In this unexpurgated (and until-now unscreened) interview, Keith Quinn talks to TP 'Terry' McLean, who Quinn has called “the best rugby writer we have ever produced”. The late author and NZ Herald sports editor reminisces widely, though All Blacks are often on the menu: the “God-like figure” of George Nepia (who McLean wrote a book with), “audacious, thoughtful, cunning, chess player” Bob Scott, and Colin Meads, who McLean is candid in his opinion of. Quinn quizzes McLean on his beginnings, favourite sporting memories, and all-time favourite All Black Captain.

This Close Up All Blacks interview was broadcast from Christchurch Football Club, ahead of the opening test of the much anticipated 2005 tour by the British Lions. Mark Sainsbury is the MC, as coach Graham Henry, captain Tana Umaga, vice-captain Richie McCaw and young lock James Ryan talk pre-game rituals, mentors, half-time food and nicknames (McCaw is known as ‘Fluffy’?). Umaga would shortly make headlines for his part in a controversial tackle on Brian O’Driscoll, which ruled the Lions captain out for the rest of the series (won 3 - 0 by the All Blacks).

In this April 1989 excerpt from music show CV, local bluesman Midge Marsden interviews BB King between flights at Auckland Airport. Sitting with his beloved Gibson guitar Lucille, King reveals his dissatisfaction with his own guitar playing, his family's distaste for blues music while growing up, and his belief that the growing sophistication of blues has helped it win increased popularity. He also mentions Bono writing him a song ('When Love Comes to Town'), and his take on friends James Brown and Ike Turner getting in trouble with the law.  

This 2013 Sunday item sees Garth Bray interviewing veteran Coronation Street actor William Roache, and being shown around the Manchester set. After defending Coro actor Michael Le Vell (later acquitted of sex abuse charges), Roache made headlines for comments that appeared to partially blame victims. He argues that people who are aware they are "pure love" won't become victims, but adds that events in our past lives can factor in. Roache later apologised for any offence caused. Two months later he faced charges of rape and indecent assault. He was found not guilty on all counts.

This 2010 Close Up excerpt sees presenter Mark Sainsbury interview rock band Dragon. After singer Marc Hunter’s death in 1998, the band went on hiatus until nearly a decade later, when Todd Hunter started rehearsing a new line-up, with Mark Williams on vocals. Hunter talks about reforming — "we are here to service the songs" — and he and Williams reflect on their rock’n’roll lives. "It must have been dangerous to be in the band?" asks Sainsbury. It wouldn’t be a Kiwi summer without 'Rain', and the band ends with a TVNZ rooftop rendition of the classic song.

This short Auckland-shot interview for arts show The Edge screened as Holly Hunter was appearing in two Oscar-nominated roles: The Piano and The Firm. Hunter discusses playing a hitman-hiring housewife, and joining Tom Cruise in The Firm. Weighing up past roles, she cherishes Raising Arizona and Broadcast News, but feels that The Piano is “the most original story that I've been involved in”, and Jane Campion is “one of the great directors.” In March 1994 Hunter would win an Oscar for Best Actress (alongside Piano Oscars for co-star Anna Paquin, and for Campion's screenplay).

In this feisty late 1976 The Friday Conference interview, host Gordon Dryden holds Prime Minister Muldoon to account over his 1975 election pledges. Dryden challenges Muldoon’s touting of freedom (amidst price freezes, wage controls and an All Blacks tour to apartheid South Africa), and the PM's description of himself as a liberal (with heated talk about insults traded during the Colin Moyle affair). Dryden evokes the spectre of the McCarthy era, and a pugnacious Muldoon invokes “the ordinary bloke”. Muldoon later refused to be interviewed by Dryden again for the show.

In this RWP interview, Karyn Hay gets Split Enz members Neil Finn and Nigel Griggs to explain some of the band's songs before a January 1983 performance at festival Sweetwaters. Both are tired of doing True Colours tracks; the album "has followed us around like a bad smell for a year and a half" says Finn. He also admits 'I Got You' was "probably only about the third lyric I'd ever written", and touches on the BBC banning of 'Six Months in a Leaky Boat'. Griggs admits he has no idea what Finn's 'History Never Repeats' is about; Finn praises Griggs' "incredibly good bass riff" on 'Lost for Words'.

On 09 July 2002 the ruling Labour Party was under pressure on the Genetic Engineering (GE) issue, when John Campbell confronted Prime Minister Helen Clark over the suspected release of GE corn seed in 2000. In a 3 News special a fired-up Campbell, informed by Nicky Hager's yet-to-be-published Seeds of Distrust, alleged there had been a cover up. Upset at what she perceived as an ambush, Clark reacted tersely; she later labelled Campbell a "sanctimonious little creep". With a general election looming, the encounter was dubbed 'Corngate'.

This 1993 interview from the first series of arts show The Edge screened while The Piano was in Kiwi cinemas. Earlier that year Jane Campion had become the first (and only) female director to share the top award at the Cannes Film Festival. Here, she discusses the antipodean character of her next project ( The Portrait of a Lady) and the satisfaction of offering Nicole Kidman a role that isn’t “like a handbag to one of the male stars”. She also muses on working in Hollywood versus her hometown Sydney, and the influence of a New Zealand upbringing on forming her imagination.