Nick Wilson

TV Kids
Weekly, July 29, 2008

Director of
Children’s Programming

Five

Milkshake! debuted some five months after the
launch of Five in the U.K., when Dawn Airey, who was then the director of
programs, wanted to replace an ailing live talk show, Espresso, with a block of kids’ programs for
the school summer holidays. Nick Wilson, who was the controller of children’s
programs, believed that the network’s continuity graphics were not suited for
young viewers and used the new block as a launch pad for live in-vision
continuity. “The name Milkshake! came simply from Espresso,” explains Wilson, who is now the director of children’s
programs for the network. “Espresso for adults, Milkshake! for children. No marketing, no market research, one man’s
hunch—very cheap!” he jokes.

Milkshake! has been on the air now for more than
a decade, chocked full of today’s most beloved characters, including Mr. Men,
Fireman Sam, Thomas the Tank Engine, Rupert Bear and more. “Milkshake! has more top preschool brands than any
other channel in the U.K.,” explains Wilson.

Each year, the
block is buying less and less off the shelf, with only a quarter of its content
coming from acquisitions. For 2008, Milkshake! will commission or co-produce more
than 600 new program episodes, spread over 20-plus series, involving more than
16 different production companies and totaling some 150 hours of new first-run
programming. “This is more first-run programming than CBeebies,” Wilson points
out, noting that the competing British kids’ network “is seen as younger, with
a strong BBC flavor.” By comparison, “Nick Jr. is seen as older, edgier and
American,” he says, which puts Milkshake! “squarely in the middle,” being “direct, entertaining and
British,” Wilson explains.

When selecting
what content makes the roster, the block “looks first at a program’s entertainment
value, the strength and quality of its story, to what degree the program will
draw in its audience,” Wilson explains, “then at the value of the content, that
it is accurate and safe, and then at the message, which generally will be
subtle and understated.”

Wilson’s
dedication to providing programming that will “enrich, entertain and stimulate
its young audience and never harm them,” stems from his long-running history in
the British kids’ business. He fell into the industry “by chance” more or less,
through a University colleague whose flat mate was Chris Pye, an Emmy
Award-winning writer and producer who was working at Granada at the time and
was looking for a continuity scriptwriter. “There was a postal strike on, so he
had no applicants,” jokes Wilson, who landed the job on a three-month contract
a week later.

He moved on to
join BBC as a promo-maker, and was “immediately attracted to children’s TV.”
After scoring a training attachment to Playschool, Wilson spent the next eight
years as a writer/director/producer for BBC Children’s. He’s now heading up the
kids’ division at Five, which fits perfectly for him, as he’s “always loved the
creative side…I interfere with scripts far too much, even write some,
especially on our lower budget productions—my scripts come free!” he
jokes. Wilson’s position at Five has given him “the freedom to make the job
work as I want. It’s a great company, with great people—some of my
colleagues in programming are absolute legends; Long may it last.”

—By
Kristin Brzoznowski