David Nobbs on love, Christianity and the continuing rise of Reginald Perrin

It's an entreaty that combines two aspects of the writer's personality – light, wry wit and a certain streak of modesty to balance out a quiet sense of self-worth.

At 74, he is thrilled that he gets up every morning and the ideas are still there seething inside his head. He is also grateful that almost 30 years after the late Leonard Rossiter was last seen as a certain Reginald Perrin, last year the BBC revived the series with a very different Reggie in the shape of Martin Clunes.

Reviews were mixed but good enough, and series two is in production. Nobbs and his wife Susan currently split their time between the studio in London and mad dashes home to North Yorkshire to do the laundry and "catch up with life". He's got used to co-writing with Simon (Men Behaving Badly) Nye, and seems to enjoy the collaborative process of taking 21st century Perrin close to the edge as he juggles a job selling male grooming products with his bizarre fantasy life.

Although he may be best known as the creator of the legendary Reginald Iolanthe Perrin, Nobbs has written many other TV comedies, radio plays and 17 novels over the last 45 years. Apart from the books on which TV's Reggie is based, many, like Pratt of the Argus and Last But One in The Sack Race, easily take their place among the finest comic prose writing of the 20th century.

The 422 pages of Obstacles To Young Love span a quarter of a century and tell the tale of Naomi and Timothy, who first fall in love when they're cast as Romeo and Juliet at school. After lying about a school trip to Paris so they can go to London for a weekend in an Earl's Court B&B, guilt sets in.

Timothy stays in the fictitious town of Coningsfield, in the shadow of the Pennines, and is apprenticed to learn the art and craft of taxidermy in his dad's business. Naomi sets out to become an actress. Their romance has quickly foundered on the seemingly insurmountable rocks of Timothy's staunch Christian faith, a love gift of a dead curlew, and the fact that Naomi fancies a lad called Steven Venables more than her actual boyfriend.

As the yarn unfolds and we follow the separate paths of the Timothy and Naomi, a cast of other entertaining characters is introduced. The years pass and four marriages go under the bridge; the two meet up occasionally, or have near-misses. They think about what might have been and measure other loves against their brief, juvenile relationship.

Will the time ever be ripe for Timothy and Naomi? Will she ever get over the things that held her back years ago – principally the faith that she has not only left far behind but actively rails against, to the extent of trying to "de-convert" others? Although funny and laden with Nobbs's trademark larky sideways glances at life, he clearly has something serious and pithy to say about religion and how some of those who have faith think it's their role to take on the unbelievers.

The reader discovers whether the two characters maintain their early ideas and whether, when they eventually meet up at a 25-year school reunion, differences have finally been overcome sufficiently for a future together to be possible.

Why taxidermy is one of the obvious questions, on meeting David Nobbs over a cuppa at his home north of Harrogate. Maybe he was inspired by the fact that his own lovely garden is a kind of ornithological spaghetti junction?

"Well... no, not really... Timothy had to have some job, and I have a friend locally who told me a few anecdotes about his pal who's a taxidermist over in Boston Spa. It sounded so interesting, and not at all about stuffing dead animals. It's a real art, that involves painstaking modelling, delicacy and precision. We all met up and he very kindly explained his work. He also told me the tale of the shark that arrived at his house by taxi.

"Other than that, and the fact that when I was young I stayed in a B&B in Earl's Court with a girlfriend, the novel is not based on real people or incidents, although I have known people who've met again at school reunions. As one who never goes near such events, they intrigue me..."

Nobbs is one of those people who seems to attract incident – the kind of thing that passes most of us by. For instance, he was on the train heading from central London to Windsor recently and as it approached Hounslow a man took out some sort of loudspeaker to announce "Hounslow, Hounslow. Everyone weighing over 12 stone must alight at Hounslow".

And, in said Earl's Court guest house, a woman at breakfast turned to the two young lovers and said "You look like racing folk; here's a tip for the five-ten at Redcar." Naturally, this found its way into the novel. It's a racing certainty that the the shark will turn up in Reggie's fantasies. "I wanted to write a romantic novel that was entertaining but also had substance," says Nobbs. "I was confirmed in the Church of England, but I am very much a non-believer now. I don't buy the idea that believing is 'normal.' The book is about whether it is possible to have a fulfilling and meaningful life without religious faith.

"I've been struck most of my life by the fact that it's not a level playing field: a stranger can knock at your door and think it's okay to try and persuade you to believe in God, but society would not accept me or anyone else knocking on a stranger's door and arguing with them about why they should not believe.

"I'm not attacking people's right to have a faith, and Naomi – who makes her journey to atheism very quickly and becomes evangelical at one point about convincing others not to believe – is still moved by the beauty, wonder and spirituality of what she encounters around her when she visits Notre Dame."

Exploring the theme was prompted in part by feeling convinced after his mother's death that he would definitely not be reunited with her one day.

"I'm not a didactic writer, so this theme isn't done in such a way as to beat people up. I don't think I realised how strong my own feelings were until I began to write (this book). Like many people, I think I hadn't examined those feelings about faith closely enough to actively reject it. I would call this a humanist book."

Naomi is desperate to be a serious actress, but lands role after role in bad sitcoms with such titles as Nappy Ever After and Cobblers in Koblenz. "I enjoyed writing about those, and I've written a couple myself that were not among my proudest moments, like Shine A Light, which luckily went out close to midnight.

"There were others that I thought were okay, but didn't do too well, such as The Sun Trap, in which I took the mickey out of British expats in Spain. Mocking the Spanish would have been okay, but people didn't like me jokily criticising Brits for being insular."

Diehard Reggie fans were not so pleased with the new version, says Nobbs. "But enough new viewers stuck with it to the end, even when the final episode was up against the Britain's Got Talent final. The BBC has been very supportive, and didn't interfere. Martin came in and did it his way, a gentler Reggie.

"I'd like to do a third series, but wouldn't want it to go the way of the standard sitcom, flogged beyond the end of its useful life."

The next novel, Life After Deborah, is on its way. Ideas for TV series and more books pour forth, but David and Susan Nobbs like their holidays, too.

"A while ago, we went to the Ring of Kerry in Ireland, and had such a great time at this lovely B&B that we recommended it to friends. They stayed there the following year, and reported back that a plaque had been put up outside the house, saying 'Writer David Nobbs stayed here.'" He adds no comment, but looks both bemused and chuffed.

How about a New Year gong for services to comedy – and bed and breakfast?

Obstacles To Young Love is published by Harper, 7.99. To order a copy from the Yorkshire Post Bookshop, call free on 0800 0153232 or go online at www.yorkshirepostbookshop.co.uk. P&P is 2.75.

David Nobbs, Lynda Bellingham, Anne O'Brien and Mike Pannet will be speaking at the Yorkshire Post Literary Lunch in Harrogate on Thursday, May 13. Information and tickets: Margaret Brown 07731 690163 [email protected]