan. He tried desperately to talk to her at his party, but their last chance to talk was disrupted after he told Miranda he wanted to dance with her and she needed to stop thinking people didn't find her attractive, because they do find her attractive. They were swept apart by a change of music and a wave of dancers and he left for the airport while the others danced.

Series 2[]

The New Me
Gary returns from Hong Kong and enters the restaurant at the exact moment that Miranda is kissed by the replacement chef, Danny. Gary's is stunned, and although his contract is still in effect, he tells Miranda he won't stay if he'll be in the way. Instead, it's Danny who leaves to take a job in the midlands, and Miranda explains she was just being the new her. Gary offers a hug and says he prefers the old her.

Letsdoit

Gary and Miranda

Let's Do It
Gary and Miranda have gotten ever more chummy. At one point the pair have their heads together at the restaurant counter, while Stevie and Clive watch them. She asks Clive "Do you think they know they're in love?" Clive says that they don't, and then offers them vouchers for a romantic restaurant so they can see if anything will happen. They insist they are just friends, but because it's a place Gary wanted to try, they accept the vouchers and are surprised at how awkward the romantic setting has made them together. Gary asks her if "there might be an us," and she agrees there might be, so he suggests they sleep together, Miranda is thrilled, but the situation never quite works so they can.

A New Low
Gary is still trying to work out a romantic moment with Miranda, but Miranda is exhausted by trying to keep up with her new friend, 22 year old Tamara, the new waitress at the restaurant. Just as Gary finally manages to get Miranda to head off to a spa hotel with him, Clive lets slip that Tamara is his wife. Desperate to make things right with Miranda, Gary follows her to try and explain that Tamara was just a friend from Hong Kong who needed a green card and he owed her a big favor, so married her for immigration reasons, that they weren't even sleeping together...anymore. Feeling hurt and betrayed, Miranda tells him she moving on from him.

The Perfect Christmas
After weeks of prickly encounters, Miranda begins to forgive Gary for his ill conceived 'marriage' and not telling her about it. After realizing she does not want to deal with her parents at Christmas she asks all her friends over for a Christmas sleepover. The others conspire to leave her to share the fold out with Gary while they all take the bedroom. As they settle in for the night, Gary tells her "don't worry about getting me a present, because I've got the best present I could possibly have - I got my friend back."

Series 3[]

It Was Panning
Gary and Miranda return to the safety of being 'just friends' although they find themselves on "the brink of a kiss" several times, and tell each other there should be "no brinking." He is also visibly irritated with Tilly when she predicts Miranda's new job will terminate about 5 minutes after she begins. Unfortunately, to deflect a brinking moment, he comments that the girl in the movie they were watching was cute, so Miranda angrily suggested he go marry her. When Stevie said Miranda's friend loyalty was to Gary, he replied he didn't want anything to do with her because friends forgive each other. At the end of the episode, Miranda tells Gary he was right and she is now letting go of the hurt and forgives him, they affirm they are still friends.

What a Surprise
Gary begins dating Rose, a younger, shorter, thinner woman. Miranda despises Rose on site and never gives her a break, often cutting her off or cutting her out. Miranda begins seeing Mike. She is delighted to find a man who fancies her as much as she fancies him. When Gary asks her if she's happy, she says yes. He, however, looks quite sad as she goes over to Mike.

The Dinner Party
Gary has made plans to buy the restaurant, and can be seen stressed and working on the loan application. Miranda throws a dinner for couples including Gary and Rose. Her friends talk about the 'almost was' between her and Gary, and Rose is instantly jealous and resentful. When a standard Miranda disaster follows, Miranda explains her way of living jolly, and Rose snippily suggests that Gary should be glad his 'thing' with her is over. He instantly defends Miranda, saying that she is his best friend and that if Rose can't handle that, it was over between them. When Mike then tells Miranda that he has fallen in love with her, Gary looks gutted.

Garyhugs

Je Regret Nothing
Gary arrives in Miranda's flat while she is ill and gives her the hugs and sympathy she needs, but when the flowers he has turn out to be not for her, she is disappointed, and cranky that he is so happy at having met someone called Jacinta.

Three Little Words
The restaurant, now renamed, Gary's, despite Miranda and Mike saying "Gary's" sounds like a greasy spoon, is slated for a grand reopening and Gary asks for Miranda's help. Miranda realizes that she can't tell Mike she loves him because she is actually in love with Gary, and sets out to break up with Mike, losing track of time and failing to appear to help Gary. When he angrily calls her on her standing him up, and wants to know what was so important, she blurts out that she had to break up with her boyfriend because she was in love with Gary.

