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A selection of
Awards
Television
The Negros Are Coming
Written By
Tray Epps
Logline
During WWII in a Lancashire town, the arrival of Black American soldiers sparks unlikely solidarity with locals — and explosive conflict with white military police — culminating in the historic Battle of Bamber Bridge.
Format
Television
Genre
Drama
Comps
Band of Brothers’ ensemble intensity
Meets
This Is England’s cultural grit
With an element of
Detroit’s explosive tension
the Story
In 1943, the quiet town of Bamber Bridge, Lancashire, became the unlikely stage for one of WWII’s most explosive racial clashes. When Black American soldiers, stationed far from home, marched through its cobbled streets, they carried both pride and the weight of segregation. Locals greeted them as heroes. White military police saw them as threats. Booker Freeman, a charismatic young soldier, just wanted to survive the war with dignity intact. Perlie Turner, fiery and uncompromising, refused to bow to injustice. Moses Franklin, who once lived for jazz, now held a rifle instead of his trumpet. Together with their brothers, they found respite in the warmth of the local pub — and solidarity from townspeople tired of America’s Jim Crow reaching their shores. But solidarity had consequences. Tensions boiled over into open conflict. What began as a scuffle outside Ye Olde Hob pub ignited into the Battle of Bamber Bridge — a night of chaos, courage, and heartbreak that forced soldiers, townsfolk, and outsiders alike to confront who they were, and what they were willing to fight for. The Negros Are Coming is a sweeping ensemble drama about race, identity, and solidarity in wartime Britain, shining a light on a piece of history too often left untold.
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The "Story Behind the Story"
As a Black American living in Northern England, the history of Bamber Bridge feels deeply personal. It’s a story about being seen and unseen, welcomed and rejected, all at once. This project is my attempt to capture the contradictions of that moment: American soldiers fighting for freedom abroad while denied it at home; British locals offering unexpected solidarity even as war loomed. It’s about how the past reverberates into the present — the way communities form, fracture, and sometimes rise together against injustice.
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Key Themes
It’s about racism exported abroad, solidarity discovered in unexpected places, and the cost of courage in a segregated world. At its core, it explores how war reshapes identity, how communities fracture and unite, and how the fight for dignity is as universal as the fight for survival.
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Project Status
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A selection of
The World
Set in 1940s Britain, the world is both familiar and fraught: cobbled streets, warm pubs, and dance halls become stages for cultural collision. It’s a small town overshadowed by global war, where joy, prejudice, and rebellion ignite in the same spaces.
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