Smack the Pony could soon return to Channel 4

“So much has happened to us all, as mothers and women, there’s a lot that is funny about where we are now,” Mackichan told RadioTimes.com. “There are years of pain to draw on.”

The three stars have talked about a possible return of the iconic comedy but now it seems they are close to pitching the idea formally to C4 executives.

Mackichan said that the team were writing material and “getting the pitch together”

“We will have to wait and see what happens and whether they will want to bring it out of the stable. But we would love to get the old nag out again."

The original show ran for three series and two specials between 1999 and 2003 and is remembered for a number of sketches which combined satire of workplace relationships with more surreal skits like the women who jumped form their car as they neared a parking space.

Mackichan said any reboot was a particularly big commitment because the threesome planned not to repeat sketches and needed to provide a swathe of wholly new material on top of an already heavy workload.

“It requires a lot of writing,” she said. “But we have always been accosted by people who say they want it to come back and so many people have their favourite Smack the Pony sketch. “Whenever it is repeated I get recognized more in the street.

She said that the comedy was groundbreaking because didn’t explore traditional; “female” areas of concerns and was more preoccupied with “clowning and that’s quite liberating”.

Mackichan added that comedies need to be given time to bed in and said that she was dismayed by the number of comedies recently which had not been given enough of a chance.

These included Sharon Horgan’s prison comedy Dead Boss for BBC3 which Mackichan was due to appear in but had to withdraw after contracting pneumonia.

“I couldn’t believe it wasn’t commissioned.”

“You get more confident the more you do and the writers know who they are writing for,” she said.

“Comedies need time to settle. It’s not about the gags as much as people’s relationships with the characters.”

In addition she is writing her own sitcom and will be seen later this year in the Matt Berry Sitcom Toast of London in which Berry plays an eccentric actor

“I like it, it’s very boysy and Inbetweeners.”

Mackichan is also due to be seen soon in a BBC4 comedy Quick Cuts in which she plays the dysfunctional owner of a salon set in west Ruislip in suburban London.

Relative newcomers Jess Gunning, Lucinda Dryzek, OT Fagbenle and Jane Dowden also star in the three-part comedy which has been written by Smack the Pony alumnus Georgia Pritchitt and will begin broadcasting on June 19.

Mackichan said that she enjoyed playing the role and was glad it was airing on BBC4 which had a “excellent track record”.