Richard Kilgarriff tells Kate Bulkley why healthy food will boost Turner's precocious children's channels and how he will get TCM fighting fit. As the head of Britain's most successful bouquet of commercial children's channels, Richard Kilgarriff is a man building himself a remarkable reputation in one of the toughest kids' TV markets in the world. But right now, the 36-year-old former producer, presenter and entrepreneur is moving Cartoon Network, Boomerang and Toonami into something that he hopes will be not only be good for the bottom line but also good for the country. Backed by surplus cash from last year's strong ratings performances on the Turner kids channels, Kilgarriff, senior vice-president and general manager of UK Entertainment Networks, Turner Broadcasting System Europe, has been working on a major new project for more than a year. The project is called Elfy Food and is a set of animated programmes that champions healthy eating for children. At a time when Jamie's School Dinners on Channel 4 has prompted a rethink in Government policy, the two-minute toons are meant to alert kids to the benefits of eating good food by re-branding and re-positioning fruit and veg to make them more exciting and, hopefully, more palatable to youngsters weaned on McDonalds and Coca Cola.
展开▼
