David Nobbs

Greatest sitcom ever: Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin

Perrin was made in an age when the BBC did not feel the urge to use its drama and comedy programmes to proselytise about minority rights, prejudice, racism and homophobia. It took a problem common to the silent majority and explored it sensitively, but with brilliant humour. That was why Perrin was so popular in its day, and why if one watches the box set now, 40 years later, it transmits through wit something timelessly relevant.

David Nobbs, remembered by Jonathan Coe

The following speech was given by novelist and writer Jonathan Coe at the Writers' Guild Awards ceremony, 18 January 2016, about the life of comic writer David Nobbs.

David Nobbs: a man who took his humour lying down

I was once privileged to work with David Nobbs on material for a comedy revue at the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford.

'A stealth drama riding on the wheels of a sitcom'

From mother-in-law gags to existential angst, The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin by the late David Nobbs was brilliantly funny, emotional and absurd.

David Nobbs talks about comedic rise to success

Reggie Perrin author David Nobbs talks about his comedic rise to success.

The delightful David Nobbs proved in With Nobbs On what his friends and colleagues had known for years - that he is has perfect comic timing, both as writer and performer. In the first of a three-part audio autobiography he recalled his days as a cub reporter in Sheffield and London and how, while covering Hampstead Magistrates' Court, he got the call from That Was The Week That Was (TW3) to join its team of scriptwriters. It was to be some years before he conjured up Reginald Perrin but the combined enthusiasm of David Frost and Ned Sherrin, presenter and producer of TW3 respectively, was what elevated him from humble hack to satirical sketch writer.

With Nobbs On is a three-part series in which comedy writer David Nobbs, most famous as the creator of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, talks about his writing career.

The first episode covers his earliest years, before Perrin, dealing with his schooldays, his National Service, his "career" in journalism and finally getting some material on television by writing for That Was The Week That Was.

I found With Nobbs On to be an entertaining, amusing, and interesting programme. Here and there, there's a brief glimpse at some silly event from his life; such as when he was doing his National Service and how he was told not to go to the local brothel, complete with directions on how to get there; to his time at the Sheffield Star and his feeble attempts to get vox pops from the locals on international affairs.

Then there are his first novels such as The Itinerate Lodger, in which the eponymous character gets a job as a postman and decides to deliver 6.5 letters to each address, and his first TW3 material, which included a parody of the coverage at Cowes that instead covered darts.

However, the most important thing you can learn from David Nobbs appears to be: Time your sexual references. I agree. And anyone who doesn't is a tit.