That the inert dinitrogen molecule can act as a ligand to a transition metal complex is one of the key discoveries in inorganic chemistry of the past century. This feature article summarises a body of work up to 2010 that describes a particularly attractive route to dinitrogen complexes that involves the direct reaction of N(2) with metal hydride derivatives. This process is shown to be general across the transition series and, depending on the metal, different levels of activation of the coordinated dinitrogen unit are observed.