A Brief Encounter
Miranda is determined to go traveling after Gary claims to want to remain 'just friends.' When after a false start or two, she heads to the station to catch a train to Wick, Scotland. Gary is told by Stevie that Miranda is leaving, and immediately runs to the station to stop her. He rescues her from 'youths' she upset on the train, "Oh, Miranda, what have you done now?" and they escape to her flat where Gary at last declares his feelings for her, "I realized that I can't let you go, 'cause it's always been you... No one can match up to you," and they finally kiss properly - several times. When they meet again at the restaurant, she is worried because he is hesitant about telling everyone about them, and when Mike shows up to propose to Miranda, Gary asks her what she says to that. She asks what he says, so he gets down on one knee and proposes as well.

Finale Special[]

I Do, But to Who?
After Miranda flees the restaurant and takes refuge from the duel proposals facing her, both Mike and Gary follow. She is suddenly clear as to her choice, and tells Mike she loves him, he's a good man, but she wants to marry Gary. Gary then produces a packet of crisps and allowing for her eating some, places a crisp ring on her finger and proposes properly. That evening they finally consummate their relationship, in the morning he tells her she is going to make him very happy. When morning also brings her mother and a mood board, Gary says he can't cope with all that, and suggest they get married in no more than three weeks. When Miranda's insecurities make her push him for a verbal declaration, he sees that not only does she not trust him, doesn't trust that he loves her, she doesn't trust herself - that she can be loved, and tells her he can't be with her like that. Weeping, he walks away, telling her she knows its for the best.

Weddingshot

The Final Curtain
Miranda decides that everything Gary said was correct. She says she has to start living for herself, and pulls out her bucket list. After facing down her mother and telling her not to come back until she can accept that Miranda can live her own life, she returns Gary's things to him and tells him they did the right thing. After an intervention with a therapist, she realizes that she's grown, that she's okay, that she doesn't need Gary, but she want's him, and doesn't want to do her life without him. She interrupts Clive's wedding to the customer, thinking Gary was marrying Jacinta on the rebound. Gary pulls her aside and asks her, "Will you elope with me? Just us. Because I've realised I don't want to be without you, I love you, Miranda." They ask the officiant to marry them at the reception. The series closes with the couple happily married.

Red Nose Day Special[]

Miranda's Dance Studio
Miranda's Pineapple Dance Studios was a short bit for Red Nose Day 2011. During Miranda's Dance Studio, Gary turned up to Pineapple Dance Studios to help Miranda and Stevie out when Louie Spence needed it. He ended up dancing with JLS.

Physical Appearance[]

Considered to be extremely attractive, Gary has short, dark brown, curly hair, a short beard, and dark brown eyes. In Miranda's words, his "butt is second to none," and he has the great advantage of actually being taller than Miranda.

Personality[]

Gary is very much the "nice guy" and is every bit the type of person that Miranda is, just a bit different; they react the same way to horror movies, they both do air performances to music, singing whenever a good lyric pops up, he is a gentle, accepting man, always trying to help those in need of it, hence his foolish marriage to Tamara.

He is afraid of mice and of geese, apparently terrified of their hissing. He has difficulty with emotions, at one point asking Miranda to be patient until he can open up.

Quotes[]

  • Please don't call me sweet.
  • You get regal and angry when you're drunk.
  • We are hanging, we are sorting.
  • You were cutely vulnerable.
  • Don't freak out, because I'm freaking out. I know you freak out when I freak out.
  • Miranda, will you do me the honor of being - forever and always, because don't ever leave me - of being - I'm welling up - of being my wife?
  • What I can't wait for is, I don't think you're ever really going to trust yourself...I want to love you for who you are, you don't need to be anything else.
  • I love you just the way you are.

Family[]

  • Mother and father (un-named)
  • Tamara (ex-wife; annulled)
  • Miranda (wife)

Trivia[]

  • Gary and Miranda are portrayed the same age, but in reality Tom Ellis is 6 years younger than Miranda Hart.
  • Tom Ellis and Miranda Hart are very close friends, and affectionately call each other CCS (clammy co-star) referring to their mutual nerves prior to their entrances each show. Miranda gifted him with a set of cuff links at the show wrap engraved CCS.
  • At 6'3" Tom Ellis is the only person on the cast taller than Miranda.

Gallery[]


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