Winner receives £1,000

The annual comedy writing competition honouring the creator of Reggie Perrin opens for entries today.

The David Nobbs Memorial Trust competition offers emerging talent the chance to win £1,000 and a mentoring session with an industry expert.

Now in its ninth year, the scheme is accepting entries until March 6. Winners receive cash prizes to ‘buy time’ for writing, with runners-up getting £250 each.

This year’s judges include Lucy Lumsden, owner of Yellow Door Productions and former head of comedy commissioning at Sky and the BBC; comedian and Motherland writer Holly Walsh; and Andy Hamilton, the writer behind shows including Outnumbered.

‘I’m thrilled to be asked!’ said Walsh. ‘Translation: I’m only doing this to scope out the new generation of fantastic new writers who will inevitably steal my job.’

Hamilton, who began writing comedy in 1977, said Nobbs was among established writers who encouraged him as a novice. ‘He was very welcoming and never made me feel like one,’ he said. ‘So I’m very happy to be involved with a project that bears his name.’

The competition requires entrants to have at least one broadcast credit and submit a 500-word statement describing their writing goals. The winner will be announced in July.

Last year’s winner, Matthew Mclane, said the prize allowed him to attend the Big Comedy Conference in London. ‘Without the competition prize, I wouldn’t have been able to attend,’ he said. ‘Just by submitting, you’re writing something and getting it out there to be read by influential people in the industry.’

The trust was founded in 2016 after Nobbs’s death. Its patrons include Michael Palin, novelist Jonathan Coe and Succession writer Lucy Prebble.

Trust chair Mary O’Hara said: ‘Each year, we are blown away by the quality of submissions. Comedy lifts our spirits in difficult times.’

Full details of the competition can be found at www.DavidNobbsMemorialTrust.org.uk

Published: 2 Feb 2026