This best of special culls history and highlights from 40 seasons of the longest running show on NZ television. Farming, forestry and fishing are all on the roster, but this edition is as much about observing people and the land. There is footage of high country musters, helicopter deer capture, floods and blizzards, as well as radio-controlled dogs and mice farmers. Longtime Country Calendar figures like John Gordon and Tony Trotter share their memories, and the show sets out to catch up again with some of the colourful New Zealanders that have featured on screen.

In this May 2006 interview, Paul Holmes interviews actor Russell Crowe for Holmes' new Prime TV show. After 25 minutes Russell is joined by his cousin, cricket legend Martin Crowe. Free from PR pressures to promote a particular film, Russell is relaxed and reflective. He talks organic farming, Elvis Costello and fatherhood, the All Blacks and Richard Harris, and growing up as “Martin Crowe’s cousin”. Holmes brings up Martin’s famous innings of 299, and the trio discuss baseball, throwing phones, Romper Stomper, Russell's Rabbitohs league club and Martin’s Gladiator role. 

In this Jam TV series, comedian Te Radar ditches 21st Century consumer luxuries and the city rat race to see if he can live sustainably for 10 months on a remote patch of land west of Auckland. His back-to-basics mission requires him to exist on only what he can hunt, grow and fish himself — putting delights like goat salami and home-made feta on the menu. He also explores topical green issues like the viability of solar power and whether simple steps such as composting and starting a worm bin can reduce landfill. The series also bred a book and a live show.

This is the Christmas episode of comedian Te Radar's green living series. In this excerpt, he prepares lunch for 17 family members, using only food he has hunted or grown himself. The turkey shoot (with a little help from his long suffering neighbour) reveals him to be a better shot than a spotter. Then it's on to preparations for lunch, which include removing "organic matter" from the dining area. His young nephews and nieces are given a glimpse of the wonder of new life, but are not spared the harsh realities of just where lunch is coming from.

This film looks at biodynamic agriculture, a Rudolph Steiner-inspired system of organic farming. The film focuses on Peter Proctor, a worm-obsessed Kiwi gardener, and his work promoting biodynamics worldwide — particularly in India, where he argues that modern industrial agriculture (eg artificial chemicals, GM seeds) has made soil and plants toxic and farming unsustainable. Proctor's simple recipe to save the planet? One man and a bucket of cow dung. Narrated by American actor Peter Coyote (E.T.), One Man screened worldwide at environmental film festivals. 

The iconic all-things-rural show is the longest running programme on New Zealand television. With its typical patient observational style (that allows stories of people and the land to gently unfold) it’s an unlikely broadcasting star, but New Zealanders continue, after 50 plus years, to tune in. Amongst the bucolic tales of farming, fishing and forestry, there are high country musters, floods, organic brewing, falconry, tobacco farming, as well as a fencing wire-playing farmer-musician, a radio-controlled dog, and Fred Dagg and the Trevs.

In this series about living sustainably, comedian Te Radar swaps the farm for town to transform a quarter acre overgrown lawn into a lush garden. Using recycled materials and organic methods, Te Radar faces a mission to clear the jungle that is his property and make a profit selling his produce. Throughout the series he visits eco-friendly businesses, including a firm that converts waste cooking oil into biodiesel, and turns to locals to help with his challenge. The series followed on from Off the Radar, in which Te Radar aimed to live solely off produce from his farm.