Producer switches from ?box? to vintner

New Zealand's pioneer producer of entertainment programmes for television, Kevan Moore, didn't confine his creative talents to the small screen. The Buckland author once converted and expanded a railway signal box into a family home at Muriwai. These days, he lives in what was a Methodist church. Not surprisingly, his home-made wine hobby is labeled Vespers. He came to New Zealand from Bradford, in England, aged 11. After Christchurch Boys' High he joined public radio as a technician then took off for two stints in Sydney as a television floor manager and producer/ director. In the Seventies he was shoulder-tapped to be the founding controller of programmes of what was then South Pacific Television, the present-day TV2. Older viewers will recall the ground-breaking days of In the Groove and Let's Go on which Moore groomed the late Peter Sinclair for ratings' winners such as C'mon and Happen Inn, using fast-moving directorial techniques not seen before in local programmes. The careers of up-and-coming performers such as Mr Lee Grant, Ray Columbus and The Chicks were enhanced by gigs on Moore's early shows. His skills extended to producing current affairs shows in Sydney for Channel 10 and in Wellington for WNTV1, plus creating the popular Night Sky fronted by Peter Read which explained ''the heavens'' in simple terms. When he left public television Moore set up his own production company and became a buyer and seller of antiques. Now, in the tranquil atmosphere of a consecrated building, he devotes his time to writing, recently completing a family history. His forebears go back to days when linen and flax were major industries in the meadows of Northern Ireland and the satanic mills of Yorkshire. He's currently working on a novel set centuries ago at the time of the English Civil War. By Maurice Smyth