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of the author of the Reginald Perrin novels, plus the latest news on his publications. |
Latest News:
Recent interviews: Yorkshire Post, May 2nd - Scarborough Evening News, April 16th
David's 17th novel Obstacles
To Young Love is published on June 10th 2010. Pre-order here.
David is currently finishing
his 18th novel Life After Deborah. Pre-order here.
David is currently involved
in the filming of Series Two of Reggie Perrin, co-authored by him and Simon
Nye.
Early Days
"As an only child I spent
a long time alone with my imagination."
David
Gordon Nobbs was born in Petts Wood, South London on March 13th 1935, the
only child of a schoolmaster and a schoolmistress, and lived his childhood
in Orpington, Kent. At the outbreak of war in 1939, David and his family
moved to Marlborough, Wiltshire, where he started his education. Back in
Orpington after the war, he attended Bickley Hall preparatory school. Then,
aged 13, it was back to Marlborough to attend college there. It was here
that he first put pen to paper, writing articles for the college magazine.This
was followed, at the age of 18, by the then customary two years national
service, which he served in the Royal Corps of Signals. During this time
he undertook a correspondence course in journalism. After leaving the Signals
in 1955, he went to St. John’s College, Cambridge University where he read
Classics in Part 1, and English in Part 2, although he spent much of his
time writing for the university newspaper Varsity, and sketches
for the Cambridge Footlights performance company. He graduated with a second.
The Journalist Years
"I was dogged by misprints...'The
on-off separation between Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner was today authoritatively
stated to be "ow"'."
His education over, David
landed a job in 1958 with the Sheffield Star newspaper, which lasted
two years. He then relocated to a bedsit in Narcissus Rd., West Hampstead,
London in 1960 where he wrote ten stage plays (none of which were ever
performed) and started writing his first novel, but soon lost his motivation.
Penniless (he earned £4 in eighteen months), he got a job at an advertising
agency as a voucher clerk. He found the repetitive routine of his work
tedious – perhaps subconsciously preparing him for what would become his
most famous creation, Reginald Perrin (although he always denies this).
Eventually
he returned to the ‘press gang’, working for the North London weekly newspaper,
the
St. Pancras Chronicle. At this time, a new series had started
on television called ‘That Was The Week That Was’, hosted by David Frost.
It was a satirical and topical look at the news of the time through sketches
and skits. David had a few of his own sketches accepted and his motivation
was restored. He gave up the day job and soon had two novels under his
belt: 'The Itinerant Lodger' was published by Methuen in 1965 and concerned
a man who kept on moving home, and changed his job and even his name each
time he did so. ‘OstrichCountry’ was published in 1968, again by Methuen,
and featured nutritional scientist Pegasus Baines who give up his job and
becomes a vegetable chef at an East Anglian hotel.At the same time he started
to write material for some of Britain’s best-known comedians, including
Les Dawson, Frankie Howerd, Jimmy Tarbuck, Ken Dodd, Tommy Cooper and Dick
Emery. 1969 saw the publication of 'A Piece Of The Sky Is Missing', David's
most successful novel up to that time. It follows the exploits of Robert
Bellamy, an employee of Cadman & Bentwhistle Manufacturing Co., who
is sacked for doodling rude pictures of his boss on the toilet wall, and
his subsequent search for employment. The early 1970s saw David continuing
to write comedy sketches for Britain's top comics and their shows, now
including Messrs. Barker and Corbett - The Two Ronnies (Ronnie Barker's
famous appearance as the minister from The Society for Pispromunciation
was written by David).
The Author
"If my idea had been
accepted. that's all Reginald Perrin would ever have been - one half-hour
play."
In 1975, another novel appeared,
‘The Death Of Reginald Perrin’, and David Nobbs was established as one
of the country’s top comedy writers. The BBC commissioned the book as a
series, starting with the pilot, first shown on September 8th 1976, and
the series quickly became one of the classics of British television, with
David writing the scripts. Re-released after the success of the series
as ‘The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin’, the novel became the first in
a trilogy. Both ‘The Return Of Reginald Perrin’ and ‘The Better World of
Reginald Perrin’ were written in tandem with the TV series, although all
three television series were known as ‘The Fall And Rise…’ on TV. The great
success of the first series resulted in the unusual action of the second
novel being published in both hardback (by Gollancz) and paperback (by
Penguin) at the same time. Since then, David has juggled TV series with
his novels, including ‘Fairly Secret Army’ for Channel 4, based loosely
on a character in the “…Perrin” novels; ‘Second From Last In The Sack Race’,
the first of the Henry Pratt trilogy (and televised as ‘The Life And Times
Of Henry Pratt’); 'A Bit Of A Do' (again novels, then TV series - this
series won David five awards); 'Rich Tea And Sympathy'; and the wartime
comedy drama ‘Stalag Luft’ starring Stephen Fry and Nicholas Lyndhurst.
