The Pin is the comedy writing and acting partnership of

Ben Ashenden Ben Ashenden is a British-Irish actor, comedian and screenwriter. He is half of the duo The Pin, with Alexander Owen. Together they co-wrote and starred in ''Deep Cover'' to critical acclaim. As an actor, he is best known for his appearances in ...

and Alexander Owen. They co-wrote and performed in the

Amazon MGM Studios Amazon MGM Studios is an American film and television production and distribution company owned by Amazon, and headquartered at the Culver Studios complex in Culver City, California. Launched on November 16, 2010, it took its current name on O ...

film, ''

Deep Cover Deep Cover may refer to: * ''Deep Cover'' (1992 film), a 1992 American crime film starring Laurence Fishburne. * ''Deep Cover'' (2025 film), a British action comedy film about improv actors going undercover for the police * ''Deep Cover'' (soundt ...

,'' which played at SXSW London and Tribeca Festival 2025 before being released on Amazon Prime. They also wrote and starred in ''The Comeback'' in London’s West End, and recorded multi award winning

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

sketch show ''The Pin'' from 2015 to 2019.

Background

The

double act A double act (also known as a comedy duo) is a form of comedy originating in the British music hall tradition, and American vaudeville, in which two comedians perform together as a single act, often highlighting differences in their characters' ...

met at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, where they joined the

Cambridge Footlights The Cambridge Footlights, commonly referred to simply as Footlights, is a student sketch comedy troupe located in Cambridge, England. Footlights was founded in 1883, and is one of Britain's oldest student sketch comedy troupes. The comedy so ...

. Whilst members, they co-wrote and performed the sketch show ‘Good Clean Men’ with

Joey Batey Joey Batey (born 1989) is an English actor, musician, singer, and songwriter. He portrays the bard Jaskier in the fantasy series ''The Witcher'', where he sang " Toss a Coin to Your Witcher", as well as other songs featured in the series. Ear ...

, Joe Bannister, Mark Fiddaman and Simon Haines, and they co-wrote and performed in two Footlights international tour shows: 2010's 'Good For You,' directed by Liam Williams and Daran Johnson, and 2011's 'Pretty Little Panic' directed by Keith Akushie and James Moran. They were also the satire editors of Varsity newspaper. 'The Pin' was originally the title of a show written and performed by Ashenden, Owen, and original member Mark Fiddaman in their final year at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

in 2011. After graduating, the three moved to London and started developing shows at the Invisible Dot comedy club to take to the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

. The Pin became a duo when Fiddaman left to pursue graduate studies at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

Works

''Deep Cover''

They co-wrote the feature film, ''

,'' along with Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly. They also had supporting roles in the film as detectives.

''The Comeback''

The pair wrote and starred in a new play ''The Comeback'' at the

Noël Coward Theatre The Noël Coward Theatre, formerly known as the Albery Theatre, is a West End theatre in St. Martin's Lane in the City of Westminster, London. It opened on 12 March 1903 as the New Theatre and was built by Sir Charles Wyndham behind Wyndham's ...

in London's West End which opened on 8 December 2020 during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

(with a socially distanced audience). The run was due to end on 3 January 2021, however due to the London Tier 3 restrictions announced by the government, the run was paused after 16 December 2020. It reopened on 7 July 2021 and ran until 25 July 2021.

''The Pin (Live Act, and Radio Show)''

Their shows at Edinburgh have garnered great critical acclaim from the likes of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'', ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'', and more. In 2015 the pair's debut

series aired, called "The Pin", with four 15-minute episodes. It is characterised by self-referential humour and breaking the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance dramatic convention, convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. ...

, with each sketch followed by brief commentary. It was followed by a second series in 2016, and a third series in 2017, this time in the 6.30pm slot, with half-hour long episodes. A fourth series was broadcast in 2019.

Other work

Together Ashenden and Owen have acted in BBC comedy

Ghosts In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

, Netflix drama

1899 Events January * January 1 ** Spanish rule formally ends in Cuba with the cession of Spanish sovereignty to the U.S., concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.''The American Monthly Review of Reviews'' (February 1899), p ...

, Studio Canal feature What's Love Got to Do with It?,

Judd Apatow Judd Apatow (; born December 6, 1967) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and comedian known for his work in comedy films. Apatow is the founder of Apatow Productions, through which he wrote, produced, and directed his films ''The 4 ...

film The Bubble,

Jurassic World Dominion ''Jurassic World Dominion'' is a 2022 American Science fiction film, science fiction action film directed by Colin Trevorrow, who co-wrote the screenplay with Emily Carmichael (filmmaker), Emily Carmichael from a story by Derek Connolly and Tre ...

Stath Lets Flats ''Stath Lets Flats'' is a British sitcom created by Jamie Demetriou that aired on Channel 4 from 27 June 2018 to 30 November 2021. The series stars Demetriou as Stath, an awkward and bumbling English Cypriot man who is employed at a London letti ...

, and A Whole Lifetime with Jamie Demetriou. They have created

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

animated series ''Oi, Leonardo!'', BBC Digital series ''What's Happening?'',

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

series ''Overheard'', and

Audible Audible may refer to: * Audible (service), an online audiobook store * Audible (American football), a tactic used by quarterbacks * ''Audible'' (film), a short documentary film featuring a deaf high school football player * Audible finish or ru ...

Original ''The Special Relationship'', and wrote

U&Dave U&Dave is a British free-to-air television channel owned by UKTV, a subsidiary of BBC Studios. It is known for broadcasting mainly 21st-century comedy and factual programming, with both original production and repeats. Launched in October 19 ...

series ''Live at the Moth Club''.

Awards

The Pin was the 2013 winner of London Sketchfest's prize for 'Best Act,' and the first series of their Radio 4 show won them the award for 'Best Comedy' at the 2016 BBC radio awards. There were nominated for the South Bank Sky Arts Award 'Breakthrough Act' 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pin, The English comedy writers English male comedians English comedy duos Comedy theatre characters Theatre characters introduced in 2013 Comedy film characters Comedy radio characters Comedy television characters Male characters in theatre Male characters in radio Male characters in television