Trio reunite for an Edinburgh Fringe show

The Smack The Pony sketch team are reuniting – more than 20 years after their comedy series ended on Channel 4. 

Doon Mackichan, Fiona Allen and Sally Phillips will be reviving their groundbreaking team for an Edinburgh Fringe run at the Gilded Balloon this summer.

In a statement the trio said:  ‘This is slightly surreal because it's 24 years since we finished. We’re not old comedy, we now qualify as vintage, which is cool. Is it?'

‘Because we always talk sketch ideas when we get together, on some level it’s almost as if Smack the Pony never really stopped - that it just kept going in some parallel universe. 

‘So it feels like Gilded Balloon is some kind of portal and we’ll be popping into catch up with Series 26. We're very grateful to have this chance to hang out and take the piss out of ourselves again - we’ve missed it!’

For their show, Back in the Saddle, the trio will join broadcaster Kirsty Wark to take a deep dive into their show, revisit favourite sketches 'and unveil new surprises'.

In 2019, Mackichan revealed the three of them had written new sketches for a TV revival, but had been knocked back by TV executives.

She told the i newspaper: ‘It’s just been really difficult. We’ve pitched to a few places and it’s not happening. I don’t know whether it’s [because it’s] older women but it’s not happening, which is, to me, astonishing. You think, how funny does it have to be? With the brand?’

Her comments echo what Phillips said the previous year, when she told Chortle: ‘We're always trying to do it again and no one's interested.’ 

Created by Victoria Pile, who would go on to make Green Wing, Smack The Pony ran for 23 episodes from 1999 to 2002, ending with a double-bill of Christmas and new year specials taking the show into the early days of 2003.  The trio previously reunited for a skit for Red Nose Day 2017.

The new dates come after Allen made her Edinburgh debut with the stand-up show, On The Run in 2023, and she is now a regular on the live club circuit.

Mackichan will also be reunited with her Two Doors Down co-star Kieran Hodgson for one of the sessions in an 'in conversation' series a the Gilded Balloon, which will also feature Jenny Eclair, broadcaster Michelle McManus

Nor are Smack The Pony the only ‘vintage’ sketch show reuniting at the venue his August.

The Oblivion Boys – comprising Mark Arden and Stephen Frost – are also back. As well as appearances on Saturday Live, The Young Ones and The Black Adder in the 1980s, the pair also became familiar to TV viewers in the UK by appearing in a series of Carling Black Label lager adverts.

They will be joined by Brenda Gilhooley, reviving her character Gayle Tuesday, who was originally a parody of a Page Three girl.

FAST FRINGE

In a statement, the venue’s artistic directors, Karen and Katy Koren, said: 'We’re thrilled to throw back to the heyday of British sketch comedy with the likes of Smack the Pony and Oblivion Boys joining us.’

Yesterday, we reported how Just The Tonic was hosting a Comic Strip Presents...  retrospective with founder Peter Richardson.

Tickets go on sale next week.

Published: 1 May 2025