Throughout film, television, and radio, British comedy has become known for its consistently peculiar characters, plots, and settings, and has produced some of the most renowned comedians and characters in the world.
David Quantick is an English novelist, comedy writer and critic, who has worked as a journalist and screenwriter. A former staff writer for the music magazine NME, his writing credits have included On the Hour, Blue Jam, TV Burp and Veep; for the latter of these he won an Emmy in 2015.
Paula Jai Parker is an American actress. She is best known for her supporting roles in the films Friday (1995), Sprung (1997), Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1998), Phone Booth (2002), Hustle & Flow (2005), and Idlewild (2006), and for her roles on television sitcoms The Wayans Bros. (1995-1996), Family Time (2012-2019), Hollywood Divas (2014-2016), Ray Donovan (2016), Black Jesus (2019), A House Divided (2019-2022), and Queen Sugar (2021). Parker is also known for her voice of Trudy Proud in the Disney Channel animated comedy series, The Proud Family (2001-2005), and also in the 2005 TV Movie The Proud Family Movie, and even its 2022 reboot, The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder.
Sally Elizabeth Phillips is an English actress, television presenter, and comedian. She co-created and was one of the writers of the sketch comedy show Smack the Pony. She is also known for her roles in Miranda as Tilly, I'm Alan Partridge as Sophie, Parents as Jenny Pope, Set the Thames on Fire as Colette in 2015, and her guest appearances as the fictional Prime Minister of Finland Minna Häkkinen in the US TV series Veep. Phillips also co-starred in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as Mrs Bennet and in the role of Shazza in all three films of the Bridget Jones franchise.
Green Wing is a British sitcom set in the fictional East Hampton Hospital. It was created by the same team behind the sketch show Smack the Pony – Channel 4 commissioner Caroline Leddy and producer Victoria Pile – and stars Mark Heap, Tamsin Greig, Stephen Mangan and Julian Rhind-Tutt. Although set in a hospital, it uses no medical storylines; the action is produced by a series of soap opera-style twists and turns in the personal lives of the characters. They proceed through a series of often absurd sketch-like scenes, or by sequences where the film is slowed down or sped up, often emphasising the body language of the characters. The show had eight writers. Two series were made by the Talkback Thames production company for Channel 4.
Sarah Alexander is an English actress. She has appeared in British series including Armstrong and Miller, Smack the Pony, Coupling, The Worst Week of My Life, Green Wing, Marley's Ghosts and Jonathan Creek.
Sarah Doon Mackichan is a British actress, comedian and writer. She co-created, wrote and performed in the double Emmy award winning Smack the Pony. She frequently collaborates with Armando Iannucci and Steve Coogan, having played multiple characters in The Day Today, Brass Eye and Alan Partridge, and has also appeared in Toast of London and Two Doors Down. Mackichan was nominated for Best Female Comedy Performance at the 2014 British Academy Television Awards for her performance in Plebs and won critical praise for her performance alongside John Malkovich in Bitter Wheat in 2019.
Smack the Pony is a British sketch comedy show that was originally broadcast between 1999 and 2003 on Channel 4. The main performers on the show were Fiona Allen, Doon Mackichan and Sally Phillips. There were also regular appearances from Sarah Alexander, Darren Boyd and Cavan Clerkin. The show's theme tune was a version of the Dusty Springfield song "In the Middle of Nowhere", sung by Jackie Clune. In addition to the three principal cast members, the show was written by many writers, the core of which went on to write Green Wing and Campus.
Talkback is a British television production company established in 1981 by comedy duo Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones.
Victoria Pile, also known as Vicky Pile, is a British comedy writer, director and producer, most noted as the creator of two Channel 4 comedy programmes, the sketch show Smack the Pony and the sitcom Green Wing. She began her career writing for Not the Nine O'Clock News whilst still a student at University of Sussex. She has also written for Spitting Image and CBBC.
Green Wing is a surreal medical sitcom starring Tamsin Greig, Stephen Mangan and Julian Rhind-Tutt. All the episodes were written by a team of eight writers working on every episode together. The writers are Victoria Pile, Robert Harley, Gary Howe, Stuart Kenworthy, Oriane Messina, Richard Preddy, Fay Rusling and James Henry. The series was directed by Tristram Shapeero and Dominic Brigstocke. The first series consisted of nine episodes broadcast between 3 September and 29 October 2004 on Channel 4. A DVD of the series was released on 3 April 2006. The scripts of the first series entitled Green Wing: The Complete First Series Scripts were released in paperback on 22 October 2006. The first series was received well by both critics and fans. The series also won several awards including a BAFTA, two Royal Television Society (RTS) awards, and a Rose d'Or.
Robert Harley is a British comedy writer and actor, best known for his work in the sketch show Smack the Pony and the sitcom Green Wing, where he also plays Charles, the CEO of East Hampton Hospital Trust. He has written The Delivery Man for ITV1. He is the co-founder of independent production company Monicker Pictures.
Stuart Kenworthy is a British comedy writer, most noted for his work in the sketch show Smack the Pony and the sitcom Green Wing. A scene originated by Stuart, for Green Wing, was nominated for Most Memorable Comedy Moment of 2005. The pilot episode of Scallywagga won Best Comedy at the RTS North West Awards 2007. The first series of Scallywagga was broadcast on BBC Three in April 2008. Previously, Stuart spent ten years working as a photographic artist, supplementing his income by working as an Evidence Gathering photographer for Lancashire Constabulary. In 1999 he gained a first class honors degree in Sociology and was awarded the faculty prize from the University of Leicester. His agent is Hugo Young at Independent, London. I
Oriane Messina is a British comedy writer and performer, best known for her work in the sketch show Smack the Pony and the sitcom Green Wing. She has had a working partnership with fellow writer Fay Rusling since 1999. In 2007, she appeared briefly as a nurse in sitcom Not Going Out, and again briefly in 2008 as a driving tester in The Inbetweeners.
Richard Preddy was a British comedy writer and performer, most noted for working in the sketch show Smack the Pony and the sitcom Green Wing. He had a working partnership with fellow writer Gary Howe since 1987.
Fay Rusling is a British comedy writer and performer, most known for her work in the sketch show Smack the Pony and the sitcom Green Wing. She has had a working partnership with fellow writer Oriane Messina since 1999.
James Henry is a British comedy screenwriter, best known for his work on Green Wing, Campus and co-writing ITV's The Delivery Man.
Rhys Thomas is a British director, producer, actor, comedian and writer.
