Karl Neilson (born 1971 in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

television director A television director is in charge of the activities involved in making a television program or section of a program. They are generally responsible for decisions about the editorial content and creative style of a program, and ensuring the prod ...

. He left school and started work as a van driver for an electrical goods company in

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Iris ...

. Harbouring an ambition to be a director, he returned to education at the Liverpool Community College. He won a place on the Media Production

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

course at

Bournemouth University Bournemouth University is a public university in Bournemouth, England, with its main campus situated in neighbouring Poole. The university was founded in 1992; however, the origins of its predecessor date back to the early 1900s. The univer ...

, and graduated with first class honours in 1996. Neilson's television career began as an assistant director on '' EastEnders'' all the way back in 1998. Alongside ''EastEnders'', he was also the assistant director for '' Silent Witness''. It was then in September 2001 that Neilson appeared officially in the credits as a director, when he directed his first episode of ''EastEnders''. In 2004, a double episode set in the launderette with

Dot Cotton Dorothy "Dot" Branning (also Cotton) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera, ''EastEnders'', played by June Brown. In a special episode entitled ''EastEnders: Dot's Story'' (2003) a young Dot was played by Tallulah Pitt-Brown in fl ...

telling

Den Watts Dennis "Den" Watts is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by actor Leslie Grantham. He became well known for his tabloid nickname, "Dirty Den". Den was the original landlord of The Queen Victoria public house fr ...

she had cancer won a TV Moments award, named as 'Best Popular Drama Moment' of 2004. As well as directing for the BBC, he has also directed episodes of ''

The Bill ''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, first broadcast on ITV from 16 August 1983 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, '' Woodentop'', broadcast in August 1983. The programme focused o ...

'' and ''

Family Affairs ''Family Affairs'' is a British soap opera that aired on Channel 5. It debuted on 30 March 1997, the day of the launch of said channel and was the first programme broadcast on the channel. It was screened as five thirty-minute episodes per w ...

'' for

TalkbackThames Talkback Thames (stylised as talkbackTHAMES) was a British television production company, a division of Fremantle (part of the RTL Group, which in turn is owned by Bertelsmann). It was formed by the merger of Talkback Productions and Thames Tel ...

. In 2008 he began directing the new series of ''

Minder A minder is the person assigned to guide or escort a visitor, or to provide protection to somebody, or to otherwise assist or take care of something, i.e. a person who " minds". Government-appointed persons to accompany foreign visitors are of ...

'' for FIVE which was later axed due to poor viewing figures. In 2015, ''EastEnders'' celebrated its thirtieth anniversary with a Live Week. Neilson directed the live week episodes along with the flashback episode. Commenting upon directing the dramatic culmination of the week, Neilson said: "As a director it's an absolute gift of a week, because it's a story where the audience are continually looking for meaning in every line and every reaction. Because of that I was determined to get very specific performances which would steer the story as I wanted it to be steered throughout the week."

Filmography

The following is a table of notable episodes and television shows directed by Neilson.

References

External links

*
Karl Neilson at the British Film InstituteKarl Neilson at Hollywood.comKarl Neilson at The New York Times
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neilson, Karl British television directors Alumni of Bournemouth University Broadcast mass media people from Liverpool 1971 births Living people