Hi everyone, I've been absent for some time here, so I thought I'd reintroduce myself to everyone. I'm Phil Bridge, from Hampshire UK and I write TV Drama series that are character led, a little on the mysterious side and hopefully impactful. I moved away a little bit from writing for TV to focus on writing my magical, enchanting Middle Grade fantasy book series 'The Jessica Fortune' books. It's Narnia x Harry Potter x Amari & The Night Brothers x The House At The Edge of Magic. Jessica Fortune is a socially awkward 11-year-old who, despite her awesome name, doesn't do people! Suspended from school for "fighting" (it so wasn't a fight), she is forced to accompany her mum, a house cleaner, to a new contract cleaning a large home of the reclusive, eccentric Victor Fuzzlewig. She soon discovers during a chance meeting with the man himself, he is a magical artefacts collector and Magi, who has been cursed by a magical orb, one of a pair he "found" (yeah, he stole them!) and is disappearing slowly. He introduces Jessica to the world of Erendor, his house bridges the gap between our world and his. She embarks upon a series of dangerous yet thrilling adventures in Erendor across 11 books with Victor, discovering that being your true, unapologetic self, is true bravery. Vanishing markets, magical forests, Timewalkers, enchanted paintings, and a dangerous growing threat from Cloaks, (Magi who have turned to darkness in search of the power of the Aelmyar, beings who gave their magic to the Magi to use it for good), Jessica makes a name for herself within Erendor as the pair travel the land in search of the most dangerous magical items, saving them from the Cloaks. I'm interested in turning it into a TV series, or a film series that one day might stand alongside Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. It would be perfect as a TV series for a UK or international Sunday evening 6pm slot for kids to watch before bedtime and school the next day. I am loving creating and building Erendor, lore, history, with 2 spin-off trilogies, recipe book and world guide. Jessica is also my real life daughter, who helped me write these during lockdown. As Jessica herself would say, magic can be found everywhere, if you look for it! I do intend to return to writing drama and have even written a continuation series of The Walking Dead as my wife and I are such massive fans.
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Great to meet you, Phil. Transitioning a massive 11-book world into a TV series is a major goal! I'm also in the middle of packaging a series with a 4-season roadmap involving global 'Frequency Nodes' and ancient tech. Having that long-term vision—like your spin-off trilogies—is exactly what producers look for to see if a project has 'legs.' Best of luck with the Sunday evening slot goal!
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Welcome back Phil Bridge ! Always good to see people loop back in once life stops body-checking the calendar.
Also, bonus points for the Walking Dead shout. Anyone who can stick with that show through the highs, the chaos, and the occasional “what are we doing here?” episode has the kind of endurance this industry seems to require.
Jump back in, poke around the lounges, and don’t be shy about what you’re building next.
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Hi Morgan Aitken . Thanks so much. I think the mainstay of my time has been writing the children's book series. I wrote The Walking Dead: What Comes After to highlight Carl's vision for what Alexandria should look like, made it fun too, with Negan stealing a car with Daryl to distract walkers and the tape in the car being the song "Lucille". Basically scientists from the recently fallen CRM come to Alexandria with a cure for the walker virus and ask Rick and Co to distribute it to the masses as they are the only ones capable of surviving the world as it is. Also, it involves a lot of soliloquies of each MC thinking about their fears for what life would be like without walkers, as they've essentially become killers, all of them. Would the world have a place for them if the cure worked? So yeah, I wrote 11 episodes which reunites the entire cast including spin-off's, so Daryl, Morgan, Rick, Michonne, those from other spin-off's like Maddie, Maggie etc, all coming together, and also introducing a new community that have built themselves up in an old outdoor waterpark. It was fun, but the main focus has been trying to get some attention on my children's book series, with a view to it being turned into a children's TV series or series of films. It's ripe for a sunday evening slot at, say 6pm, so kids can enjoy it each week before the dreaded school week starts again, and hopefully spend the Monday chatting to their friends about the latest episode. It's fantasy, world-rich with creativity in a fantasy setting, and a lot of fun! Plus, my daughter who was 11 when we first started writing as the first lockdown happened, is now 16 and still writing with me, so that's a bonus!
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Welcome back, Phil Bridge. Happy New Year! Great to see you again. The Jessica Fortune sounds incredible! I'd watch it!
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Thanks everyone! I'm actually looking to also connect with any producers or studios who might be looking for something like this project that will ignite the magic in viewers young and old, something that, with the right approach, could stand alongside the Harry Potter series or potentially even rival it. All the locations in the world of Erendor are inspired by or based on real locations, from Scotland to the Cotswolds of the UK, places I've visited that viewers can actually go to, sit under the tree I sat under when I created the village of Tarnstead, or a Christmas market I visited when I created the famous Vanishing Markets. Real locations ideal for filming, no need for elaborate sets for those scenes, and stunning locations. I don't have a script yet, just 5 complete manuscripts, but I'm working on adapting the books to scripts.
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Yeah, that's truly cool. I love treating locations like characters in the story. Trouble with those real UK locations is they are pretty much out of reach for anyone with less than a BBC budget and the connections that go with it.
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You're welcome, Phil Bridge. Here's a blog that'll help you connect with producers, executives, and more. www.stage32.com/blog/the-importance-of-community-and-collaboration-in-th...
Stage 32's next Community Open House will be January 28th. It'll also help you make connections. You can ask questions about the platform, finding producers, and more live. It's free to sign up. www.stage32.com/education/products/stage-32s-january-2026-community-open...
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Thanks Morgan. Actually the BBC was on my target list! From a writers perspective, imagine partnering with a Cotswold Tours company and having the series or film filmed there, and the author attending the tours to those locations as an assistant tour guide to explain where I was, the tree I sat under, the bridge I crossed, or what I heard, saw and smelt whilst creating the stories. It becomes a living, breathing real place. Erendor becomes real to the viewer/reader, a real place that they can visit. Plus they are seriously stunning places, I've spent many a happy summer and cosy winter there. All it needs is a producer or studio to share the vision and 11 magical books and spin-off's become a long term project. After all, magic can be found everywhere if you look for it!