Radio 4 project reunites him with Bill Nighy

Richard Curtis has created his first sitcom in more than 30 years.

Greatest Living Writer will star Bill Nighy – who memorably appeared in Curtis’s 2003 romcom Love Actually – as John Westlake, a literary genius who’s unpleasant to be around.

© Aliona Adrianova

The show has been created for BBC Radio 4, also making it the Blackadder co-creator’s first sitcom for the medium.

A starry cast also includes Nicola Walker, Nick Mohammed, Meera Syal, Jim Broadbent, Madelyn Smedley and more.

The ten-part series will drop on BBC Sounds as a boxset on December 14, and air on Radio 4 from 11pm on Boxing Day.

It has been script-edited by Curtis’s partner Emma Freud, who said: ‘Of all his writing, this is the closest he’s written to his life, his world, his home and his experiences. 

'It’s been a joy to see the scripts flowing out of him - I’ve never seen him write so fast or enjoy the process as much. 

‘He isn’t the brute at the centre of this comedy - but that brute is, I think, how he would secretly like to behave if he could. Which he can’t.’

Radio 4 comedy commissioner  Julia McKenzie said it was a ‘thrill’ to order a project from Richard Curtis, adding: ‘Radio 4 is beyond excited to bring the audience such a funny, spicy, star-studded show. 

‘One of the best bits of my job is getting a sneak preview of the fantastic scripts and those, plus the extraordinary cast and production team, make me certain this will be eagerly binged the minute the box set lands this December.’

Curtis, who also co-created Mr Bean and wrote Four Weddings And A Funeral and Notting Hill – and so many more – has not written a sitcom since The Vicar Of Dibley, which began in 1994.

Greatest Living Writer is being made by Goldhawk Productions, produced by Emma Hearn, John Scott Dryden and Alex Hollands.

Dryden said: ‘Richard has created a world that is gloriously absurd, painfully recognisable and full of heart. It’s an extraordinary line-up and a rare privilege to bring together comedy talent of this calibre. We can’t wait for listeners to hear John Westlake and his magnificently complicated family come to life.’

Curtis's last project was the 2024 animated Christmas fantasy comedy film That Christmas, written with former adman Peter Souter, for Netflix. 

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Published: 16 Sep 2026