He left school and started work as a van driver for an electrical goods company in Southport.
He won a place on the Media Production Bachelor of Arts course at Bournemouth University, and graduated with first class honours in 1996.
[citation needed] Neilson's television career began as an assistant director on EastEnders back in 1998.
[2] 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 2008 he began directing the new series of Minder for FIVE[5][6] which was later axed due to poor viewing figures.