A wide array of entertaining hats is on display in this rather jolly chronicle of the history of the party that was formed to represent the country folk of Australia.

Episode two of A Country Road focuses on Queensland, home of many of the Nationals' most passionate, and most peculiar, characters. Presenter Heather Ewart heads north to rake over the coals of the "Joh for PM" campaign. The eccentric Joh Bjelke-Petersen -  who ruled Queensland with an iron, not necessarily completely legal, fist for almost two decades - became somewhat intoxicated by his own home-state popularity in the mid-1980s and launched a quixotic assault on the Nationals' coalition partners in the federal Liberal party. In a nation dominated by Labor, with Bob Hawke riding high as Prime Minister, Joh's status as the only non-Labor premier made him a conservative hero and convinced him that Canberra was his destiny.

Of course, the actual effect of Bjelke-Petersen's ego-driven quest for glory was the shattering of the federal coalition, and the gifting of an easy win to Hawke, who called an early election to capitalise on the coalition chaos and duly crushed John Howard, the Liberal leader hamstrung by Joh's rabble-rousing.

Ewart's documentary is a lively and engaging account, an entertaining insight into a corner of Australian politics often overlooked in the focus on the Labor-Liberal behemoths. The Nationals exist to give a voice to the bush, and A Country Road, in its own way, does the same thing: documenting the trials and triumphs of a party born in the outback and forever grappling with the tension between the country constituency and the need to find common ground with city Liberals in order to have an influence.

This comes into sharp focus when the program moves on from Joh to the rural revolt over the Coalition's gun control laws in 1996, and the rise of Pauline Hanson. With copious historical footage and interviews with the main players of the drama, A Country Road skilfully tells the tale and asks the question: how do you fight for the interests of the bush, while keeping close enough to the corridors of power to make the fight worthwhile?

It's a theme night on ABC, with Annabel Crabb also heading to Queensland for the season final of Kitchen Cabinet (ABC1, 8pm), wherein she will whip up dinner with Clive Palmer, the raging bull of Australian politics. If we have learnt anything from recent events in Canberra, it's that it's impossible to know what Clive will do next – so the potential for food fights and house fires will be ever-present. Seems a nice cuddly bloke, though.