Tom Bidwell

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Tom Bidwell (born February 1984) is a British screenwriter and playwright who has won BAFTA and Emmy awards for his work in TV and animation.

Early life
Bidwell grew up in Leyland, Lancashire, and went to Balshaw’s Church of England High School. When he was 14, he was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and wrote poetry while waiting for a bone marrow transplant. He later developed cancer in his shoulder at 15 but was treated successfully. He finished his GCSEs and went on to study English and Drama at university.

Career
Bidwell’s breakthrough came with a BBC Radio 4 play that was adapted into the short film Wish 143 (2009). The story about a terminally ill teenager was nominated for an Academy Award in 2011 for Best Live Action Short Film. He then joined the BBC Writers’ Academy and wrote for popular BBC series such as Doctors, EastEnders, Casualty, and Holby City.

He later worked on My Mad Fat Diary for E4, which earned BAFTA nominations. MTV considered an American remake, but it was not produced. In 2014, Bidwell helped create Watership Down, a BBC-Netflix animated series with a budget of £20 million; the show won a Daytime Emmy in 2019 for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program.

In December 2018, Netflix announced The Irregulars, an eight-episode series about the Baker Street Irregulars, which premiered on March 26, 2021. Bidwell has also worked on adaptations of Jaqueline Wilson novels Katy and The Primrose Railway Children, with Katy earning him a BAFTA for Best Writer at the Children’s BAFTAs in 2018. He wrote an animated adaptation of The Velveteen Rabbit, which released on Apple TV+ on November 22, 2023, featuring voices such as Phoenix Laroche, Alex Lawther, Helena Bonham Carter, and Nicola Coughlan. The Velveteen Rabbit later won two Emmys at the Children and Family Emmy Awards in 2025 and earned a BAFTA for the Children’s Craft Team.

Personal life
Bidwell lives in the Towngate area of Leyland with his American wife, Lorraine Metz. In 2018, he volunteered at Frenchwood Community Primary School in Preston to help pupils with storytelling, arranged by his sister-in-law, Jane Bidwell.