Award in honour of Reggie Perrin creator David Nobbs

Comedy writer Zoe Tomalin has won the annual award for new talent handed out in honour of Reggie Perrin creator David Nobbs.

Already a regular contributor to Have I Got News For You, she won £750 plus mentoring to help develop her script Creeps.

She said: ‘It’s a real honour to accept a prize named after the late, great David Nobbs. I’m beyond thrilled that the judges connected with my script Creeps, a dark comedy about a washed-up actor who accidentally kidnaps his three obsessive teenage girl superfans.

‘I can’t wait to use the award to develop more projects centring problematic, complicated - and frankly kind of gross - women. Thank you!’

Tomalin has also written for The Now Show, The News Quiz and Mock the Week, and co-created the award-winning supernatural podcast Seancecast.

Runners-up were Zara Janjua with her script Scottistani and Kate Reid and Zak Ghazi-Torbati with their script The Other Half. They each receive £250.

Judges included Lucy Lumsden, owner of Yellow Door Productions and formerly head of comedy commissioning at both Sky and the BBC, Roisin Conaty, and Hunderby actor Daniel Laurence Taylor.

Lumsden said: ‘Another strong crop of talent and a great range of comic voices which made the job pleasurably harder. The David Nobbs Memorial Trust competition is a great stepping-stone for the industry, the finalists should be very proud of what they’ve achieved.’

David Nobbs’ widow Susan added ‘David would have been delighted at the high standard of record entries this year and it has been very difficult to choose a winner.  He always said there were so many writers with voices that needed to be heard.’

Published: 29 Jul 2021