Now what kind of man, you might ask, (quoting one successful TV series) would work in a rambling Victorian house like this in Huntington Road, York?

And could this Lotus Elan sports car in its car park be a serious clue?

Answer: Christopher Wise and he's the kind of man who began in newspaper journalism, crossed the divide into radio, then television, and finally started a lone production company in his garage in Robin Hood's Bay, where he lived at the time.

He's also the kind of man who in just four years built up his NMTV Ltd into a core of eight staff with such success that now he's pitching for the title of 1998 Evening Press business Venture of the Year.

What's more, he's an aficionado of classically styled cars powered by such passion for the subject that his 39 half-hour Top Marques programmes for The Discovery Channel have themselves become icons for motoring enthusiasts all over the world and on which he has begun to build a totally separate business.

In its first year, NMTV - the NM stands for New Media - beat 30 other independent television film makers to win a commission for Out And About, a BBC2 leisure programme for BBC North East and Cumbria for which it has now completed its third series.

It has made current affairs items for Tyne-Tees, a fly-on-the-wall series on pregnancy for BBC daytime screening, an outside broadcast-based magazine show, Kathy & Co and a three part documentary series on the secret development of the Lotus Elise, again for Discovery.

Last month Christopher signed a contract to produce 100 five-minute films for Yorkshire Television's Tonight programme. Six of them, featuring aspects of York's Castle Museum to mark its 60th anniversary, will be screened in September and filming has already begun. There will also be six walks in the Yorkshire Dales with actor Frazer Hines, former Emmerdale star; and York charity shop workers Ivy And Ada, discovered by local radio and now regionally famous, will give vent to their views on consumer products.

Along the way Christopher, without meaning to, has started his own in-house camera crew, set up his own state-of-the-art digital editing systems in a suite which would be the envy of many older production companies and accumulated enough profits to move out of Tower House business unit in York and into the Huntington Road property, which the company now owns.

"It's almost as though I'm managing director of a totally different company every six months so fast is the pace of change here," says Christopher, in his newly-carpeted office but then this 35-year-old is used to change.

He had a good start, training as a journalist with the Evening Press in 1981 and working as a reporter on our sister paper, the Northern Echo. But his aim was always to break into television and after a period as a producer with BBC Radio York he joined Tyne-Tees and spent eight months as press officer for The Tube, the Channel 4 rock show with Paula Yates and Jools Holland. He found an opening as a researcher, making factual programmes for Tyne-Tees for five years. He left to produce the This Morning programme with Richard and Judy. "It was a killer of a job but fantastically slick and polished," he recalls.

Then he surprised everyone by leaving to become managing editor of Britain's first cable-exclusive Wire TV, in charge of programming and a staff of 40.

"It was madness. In the first year one of the programmes was coming from a converted unit in a Bristol shopping centre and we were on the air ten hours a day, seven days a week. It taught me how to juggle with strict deadlines and how to deal with budgets that made a shoe-string literally look like a cable!"

But when speculation began that it was to become a purely sports channel he left after 18 months to start NMTV in his garage, taking his chances against around 1,000 intensely competitive production companies in Britain who develop TV programme ideas, pitch them at broadcasters and hope that they will be commissioned.

He quickly got his first bites, making current affairs half-hour films for Tyne Tees, including the controversial Headline Babies which looked at the apparent phenomenon of a series of cases of babies operated on for skull deformities in the Selby area.

But the crucial contract was for 13 half-hour Top Marques programmes for The Discovery Channel. As the son of a mechanic "with grease in my veins" Christopher was in his element. He completed the 13 by travelling all over Britain and filming everything in just 35 days.

Each programme looked at the history of a famous marque from MG to Ferrari to Lamborghini. Christopher says: "It got right away from 'clever Dick' motoring television; nor was it an oily rag and bobble hat programme. It was about genuine motoring fans, their passion for and adoration of cars; their sense of nostalgia."

Another two series of Top Marques followed. Last summer it went international, with hired camera crews visiting five European countries.

Then Christopher's new recruit, Dan Adamson was blooded as a director by making seven half-hour Top Marques in a quickfire tour of 16 of the United States in just seven weeks.

Having negotiated the rights to the Top Marques, it means that Christopher has been able to form a totally separate company, New Media Video, to promote the car programmes worldwide with the help of his latest recruit, marketing man Giles Pike. Giles will also launch a new arm of NMTV in August - making promotional and training videos for industry in North Yorkshire and beyond.

For the moment, though, Christopher and his team clearly love what they are doing.

It could hardly be otherwise when for the leisure series they recently filmed a line-up of hairy legs doing an "up periscope" in a swimming pool, legs which belonged to tough plumbers from Newcastle City Council trying their hand (or their feet) at synchronised swimming.

It could hardly be otherwise when they tracked the totally different lifestyles of four couples named Jones, all of whom discovered the wife was pregnant at around the same time.

Should NMTV win the Evening Press business Venture of the Year, the £2,000 prize money will go towards the cost of hiring a freelance researcher.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.