In 1990 David won The Writers' Guild Special Award for 'services to television
comedy'. In 1996, Reginald Perrin was resurrected - sort of. Reggie had
been killed and had left a huge sum of money to family and friends – on
one condition, namely that they do something totally and utterly absurd.
The 1995 novel ‘The Legacy Of Reginald Perrin’ was once again televised
by the BBC, in 1996. His latest TV credit is an adaptation of the Miles
Gibson novel Kingdom Swann, ebtitled 'Gentleman's relish', which
starred Billy Connolly and Sarah Lancashire and was broadcast at Christmas
2000.
The Present
"Good programmes still
get made. Good books still get published. There is a basic, inextinguishable
need for stories. I ain't finished yet."
Now living
in North Yorkshire with his second wife Susan, David Nobbs lists his interests
as including eating, drinking, travelling, playing bridge, dominoes and
mah jongg, watching cricket and football (he still supports Hereford United:
"Well, not many other people do!", he says), ornithology, cruising and
weeding. He has innumerable credits to his name, including radio serials.
He also hosts regular creative writing workshops for budding novelists.
He has 13 novels to his name. His latest, called 'Going Gently', was published
on July 6th 2000, and is now available in paperback. His autobiography,
entitled 'I Didn't Get Where I Am Today...' was published on 6th March
2003, and David has since co-wrote a revival of The Fall and Rise of Reginald
Perrin for a new BBC audience. Called Reggie Perrin and broadcast in 2009,
a second series has been commissioned for 2010.
| That Was
The Week That Was, 1962-63
37 x 50min eps. 24.11.62 - 27.4.63 and 28.9.63 - 28.12.63 Topical, satirical look at the week's news. Presented by David Frost, with actors including Roy Kinnear, Frankie Howerd, Willie Rushton and Lance Percival. DN co-wrote sketches with Peter Tinniswood. Lance At Large, 1964
Armchair Theatre - The
Signalbox of Grandpa Hudson, 1965
The Dick Emery Show, 1965
The Frost Report, 1966-67
Roy Hudd, 1968
The Roy Hudd Show, 1969
Sez Les, 1969-76
Shine A Light, 1970
Keep It In The Family,
1971
Ronnie Corbett In Bed,
1971
Some Matters Of Little
Consequence, 1971
The Two Ronnies, 1971-87
Tarbuck's Luck, 1972
Hey Brian!, 1973
Our Kid, 1973
Sir Yellow, 1973
Whoops Baghdad, 1973
An Evening With Francis
Howerd, 1973
|
Sounds Like
Les Dawson, 1974
1 x 60min ep. 4.12.74 Les presented a spoof of the life of Beethoven and of 'The Prisoner Of Zenda'. DN co-wrote with Barry Cryer and Les. Les Dawson's Christms
Box, 1974
Dawson's Electric Cinema,
1975
The Les Dawson Show, 1975
Les Dawson's Christms
Box, 1975
The Kenneth Williams Show,
1976
Our Young Mr. Wignall,
1976
The Fall and Rise of Reginald
Perrin, 1976
Dawson and Friends, 1977
The Fall and Rise of Reginald
Perrin, 1977
The Les Dawson Show, 1978-79
The Fall and Rise of Reginald
Perrin, 1978-79
The Sun Trap, 1980
The Glamour Girls, 1980-82
Dogfood Dan and The Camarthen
Cowboy, 1982 and 1988
segment of The Funny Side
of Christmas, 1982
Reggie, 1983 (USA)
The Hello Goodbye Man,
1984
Fairly Secret Army, 1984,
1986
A Bit Of A Do, 1989
|
Rich Tea
and Sympathy, 1991
6 x 60min eps. 5.7.91 - 9.8.91 Sitcom about the love affir - and argumaents - between a Labour divorcee and Tory widow and their straight-talking Yorkshire families. Starring Patricia Hodge, Dennis Quilley, Lionel Jeffries and Jean Alexander, DN wrote the series. The Life and Times of
Henry Pratt, 1992
Stalag Luft, 1993
Love On A Branch Line,
1994
Cuts, 1996
The Legacy of Reginald
Perrin, 1996
This Is Your Life, 1998
Two Ronnies Night, 1999
Gentlemen's Relish, 2000
Heroes of Comedy: Leonard
Rossiter, 2001
BBC Breakfast, 2003
Britain's Best Sitcom,
2004
Comedy Connections: The
Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, 2004
On Show, 2004
Autumn Tints, 2004
Britain's Favourite Comedian,
2004
The Maltby Collection,
2007-
Comedy Map Of Britain,
2007
Reggie Perrin, 2009/10
|
Watch video clips from BBC
Wales' entertainment programme On Show:
Clip from Autumn Tints (500kb)
-
David talks about the project
(4.4Mb)
-
David talks about Reggie
Perrin (3.6Mb)
On-site:
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