Love Actually and Unforgotten icons confirmed for new BBC comedy from Richard Curtis

Richard Curtis is returning to sitcoms for the first time in decades – and he's doing it on the radio.

BBC Radio 4 has confirmed Greatest Living Writer, Curtis's first ever sitcom created for audio, with a cast led by Love Actually star Bill Nighy and Unforgotten's Nicola Walker.

The 10-part series marks Curtis's first TV sitcom since The Vicar of Dibley, and arrives on Radio 4 this Christmas. It's set to kick off on Boxing Day on Radio 4 at 11pm, with the full boxset also landing on BBC Sounds on 14 December.

As for the series itself, Greatest Living Writer centres on John Westlake (Nighy), "a literary titan whose towering genius has earned him global reverence, lifelong indulgence and absolutely no useful social skills", as per the synopsis.

It continues: "As those around him absorb the blast radius of his talent, the series plays with creativity, legacy, literary celebrity, family, and the uncomfortable truth that being good at writing does not necessarily make you good at being a pleasant person."

Alongside Nighy – who memorably played washed-up rocker Billy Mack in Curtis's Love Actually – and Walker are Nick Mohammed, Meera Syal, Jim Broadbent and Madelyn Smedley, with a run of celebrity cameos still to be announced.

Curtis said he was relishing the shift to audio, explaining: "I'm loving working in this tight 15-minute format for the BBC, writing for performers I know and love, and writing something that's about the creative world I have such direct experience of, as it crashes into family dynamics."

The series is script edited by Emma Freud, Curtis's long-time collaborator and partner, who suggested it is his most personal work yet.

"This is Richard's first sitcom since Blackadder, The Vicar of Dibley and Mr Bean," she said. "Of all his writing, this is the closest he's written to his life, his world, his home and his experiences.

"It's been a joy to see the scripts flowing out of him. I've never seen him write so fast or enjoy the process as much. He isn't the brute at the centre of this comedy, but that brute is, I think, how he would secretly like to behave if he could. Which he can't."

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Julia McKenzie, comedy and entertainment commissioner for BBC Radio 4, said: "What a thrill it is to be able to commission a brand-new sitcom from the iconic Richard Curtis! Radio 4 is beyond excited to bring the audience such a funny, spicy, star-studded show."

It's one of a number of new Radio 4 comedy commissions which include SNL UK writer Bella Hull's Guide to More or Less Being Okay, and John Tothill Forgives Your Sins, which has been upgraded to a full series after its pilot, plus Scott Bennett: One Man Panic Attack.

Further stand-up specials come from Vittorio Angelone, Miles Jupp, Desiree Burch, Grace Campbell, Mark Simmons, Susie McCabe and Arabella Weir, among others.

Meanwhile, there are new comedy pilots from Nish Kumar and Jake Bhardwaj.

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Greatest Living Writer will be available to stream on BBC Sounds from 14 December 2026 and on BBC Radio 4 at 11pm on 26 December 2026.

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