Comedian Te Radar is a natural for Intrepid Journeys - his own TV sojourns have already taken him to Palestine and East Timor. In this episode Radar travels through the landlocked African nation of Mali, much of which lies in the Sahara. On his way to the legendary city of Timbuktu he visits a festival in the desert, has a close encounter with a baby scorpion and grooves to the local drumming. Along the way, cameraman Bevan Crothers captures eye-opening imagery of brightly clothed locals and a lime-clad Te Radar, against sunlicked desert sands.

Rocked the Nation launched in 2008 with six one hour-long shows. Production company Satellite Media ransacked the archives and interviewed protagonists, to survey 100 key moments in Kiwi music history: including smash hits, riots, TV talent shows, and sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. Hosted by Karyn Hay, the series screened on C4 during NZ Music Month, and was the channel’s highest-rating series to that date. Follow-up series counted down 100 New Zealand Pop Culture Stories (2009, hosted by Rhys Darby) and 100 New Zealand Sporting Moments (2011, hosted by Dai Henwood). 

This series, made for use as a teaching resource in secondary schools by the NZ Music Industry Commission, was produced and directed by longtime Kiwi music champion Arthur Baysting. The full series featured 47 leading acts (including Don McGlashan, the Black Seeds, Nesian Mystik, Chris Knox and Fat Freddy's Drop) talking directly to the next generation of musicians about their music and careers. They offer intimate performances of classic songs, and heartfelt advice on subjects including songwriting, recording techniques, technology and the music industry.

Chef Cameron Petley was a fan favourite on the 2011 season of MasterChef New Zealand. In 2015 the Putaruru outdoorsman got his own Māori TV cooking show. The 20-part series saw down-home Cam (Tūhoe, Ngāti Ranginui) touring local markets and dining with whānau, providing tips for tasty kai. In this first episode he visits Avondale Markets with Dead Lands actor Lawrence Makoare, and heads home to shuck mussels, talk fusion food (mussel donuts!), and cook Makoare’s KFC (“kai for cuzzies”) fritters; in return he throws together a duck and watercress salad.

American-born ventriloquist David Strassman was the star of a self-titled show on TV2. These blooper clips from the Strassman Unplugged special see him and his puppets Chuck Wood, Ted E Bare and Sid Beaverman mocking each other as they get their lines wrong. However this isn't just a collection of missed lines — Chuck Wood goes heavy on the expletives to the studio audience and Ted E Bare has a bit of trouble wrangling his props. The show was made for TVNZ; Strassman has also appeared on television in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. 

Kiwis are often accused of not being very good at expressing their feelings. This documentary (made for TV One's Work of Art programme) offers striking evidence to the contrary, using some of our favourite love songs as proof. A roll call of New Zealand's best-known musicians and songwriters talk here candidly about love, and play some of the songs inspired by their experiences. The result is a film that shines a light on love Kiwi-style, and provides a fascinating survey of New Zealand pop music from the last 30 years along the way.

This edition of Prime TV’s history of New Zealand television looks at 50 years of entertainment. The smorgasbord of music, comedy and variety shows ranges from 60s pop stars to Popstars, from the anarchy of Blerta to the anarchy of Telethon, from Radio with Pictures to Dancing with the Stars. Music television moves from C’mon and country, to punk and hip hop videos. Comedy follows the formative Fred Dagg and Billy T, through to Eating Media Lunch and 7 Days. A roll call of New Zealand entertainers muse on seeing Kiwis laugh, sing and shimmy on the small screen.

Bill Morrison is a man on a mission. His wife and child can't walk nearly as fast. As the trio head toward the mining settlement where a new job awaits, Bill is about to react in different ways to two very different surprises — one from his wife, and one at the mine. This half-hour drama from the Winners & Losers series is based on a Maurice Shadbolt story, which later fed into Shadbolt's decade-in-the-making novel Strangers and Journeys. Singer turned advertising veteran Clyde Scott plays Bill. Actor and public speaking expert Jane Thomas John plays the nameless, long-suffering wife. 

Gibson Group production Public Eye was inspired by the British series, Spitting Image. Latex puppets caricature topical personalities, mostly drawn from the world of politics (Ruth Richardson, Helen Clark, Winston Peters etc). Their foibles are duly skewered in fast-moving comic skits such as the 'Ruatoria Rasta' segment, 'The White Way' and 'Honky Tanga'. The wickedly grotesque puppets were based on drawings by cartoonist Trace Hodgson, and built by a team headed by future Weta FX maestro, Richard Taylor.

Infamous, short-lived, and arguably unfairly maligned, The Neville Purvis Family Show was hosted by the occasionally foul-mouthed and very Kiwi Neville Purvis — in reality, writer and musician Arthur Baysting (Sleeping Dogs). The series is best known for containing possibly the first use of the f-word on New Zealand television. The full episode containing the controversial utterance has likely been lost; surviving material from the show includes appearances by PM Rob Muldoon, actor Marshall Napier as Neville's mechanic mate, and Limbs Dance Company.