Inside Straight - Card Game (Episode Seven)

Shot on location, Inside Straight‘s colourful portrait of Wellington’s underworld helped usher in a new era of urban Kiwi TV dramas, far from the backblocks. Phillip Gordon (Came a Hot Friday) stars as Steve Keenan, the everyman learning the ways of the city from taxi driver Roy Billing. In this episode, Steve finds himself on the run from dodgy gamblers, while trying to raise $5000 to enter a high stakes card game. Meanwhile another card-player has hit town: conman Nick (Bruno Lawrence), who quickly starts romancing Steve’s sometime girlfriend (Joanne Simpson).

I had quite a few instances of people trying to wave me down ... I tried to explain that we were filming a television programme, but she looked round and couldn't see the camera, so I tried explaining that it wasn't a real taxi, so she looked at the meter and everything and then started berating me.

– Roy Billing, on an unexpected arrival in his taxi, while filming in Wellington

Key Cast & Crew

Phillip Gordon

As: Steve Keenan

Roy Billing

As: George MacLean

Joanne Simpson

As: Sylvia Davies

Bruno Lawrence

As: Nick

Keith Aberdein

Creator, Writer

Tony Wilson

Director