Buckle up and Smack The Pony
Published: Sunday 11th May 2025
Out of the thousands of 20th Century comedy shows, there is a notable paucity of female comics fronting their own series. Notable outliers include Joyce Grenfell in the likes of Joyce Grenfell Requests The Pleasure; Millicent Martin in Mainly Millicent; Dora Bryan's According To Dora; and Beryl Reid's Beryl Reid Says Good Evening, all of which aired in the 1950s and 60s. There was also Marti Caine, who had several series throughout the 1970s and 80s.
When it comes to female-fronted sketch shows, few would argue that Victoria Wood was a true tide-turner, not only starring but also writing every word of both Wood And Walters and As Seen On TV, which is astonishing not only for the wealth of material generated but also her strict self-editing, meaning the quality remained incredibly high throughout. French & Saunders dominated the format into the 1990s, with pitch-perfect parodies of films and music videos propelling them into the top tier of comic performers in the UK. Tracey Ullman, meanwhile, moved to LA and fronted the eponymous Tracy Ullman Show in the 1980s, which is perhaps remembered for launching The Simpsons.
Writer Victoria Pile began her career penning sketches for Not The Nine O'Clock News before co-writing police procedural parody Lazarus & Dingwall. The show starred Stephen Frost and Mark Arden, better known on the comedy circuit as The Oblivion Boys. She then created Smack The Pony, which premiered in 1999. In a retrospective article for the BBC, Pile remembered:
It was actually Caroline Leddy [then commissioning editor at Channel 4] and Peter Fincham [then head of production company Talkback] who realised that it was time for an all-woman sketch show. The overriding mission from day one was to prove that women could make anyone and everyone laugh. We quickly established a writing brief that banned all period jokes... no over-indulgence in female-centric issues, and concentrating on contemporary life.
In the pilot episode, Amanda Holden starred alongside Fiona Allen and Sally Phillips. She was replaced by Doon Mackichan for the resulting series, although she did still appear in several episodes. Other regular supporting cast members included Sarah Alexander, Darren Boyd and Cavan Clerkin.
One of the things that set Smack The Pony apart at the time was a willingness to commit to the silly and surreal, with short, sharp sketches that got to the gag quickly and did not rely on catchphrases. The opening sketch of the first episode perfectly sets out the stall for the series, as Mackichan plays a serious diver standing next to a pool. After a few seconds of build-up, she does a spectacular bellyflop. Or take a sketch from the Christmas special that has the trio working in an office with two men, whom they attempt to impress by showing off their thongs in increasingly outlandish ways, until Mackichan ends up pulling hers over her shoulders. A great visual gag and a perfect punchline.
One of Phillips's greatest skills is the ability to beautifully underplay many of her characters. This is well illustrated in a sketch where she plays an actress performing a kissing scene, who tries to insist on shooting it again because she fancies her co-star. Or the Saying Goodbye sketch, which Boyd counts among his favourites. He plays Phillips's husband, who, upon saying goodbye to Alexander, begins to passionately kiss her as Phillips stands there. The latter's deadpan delivery of "can we have a little chat?" causes the studio audience to erupt in laughter. Then there're the Dating Video sketches, which, a quarter of a century later, are still prescient - perhaps even more so with the advent of dating apps. One particularly memorable sketch has Phillips describing her expectations thusly:
I want a man who has a really high-powered job, maybe in the City. But he shouldn't be motivated by money at all. He should be really spontaneous when it comes to presents. But it should mainly be stuff that I wanted already. He should have quite a large penis - but he shouldn't feel that he has to use all of it, all of the time.
Though a lot of Smack The Pony mixes the silly with the surreal, it is the cast's ability to play things completely straight that often generates the biggest laughs. One such example is a sketch in which Phillips visits Mackichan's home, whose walls are adorned with nude self-portraits. Mackichan's completely straight face whilst delivering lines like "Could you not look? I've got a massive minge on that one" and Phillips's superbly underplayed awkward reaction really sells the reality of the scene.
Much like The Fast Show before it, and The Sketch Show (which followed shortly after Smack The Pony in 2001), many of the sketches are quickies - one-line jokes or ideas distilled down to the shortest setup and punchline - whether it's two hikers who decide to slam into each other on a hill, a pair of dog walkers barking at each other, a bride doing inappropriate things like browsing a shop or diving into a pool (complete with two bridesmaids holding her train), or an office where, for no discernible reason, people Irish dance everywhere instead of walking. Phillips has said in several interviews that her favourite sketch is one in which she plays a supermarket worker who stocks the entire shop with nothing but Toilet Duck.
Although there weren't really recurring characters, the writers managed to wring as many punchlines as possible out of any given premise. A good example are the sketches featuring people completely oblivious to their own lifestyle., Phillips is walking a dog, and after being stopped to sign a petition on dog walking, she is adamant she has a phobia of them. When her own dog is pointed out to her, she screams in terror. A woman has the same reaction after being told she's pregnant. There were also several sketches with a vet who couldn't recognise animals and would prescribe ridiculous things to them, such as glasses for a cat.
One sketch in particular was included in Channel 4's 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches (2005). It saw Phillips singing along to Without You by Harry Nilsson. Her colleague, Mackichan, begins to try to outshine her. They gradually get louder and louder until Phillips screeches, excusing her behaviour by saying she got a papercut.
The series was brought to a close in 2003. Post Smack The Pony, female-led comedies began to appear more regularly on British television, including Tittybangbang, Touch Me, I'm Karen Taylor, Little Miss Jocelyn, Watson & Oliver and Miranda, in which Phillips also featured.
Mackichan has most recently co-starred in popular Scottish sitcom Two Doors Down, while Allen took her debut stand-up show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2024 and subsequently toured the UK. Phillips continues to appear in the hit Bridget Jones franchise, and much else besides. She also had a memorable stint as a contestant on Taskmaster during which she, among other things, gave Alex Horne a special cuddle and produced a surprisingly erotic film to make a 'water cooler moment'.
Pile found huge success with hospital comedy Green Wing, which was recently revived for an audio series, as well as the underrated Campus. Her most recent creation is ITV police sitcom Piglets, which has been recommissioned for a second series.
Following a brief reunion for Red Nose Day in 2017, the best news is that Mackichan, Phillips and Allen will play several live shows at this year's Edinburgh Fringe. Smack The Pony: Back In The Saddle will feature the trio in conversation with Kirsty Wark as they discuss the making of the show, their favourite sketches and behind the scenes secrets. Sublimely silly and endlessly rewatchable, Smack The Pony stands as a wonderful testament to the chemistry, creativity and comic timing shared between the three women.
Where to start?
Series 1, Episode 1
As there are no recurring characters you can safely jump in at any point, so why not at the beginning? This episode alone features hilarious sketches like the aforementioned singing competition, a great parody of Torvill & Dean, and a particularly uncouth dentist.
Smack The Pony can currently be watched for free on Channel 4 Streaming.
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