Writers' Guild nominations out

Veep, Catastrophe and W1A have all been shortlisted for best sitcom in the Writers' Guild of Great Britain awards.

And nominated for the radio comedy award are Deborah Frances-White Rolls The Dice, Ed Reardon's Week and Boswell's Lives.

The Writers' Guild Awards were launched in 1961 to celebrate the importance of writing to the creative industries, with the next winners announced on January 18.

Although Veep is an American series, its writing team is largely British, led until earlier this year by Armando Iannucci.

The other writers cited in the award notation are Tony Roche, Simon Blackwell, Sean Gray, Ian Martin, Jesse Armstrong, William Smith, Roger Drew.

Catastrophe is written by its stars Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney, and W1A by John Morton, who previously wrote the Olympics mockumentary Twenty Twelve and faux documentary series People Like Us.

Frances-White, who recently co-wrote the insiders' comedy book Off The Mic, told the true stories of the hunt for her birth parents, her struggles to get a visa, and her time as a Jehovah's Witness in her four-part Radio 4 series.

Andrew Nickolds and Christopher Douglas have been recognised for the tenth series of Ed Reardon's Week; while Boswell's Lives was written by Jon Canter – a former housemate of Hitchhikers Guide author Douglas Adams who has previously written for Lenny Henry and others. It starred Miles Jupp as Dr Johnson's time-travelling biographer.

Published: 7 Dec 2015