The David Nobbs Memorial Trust (DNMT) has announced the 2026 winners of its prestigious annual comedy writing competition. Paul Carey has won £1,000 cash prize, alongside a meeting with two comedy industry professionals for his script Near Death. This year’s runners-up Indigo Hinton and Lewis Brierly receive £250 each for their scripts Rat Kings and The Wise Women of Little Pickenham.
Thanks to the generous support of donors, the DNMT annual new comedy writing competition offers cash prizes to emerging comedy writers in order to ‘buy time’ for writing. Inspired by the late comedy writer, novelist and creator of Reggie Perrin, David Nobbs, who was renowned for his generous support of emerging comedy writers, the award has become a mainstay in the UK comedy calendar.
Overall winner Paul Carey said: “I am incredibly honoured to receive this award for my script Near Death. The prize will allow me to continue developing comedy projects, pursuing my comedy writing career and avoiding remaining overly serious for extended periods of time. Thank you to the DNMT team and congrats to all the lovely, talented writers involved in this year's competition.”
Indigo Hinton said: “A huge thank you to DNMT for recognising my pilot Rat Kings - a comedy about a dysfunctional family-run pest control business. I'm excited to see the opportunities this recognition will open up for me. Schemes such as this are so useful to up-and-coming writers as a form of validation, support, and letting you know you're not insane!”
Lewis Brierly said: "It’s a great feeling to be told you’re funny by someone other than your mum. Thanks very much to the trust for providing this platform and to all of the judges for supporting new comedy writing. I couldn’t be happier to find out that I didn’t win."
The DNMT is grateful to the readers from across the comedy industry, whose expertise helped narrow down over 100 entries to a shortlist of six scripts and to our final round judges Lucy Lumsden, owner of Yellow Door Productions and formerly head of comedy commissioning at both Sky and the BBC, Outnumbered co-creator, comedy writer and novelist Andy Hamilton and BAFTA-winning Motherland writer Holly Walsh to judge.
Lucy Lumsden said: “I was so fond of David Nobbs it’s an honour to be asked to judge this prestigious award which is all about supporting comedy writers. Congratulations to the worthy winner.”
Andy Hamilton said: “I greatly enjoyed reading these scripts which were funny and original - just like David Nobbs”
Holly Walsh said: “I am beyond impressed with the standard of this year’s entries and thrilled to have been part of the panel. Can’t wait to see who’s going through to the judges’ houses (that is how this works, right?)”
Trust chair, journalist and author Mary O’Hara said: “David Nobbs brought joy and laughter to everyone with his incredible wit and hilarious writing and keeping that spirit alive is exactly what the DNMT does. With the help of incredible judges from across the UK's vibrant comedy community, our annual competition provides much-needed support to emerging writers and the next generation of comedic writing talent. Yet again, the competition has highlighted just how deep the talent pool is. Another stellar year!”
The Trust’s patrons are Michael Palin, writer Jonathan Coe, and playwright Lucy Prebble.
Full details of the competition can be found at the Trust website: www.DavidNobbsMemorialTrust.org.uk
