David Nobbs Memorial Trust 2024 writing competition opens
- The David Nobbs Memorial Trust comedy writing competition is open for entries until 17th March
- The competition wants 10 pages from a sitcom script or four 3-minute sketches. You need one broadcast credit to enter
- The judges will be Lucy Lumsden, Desiree Burch and Katy Wix
The annual comedy writing competition run by the David Nobbs Memorial Trust is now open for entries, with the deadline set as 17th March.
The competition, which seeks out 10 pages from a sitcom script or four 3-minute sketches, is now in its seventh year. The trust, which was established in 2017 after the death of the beloved Reggie Perrin author, runs the competition to encourage and champion emerging talent with one-off financial aid for winners and events for long-listed entrants.
The competition offers cash prizes to up-and-coming comedy writers, helping them 'buy time' for writing. Prizes for the 2024 competition will see the overall winner will take home £1000. Any runners-up will receive £250 per entry. The winner will also be offered one-to-one consultation with an established comedy producer or commissioner from the Trust board.
The trust says: "We are thrilled to announce that judging the finalist's scripts this year will be Lucy Lumsden, owner of Yellow Door Productions and formerly head of comedy commissioning at both Sky and the BBC alongside award-winning comedian Desiree Burch and actor, writer, and comedian Katy Wix."
The contest is aimed at those early in their writing career, but it is not totally 'open door'. Entrants are required to provide a broadcast credit (for example, Breaking The News or DMs Are Open or The Skewer credits would count) for their written material and must accompany their entry with a 500-word Statement of Intent describing their writing career goals.
Trust chair, journalist and author Mary O'Hara says: "We are absolutely thrilled to be bringing another year of the DNMT comedy writing competition to aspiring talent. Thanks to incredibly generous donors from the comedy fraternity and beyond as well as our dedicated judges, we are able to keep supporting new comedy talent, just like David Nobbs would have wanted. Over the seven years we've been running, the competition has attracted and supported brilliant and talented writers. We can't wait to hear from the next generation."
2023 winners, Rebecca Bain and Alex Garrick-Wright, comment: "Winning the DMNT award has been amazing for opening doors for us. It's taught us the importance of the first 10 pages for a script and we are now working on the project as a 30 pager, currently in development to prepare for pitching. It definitely catches attention and has netted us a lot more interest, and has enabled us to reach out to several brilliant regional production companies to bring other pitches to the table.
"We are relishing the opportunity to follow up with this year's judges and having one-to-one work with industry leaders. We're still delighted to have our work recognised so highly, and be up there alongside such distinguished previous winners."
Full details of the competition can be found at the Trust website: www.DavidNobbsMemorialTrust.org.uk
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