With £1,000 first prize

Entries have opened for this year’s  David Nobbs comedy writing competition, set up in 2017 after the death of the Reggie Perrin author.

The competition offers cash prizes to up-and-coming comedy UK writers, helping them ‘buy time’ for writing. The 2025 winner will be awarded £1,000 plus mentoring, with each runner-up receiving  £250.

Entries will be judged by Lucy Lumsden, owner of Yellow Door Productions and formerly head of comedy commissioning at both Sky and the BBC, Inside Number 9 and Catastrophe producer Adam Tandy and Car Share and Alma’s Not​ Normal producer Gill Isles.  

Isles said: ‘I had the honour of briefly working with David Nobbs, and so I’m thrilled to be involved as a judge in the competition this year. 

‘I think it’s important that new comedy writers get the chance to have their work read by people in the industry and this is one of the few opportunities on offer. Plus there’s cold hard cash for the winner and runners up to either help on their writing journey, or spend on really, really good red wine - I’m sure David would approve of both.’

Entries are open from now until March 3.  Writers must have already had a broadcast credit for their written material and must accompany their entry with a 500-word statement describing their writing career goals. 

Full entry criteria can be found on the website. 

The competition is run by the David Nobbs Memorial Trust, whose chair Mary O’Hara said: ‘All of us at the DNMT are thrilled to anticipate another batch of up-and-coming writers getting the chance to enter our competition. 

‘Over the eight years the contest has been running we’ve seen extraordinary talent enter, win and go on to great things. 2025 won’t feel quite the same due the death of David’s wife, Susan, but we will take the opportunity to honour her and the incredible support she gave us from the get-go.’

Last year’s winner, Alice Etches said: ‘More than anything, winning the David Nobbs award gave me a big boost to my confidence, at a time when I really needed it. 

‘The award opened doors to production companies I wasn’t speaking with before. It’s a good accolade to mention when sending scripts out as well! Worth noting nobody’s commissioned my winning script The Waywards yet, so if anyone’s interested in reading an erratic comedy about family, lies and cancer - holler.

‘This industry is hard, and award schemes like the David Nobbs Memorial Trust are a real boost. Even if you don't win, you can feel proud of getting together 10 polished pages of script to enter with. That's an achievement in itself, if you ask me.’

Published: 28 Jan 2025