--- name: "Victoria Pile" canonical: "https://film.one/person/victoria-pile" fi1m_id: "victoria-pile" imdb_id: "nm0683376" tmdb_id: 1224720 wikidata_id: "Q7926959" roles: ["Director","Writer"] born: "2 June 1955" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "director" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-10-07T12:42:16.068286+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Victoria Pile ## Identity Victoria Pile - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/victoria-pile - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** victoria-pile - **IMDb ID:** nm0683376 - **TMDB ID:** 1224720 - **Wikidata ID:** Q7926959 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Pile, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7926959, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0683376/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1224720 Director and writer. Born 2 June 1955. ## Details - **Work:** Director, Writer - **Born:** 2 June 1955 - **Active:** 1999–2004 - **Frequently works with:** [Dominic Brigstocke](https://film.one/person/dominic-brigstocke.md), [Robert Harley](https://film.one/person/robert-harley.md), [Tristram Shapeero](https://film.one/person/tristram-shapeero.md) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Pile, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7926959, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0683376/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1224720 ## Streaming the US now - **The Roku Channel:** [*Green Wing*](https://film.one/tv/green-wing.md) (83) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Victoria Pile > Victoria Pile builds comedies out of sketches and then finds them an institution to live in: a hospital, a university, a police academy. *Green Wing* is the one that came off, rudeness and all, and it is still the reason to know her name. In *Green Wing* (2004) the picture will suddenly speed up. Two doctors bickering down a corridor turn into a blur, the picture slows again, and there they are at the far end, still bickering, having lost none of the argument and most of their dignity. It is a sketch-show trick used to move a sitcom along, and it tells you what Victoria Pile is: a sketch writer who wanted her sketches to add up to something. She began writing them as a student at the University of Sussex, for *Not the Nine O'Clock News*, and went on to *Spitting Image* before devising *Smack the Pony* (1999–2003), the all-female sketch show she wrote, produced and directed. After three and a half series of that she wanted, in her own words, 'a different beast, one with the freedom of a sketch show but with a proper structure'. *Green Wing* (2004–2007) was the beast. Since then she has taken the same method to a university in *Campus* (2011), on to *The Delivery Man* (2015), and to a police academy in *Piglets* (2024), written with her long-time collaborator Robert Harley. What she does well is people. Her casts are large and every face in them is worth a second look; the shows are built so that a performer with one odd habit can be handed a scene and trusted to make the habit alarming. We laughed a great deal at *Green Wing*, mostly at behaviour we would have reported to a manager had it happened at our own place of work, and the reason it lands is that Pile, with co-writers Robert Harley and Gary Howe, keeps the first small irritation recognisable before the response goes mad. As a director, alongside Tristram Shapeero and Dominic Brigstocke, she is patient with a physical gag: we see the foolish act, and then we are given time to watch the fool try to recover. The patience is also the weakness. At 60 minutes an episode of *Green Wing* can spend far longer on a modest joke than the joke can bear, and by the fourth sped-up corridor of the hour it starts to look like a way of getting through it. Her tone divides people; a viewer who wants a plot to hold on to will find the plots here are mostly an excuse. We have not reviewed *Campus* or *Piglets*, so we will say only that a university and a police academy are exactly the sort of places she likes: full of rules, full of people who ignore them, and, presumably, full of corridors. ## Biography Victoria Pile is a British comedy writer, director and producer. She began her career writing for *Not the Nine O'Clock News* while a student at the University of Sussex and went on to contribute to *Spitting Image* and CBBC programmes. Pile created, wrote, produced and directed episodes of the sketch show *Smack the Pony* (1999–2003) and the sitcom *Green Wing* (2004–2006). She later created *Campus* (2011) and *The Delivery Man* (2015), and wrote and produced *Piglets* (2024). She has received BAFTA nominations and International Emmy awards for her work. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, theguardian.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Green Wing* (2004), Fi1m 83, Writer, Director, Producer, Creator — [page](https://film.one/tv/green-wing.md) ## Complete filmography (8) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Piglets* (2024), series, Series Director, Series Writer, Producer, Director - *Campus* (2011), series, Producer, Writer, Director, Creator - *Comedy Showcase* (2007), series, Director, Writer - *Green Wing Special* (2007), Writer, Producer - *Green Wing* (2004), series, Director, Writer, Producer, Creator — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/tv/green-wing.md) - *Los Dos Bros* (1999), series, Creator - *Smack the Pony* (1999), series, Director, Writer, Creator - *Lazarus and Dingwall* (1991), series, Writer --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/victoria-pile