EXCLUSIVE: Richard Curtis is returning to the sitcom game, this time through audio.

The Vicar of Dibley, Blackadder and Mr Bean writer-director is making Greatest Living Writer for BBC Radio 4 starring Bill Nighy, Nicola Walker, Nick Mohammed, Jim Broadbent, Meera Syal and Traitors star Madelyn Smedley. It is Curtis’ first sitcom in nearly 20 years and his first for audio.

Launching on Boxing Day on Radio 4 and as a BBC Sounds box-set two weeks prior, the series centers on John Westlake (Nighy), a literary titan whose towering genius has earned him global reverence, lifelong indulgence, and absolutely no useful social skills. As those around him absorb the blast radius of his genius, 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. The character draws comparisons with the iconic Billy Mack, who Nighy played with aplomb in Love Actually.

Curtis is an Oscar-nominated British screen legend whose movie credits include Notting Hill and Four Weddings and a Funeral.

His last TV sitcom was The Vicar of Dibley, which concluded on the BBC in 2007. He has recently turned to animation: writing and producing Netflix’s That Christmas in 2024 and now producing Not Alone for Universal.

Curtis said: “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.”

Script editor Emma Freud added: “Of all his writing, this is the closest Richard has 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.”

Goldhawk Productions‘ Greatest Living Writer is produced by Emma Hearn, John Scott Dryden and Alex Hollands and script edited by Freud. It comes on a BBC audio slate that includes pilots from Nish Kumar and Jake Bhardwaj, along with stand-up and quiz shows.

EXCLUSIVE: Jodie Whittaker‘s next starring role will be a hotshot media lawyer in ITV drama In Contempt.

Ahead of her role in Hulu pilot Chicks and a part in the London-set Only Murders in the Building Season 6, Whittaker will star in the “high-stakes” legal drama as barrister Olivia Savareid.

The character’s top-drawer advocacy skills have built her a career defending people’s reputations and engaging in multi-million pound litigation to prevent their names from being destroyed on social media, but the series will see the tables turned on her.

Sherlock and Dracula maker Hartswood Films is producing in association with its parent, ITV Studios (ITVS), with the show airing in the UK on ITV and STV and on streamers ITVX and STV Player. ITVS has international distribution rights.

Steve Thompson (Sherlock) is the writer, with Sue Vertue and Steven Moffat the executive producers. Ed Bazalgette (The Last Kingdom) is the director and Lawrence Till (Douglas is Cancelled) the producer. ITV’s Director of Drama, Polly Hill, who commissioned the show is also overseeing production for the broadcaster.

In Contempt establishes Olivia’s challenging working relationship with veteran news director Greg Dalman, who edits a London daily newspaper prone to pushing the boundaries of what can be published. With a reputation for taking no prisoners, Greg has the capability of acting recklessly if he believes it’s in the public interest, and and as his legal counsel, Olivia, must summon all her skills and expertise to keep him out of libel court.

She is also the mother of 15-year-old daughter, but when an explosive situation erupts at work, she makes a crucial misjudgement and Olivia’s own reputation is suddenly on the line.

“There’s always been a voracious appetite for what happens behind the scenes before news stories are published,” said ITV’s Hill. “Steve has created a gripping and thought-provoking series and I’m thrilled Jodie Whittaker has agreed to play ‘hotshot’ lawyer Olivia Savereid. I have no doubt In Contempt will captivate our audience, as it’s a really timely story for ITV to be telling.”

Whittaker, known for leading Doctor Who and ITV drama Broadchurch, said of her role as Savareid. “This is an amazing character in a world I haven’t explored before. Steve Thompson’s writing is an absolute joy to work with and I’m so excited to be embarking on this adventure with such a brilliant creative team at Hartswood Films and ITV.”

Vertue said she had been seeking to work with Thompson again since BBC series Sherlock, but that “it was never the right time or the right idea” until now. “Then one day he sat down and said, “In the modern world, if you want to kill someone, you don’t use a gun – you destroy their reputation,’ and so began In Contempt.

“A whirlwind drama of cancellation, online poison and media law, where there’s less than 12 hours to stop a headline that could detonate someone’s life. This is the story of now, and this is the series for today. I’m delighted to be working with ITV again and to bring to screen Steve Thompson’s most explosive and personal drama yet.”

Thompson called the show “a signature piece for me”, adding: “It unpacks the challenging relationship between the media and the law – between the freedom of the press and people’s right to privacy. In a world where all of us are surfing the net, hungry for the latest gossip, this drama takes us behind the curtain and shows us the lawyers who are in the vanguard of that fight.”

In Contempt will begin filming in London in the fall with further casting coming closer to production commencing.