Hugh Grant has appealed for help tracking down personal items stolen from his car, including a script.

The actor tweeted on Sunday night about the theft, writing: “In the unlikely chance that anyone knows who broke into my car tonight and stole my bag, please try and persuade them to at least return my script. Many weeks’ worth of notes and ideas. And perhaps [also return] my children’s medical cards.”

Grant, who reportedly put his house in Notting Hill, west London, up for rent in October last year, did not say where the theft took place. He asked for the items to be returned to Coach Films in Ealing, west London. The cricketer Kevin Pietersen tweeted in reply: “Our street being invaded by scumbags?”

Also responding to Grant, the comedian David Baddiel wrote: “I’m sorry. I’ve had very bad writer’s block.”

I'm sorry. I've had very bad writer's block. — David Baddiel (@Baddiel) January 13, 2019

Grant last appeared on screen in the BBC drama A Very English Scandal, playing the late Liberal party leader Jeremy Thorpe, for which he was nominated for several awards.

He did not say which production the script in the car was for. Grant is currently working on Toff Guys, a Guy Ritchie film about a British drug lord, and the HBO series The Undoing, which also features Nicole Kidman and Donald Sutherland.

Grant made his name in the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral and went on to appear in a number of romantic comedies. He has said he will no longer take such roles now he is “older and uglier” and is being offered a greater variety of parts.

The actor, one of many celebrities who had their voicemails hacked, is one of the figureheads of the Hacked Off movement for press regulation.

Police did not immediately comment on the theft.