Open Door is a community-based TV series that allows groups or individuals to apply to make a documentary about an issue that concerns them. This programme is about problem gambling. It features frank and revealing interviews with gamblers, as well as support information. The doco describes gambling as a “secret disease” that affects all types of people across all socio-economic groups. It explains that there are “action gamblers”, who are attracted to the risk and thrill, and “escape gamblers”, who gamble to escape some form of emotional pain.

Hammond Gamble scored his biggest hit with charity single 'You Make the Whole World Smile', which was written by Simon Shattky, Murray Grindlay and Murray McNabb. Promoting Red Nose Day, it was the first local song to top the Kiwi singles chart in different years (1992 and 1993). Sales were further fuelled by a music video which expanded the massed chorus to include a who's who of Kiwi actors and sports stars. In 2010, Anika Moa released a more countrified version of the song.     

Great adverts are strange things: mini works of magic, with the power to make viewers smile, cry, and even buy. Kiwi directors have shown such a knack for making them, they've been invited to do so across the globe. But this collection is about local favourites; dogs on skateboards, choc bar robberies, ghost chips. NZ On Screen's Irene Gardiner backgrounds the top 10 here.

This collection rounds up almost every music video for a number one hit by a Kiwi artist; everything from ballads to hip hop to glam rock. Press on the images below to find the hits for each decade  — plus try this backgrounder by Michael Higgins, whose high speed history of local hits touches on the sometimes questionable ways past charts were created.  

He learnt kapa haka as a child. He learnt to smoulder on Shortland Street. He punched a country in the guts with Once Were Warriors. Temuera Morrison has starred in Māori westerns, adventure romps, and cannibal comedies. In the backgrounder to this special collection, NZ On Screen editor Ian Pryor traces Temuera Morrison's journey from haka to Hollywood.  

The video for this Red Nose Day chart-topper makes the most of a powerhouse combination: celebrities and cute babies. Although lead singer Hammond Gamble gets his share of screen time, the result is largely devoted to close-ups of perhaps the biggest pile-up of famous Kiwis to cram into a single music video. The faces include appearances early on by Simone Kessell, Ilona Rodgers, and Aussie actor Mark Raffety — plus The Wizard, sports legends Grant Fox, John Kirwan and Jeremy Coney, newsreaders Judy Bailey and Anita McNaught, and singers Tina Cross and Suzanne Lynch. 

The final episode of director Geoff Steven's USA road trip provides a number of different takes on the American experience. A mother working as croupier in Reno, Nevada, puts a more modern and respectable face on the state’s previously disreputable gambling industry. An 82 year old professional banjo player in Virginia City recalls his days as a cowboy, while a TV reporter still rides the range on his days off. An upmarket health spa is flourishing in Tucson, Arizona; and, in Florida, Miami has been reshaped by a massive influx of refugees from Cuba.

Made for TV ONE’s Montana Sunday Theatre slot, this award-winning one-off drama stars Peter Elliott as a disgraced lawyer, who may or may not have a gambling problem. A down-on-his-luck reporter (Mark Clare) on the trail of the story finds there is more to it than meets the eye, and decides to scam the scammer, with dangerous consequences. Writer/director Jonothan Cullinane went on to make the feature film We’re Here to Help.

This is the first of a two-part "money and greed" morality tale set in a Rogernomics-era 'New Auckland' of property deals and horse racing. Working class lass Tammy (Annie Whittle) and art consultant Joanna (Miranda Harcourt, fresh from Gloss) are an unlikely duo who inherit a racehorse and a greasy spoon cafe (instant coffee rather than cappuccino). Brit import James Faulkner plays a shady developer whose scheme is blocked by the duo. Murder, underhand unitary plans, yuppie love and old gambling debts complicate life for Tammy and Joanna.

This Asia Downunder programme explores a sensitive subject for the Asian community: problem gambling. Street Talk takes the issue to the people, to canvas a range of views. Charlie ASH guitarist Mailee Mathews is profiled, as is comedian Jerome Chandrahasen. Asian films in the Film Festival are reviewed, and in the kitchen it's chicken with dried fenugreek leaves. Finally in a touching tribute, Malaysian-born actor Yvonne Tan is interviewed during her final battle with a brain tumour.