David Nobbs, Comedy Writer, Died at 80

  Dead Famous

Dead, David Gordon Nobbs, born March 13, 1935 and died August 9, 2015, he was an English comedy writer and humanist, best known for writing the 1970s series The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, adapted from his own novels.

Nobbs was born in Petts Wood, Kent. Following an education at Marlborough College and Cambridge University, he worked as a reporter for the Sheffield Star, before starting his career in comedy as a writer for That Was The Week That Was in the early 1960s.

He wrote for many of Britain’s comedy performers over the years, including Kenneth Williams, Frankie Howerd, Les Dawson and The Two Ronnies.

Nobbs was the creator of the successful 1970s sitcom The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, adapted from his own Reginald Perrin novels, which “told the story of a man living an escapist fantasy in response to the mundanity of his daily commute”. The TV series starred Leonard Rossiter as Perrin.

Nobbs also wrote the comedy/drama series A Bit of a Do (1989) and the Henry Pratt series of novels, the fourth of which, Pratt à Manger, was published in 2006.

His novel It Had to be You was published in 2011.