The Incurable Optimist with Paul Mayhew-Archer co-writer of the Vicar of Dibley

Paul Mayhew-Archer has been making audiences laugh for over 40 years. He produced several series of the Radio 4 classic I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue and co-wrote with Richard Curtis the multi-award-winning and much-loved sitcom The Vicar Of Dibley. He also worked with Richard again to adapt Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot starring Judi Dench and Dustin Hoffman. Fourteen years ago, Paul was told he had Parkinson’s and he decided to carry on laughing. He started doing jokes about his condition at fundraising events at The Royal Albert Hall and London’s Comedy Store. Later he made an award-winning BBC documentary Parkinson’s: The Funny Side, and in 2023 he and five friends with Parkinson’s - the BBC presenters Jeremy Paxman, Rory Cellan-Jones, Mark Mardell and Gillian Lacey-Solymar, and the Judge Nick Mostyn - got together to make a podcast called Movers and Shakers. It has become more popular and influential than any of them thought possible and won the Broadcasting Press Guild’s Podcast of The Year Award. Paul also travels around the country performing his one-man show Incurable Optimist. It’s a show full of funny stories about his career and his condition and he does it to raise awareness of Parkinson’s, to raise money for local Parkies and because he absolutely loves hearing people laugh.

Paul isn’t just one of the country’s funniest writers. It turns out he’s also a brilliant performer.
Josh Widdicombe
So funny… and true in the way only comedy can express.
Rory Bremner