Anne Gilchrist

Controller
CBBC

The BBC’s programming budgets attract pitches from the top British producers. “It’s about trying to make the best, and British production companies are among the best in the world at delivering content,” says Anne Gilchrist, the controller of CBBC, the BBC’s children’s channel. Gilchrist says she’s on the lookout for “Big ambitious ideas, never-been-done-before ideas.”

She explains, “I’m never scrambling around looking for ideas. I’m always overwhelmed with ideas and have a very difficult job choosing between them, which is a very luxurious place to be.”

About half of CBBC’s commissioning budget goes to in-house productions, with some 25 percent earmarked for independent producers, Gilchrist explains. “The last 25 percent, it’s a competition really, so anybody can win those ideas. The marketplace is very competitive at the moment. Everybody is looking to us. We’re working with traditional children’s program makers, people we’ve [had relationships with] for years. But we’re also [doing business with] a lot of people who have only worked in the adult section, and we’re helping them adapt their ideas to a children’s audience. We’re getting lots of freshness that way.”

Gilchrist likes big, ambitious ideas across all genres. “I tend to be looking for factual formats, factual-entertainment shows, pure entertainment, live-action drama and new animation. We don’t see ourselves as an educating channel, but a lot of our content has very good substance to it. We do make lots of factual programs. That is one of our core genres.”

As an example of a factual show done in an innovative, ambitious way, Gilchrist cites a ten-episode series about democracy called Election.

“That seems like quite a dry subject, but because of the format, it was quite exciting. It felt like a reality show. It was a fun show. I don’t think any child watching it would have said this is an educational show.”

CBBC, which targets kids 6 to 12, is also having success with live action, as Gilchrist explains: “Things like The Sarah Jane Adventures, a live-action drama. Also M.I. High, both very action-adventure, exciting, with great characters. Who Wants to Be a Superhero?, a great format giving kids the opportunity to be something entertaining and exciting.” Sarah Jane is produced by BBC Wales. M.I. High is from Kudos Film and Television in London and Superhero is a co-production of CBBC and NBC Universal, which developed it in the U.S. for its SCI FI Channel.

The BBC hasn’t been too affected by a weak advertising market, but Gilchrist says the broadcaster is exercising care with money. “The BBC is under its own regime of efficiency,” she says. “We’re continually looking at ways of squeezing more value out of the money we have. We’re certainly being affected in that sense. But it’s more driven for us in terms of a new ambition. In the last few years we’ve decided to commission fewer titles but put more money into those titles to make them stand out more, to raise the quality. That’s been paying off. It’s kept us ahead of the game, ahead of a lot of commercial channels, which rely on a lot of American imports. We’ve done really well by creating British content.”