David Nobbs Comedy Writing competition

I was beyond delighted and genuinely dumbfounded to find out yesterday that I have been longlisted for the David Nobbs Memorial Trust New Comedy Writing Competition 2026!

In this competition, judges read the first 10 pages of a script blind (meaning there are no names or other identifiable info on the page). The judges whittled the entries down to a longlist of 16 writers, of which I am thrilled to be one!

The other writers who have been longlisted are Robbie Sunderland, Indigo Hinton, Daniel Hooper, Zara Gladman, Craig Hazell & Tom Holmes, Alice Bright, Shaun Baines, Lewis Brierly, Giancarlo Gemin, Sid Sagar, Sam Vincent, Paul Carey, Anina Grostern, Robbie Curran, and Sanjyokta Deshmukh.

The DNMT competition has been running since 2017, and was founded after the death of the beloved creator of Reggie Perrin. The David Nobbs Memorial Trust seeks to encourage and champion emerging talent, and offer financial assistance and networking and consulting opportunities, while championing the role of comedy for social good.

This year's longlisted scripts will now be read by a panel of judges - Holly Walsh (BAFTA-winning writer of Motherland and Amandaland), Andy Hamilton (BAFTA-winning writer and director of Outnumbered and Drop the Dead Donkey) and Lucy Lumsden (producer and former Head of Comedy at Sky). It's completely surreal to me that such comedy luminaries will be reading my script.

As one of the longlisted writers, I've also been invited to a talk given by comedy writer John O'Farrell in June at the London Library, which I am very much looking forward to attending!

It's a particularly difficult time for all creative industries, and having spent the last couple of days at the BBC Comedy Festival in Liverpool, it seems like the general consensus is that things have never been quite so difficult in the comedy industry. Therefore, schemes like this are invaluable for aspiring writers, and I am so enormously grateful for this recognition.

The shortlist will be announced in June, with the overall winner and runners-up being announced in July.

Best of luck to the other writers! I'm going to allow myself to enjoy this for a few days before getting back to work on writing something I'm quite excited about...(more on this later!)