Round the Twist

Round the Twist
Format	Children's supernatural comedy
Created by	Paul Jennings
Developed by	Australian Children's Television Foundation
Directed by	Esben Storm
Starring	See Cast section below.
Opening theme	Round The Twist lyrics and music by Andrew Duffield sung by Tamsin West
Ending theme	Round The Twist lyrics and music by Andrew Duffield sung by Tamsin West
Country of origin	Australia
No. of episodes	52 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Patricia Edgar
Running time	25 mins
Production company(s)	Australian Children's Television Foundation
Broadcast
Original channel	Seven Network (1989)[1] ABC (1993-2001) Australia Network (Middle 2011-present)
Picture format	4:3
Original run	4 April 1989 – 2 May 2001
External links
Website

Round the Twist is a Logie Award-winning Australian children's television series about three children and their father who live in a lighthouse and become involved in many bizarre magical adventures.

Synopsis

Only four series were made despite the show having an 11-year run. The first two series were based on fantasy stories written by author Paul Jennings; the latter two were based on a variety of authors' work. Its first series was made in 1989. A second series, with many roles re-cast, was made in 1992. A third series, again re-cast, was made in 2000, followed by a fourth (with some roles again re-cast) in 2000.

The show's distinctive theme song, with the lyrics "have you ever ... ever felt like this?" was sung by Tamsin West, who played the lead female role of Linda in the first series. It borrowed lines from popular nursery rhymes such as "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly", "Humpty Dumpty" and "Rain Rain Go Away".

Many external scenes were shot around the region of the Split Point Lighthouse in Aireys Inlet, Victoria, Australia.

Cast

Making a show about children which spanned more than a decade meant many changes in actors were required, as the child actors became too old for their parts. Overall, three sets of children (the Twists, the Gribbles and Fiona) were cast. Additionally, all of the major adult roles were recast at least once: overall, there were two Tonys, two Nells, three Fays, two Mr Snappers, two Mr Gribbles, and three Matron Gribbles across the series' run.

Before gaining fame in the series Ocean Girl, Marzena Godecki made a cameo appearance in season 2 as the character credited as "Beautiful Girl".

Character	Series 1	Series 2	Series 3	Series 4
Tony Twist	Richard Moir		Andrew Gilbert
Pete Twist	Sam Vandenberg	Ben Thomas	Rian McLean
Linda Twist	Tamsin West	Joelene Crnogorac	Ebonnie Masini
Bronson Twist	Rodney McLennan	Jeffrey Walker	Mathew Waters
Fay James	Robyn Gibbes		Trudy Hellier	Susanne Chapman
Nell	Bunney Brooke		Marion Heathfield
Harold Gribble	Frankie J. Holden	Mark Mitchell
Matron Gribble	Judith McGrath	Jan Friedl	Christine Keogh
James Gribble	Lachlan Jeffrey*	Richard E. Young	Brook Sykes
Tiger Gleeson	Cameron Nugent	Nick Mitchell	Tom Budge
Fiona	Daisy Cameron	Zeta Briggs	Katie Barnes
Rabbit	Stuart Atkin	Drew Campbell	Samuel Marsland
Ralph Snapper	Esben Storm			Ernie Gray

* Except Series 1 episode The Gum Leaf War, in which Lachlan Jeffrey appears only as Foxy Jr.

Characters

The show revolves around the four members of the Twist family:

• Tony Twist ("Dad") — a widower with a kind heart, romantically interested in Bronson's schoolteacher;
• Pete Twist — Linda's twin brother, into girls and who occasionally goes out with Fiona;
• Linda Twist — Pete's twin sister, into feminism, environmentalism and judo;
• Bronson Twist — the twins' younger brother, who is obsessed with food and odors.

Other characters:

• Helen "Nell" Rickards — the old woman who lives in a cottage next door, whose brother, Tom, had been the former lighthouse keeper;
• Harold Gribble — a greedy real-estate agent and one-time senate candidate, who often tries to force the Twists to move out of the lighthouse with business schemes;
• "Matron" Cecilia Gribble — his supportive wife, a nurse;
• James Gribble — his no-good son, a bully at school who often antagonises Pete;
• "Rabbit" — one of James Gribble's friends, often downtrodden;
• "Tiger" Gleeson — the other of James Gribble's friends, often seen commentating various events;
• Fay James — Bronson's schoolteacher; a love interest for Dad, she lives with the Twists in their lighthouse during the third and fourth series;
• Ralph Snapper — Pete and Linda's teacher; with the children he is a harsh disciplinarian who does not respond well to insolence, but with adults he is very socially awkward
• Fiona — Linda's friend, and Pete's sometime girlfriend.
• Hugh Townsend — Linda's crush in the first series only.
• Anthony — in the third and fourth series only, a well-meaning nerd with a crush on Linda.
• Phadre, Sacha & Emily — Three girls Pete tries to win over, in the fourth series only.

Characters who appear briefly in each episode of a series:

• Ghost Matthew and Ghost Jeremiah — two ghosts whose spirits were trapped in the lighthouse during series two after they failed to guide a boat to shore one hundred years earlier.
• Ariel — a girl from the "Isle of Dreams" who comes seeking to take Pete away in the fourth series.

Storylines

Four series of Round the Twist have been made, each comprising thirteen episodes. Although each episode has a self-contained plot each series has a recurring theme, usually an object or character which appears briefly in every episode. This gradually develops the theme until the final episode of the series in which it is explained and resolved.

The Twist family also have frequent conflicts with a ruthless local businessman, Harold Gribble, and his family. Typically, Gribble seeks to remove the Twists from the lighthouse in order to more profitably use it as a tourist attraction for Port Niranda. This is a continuous feature of the first series, and a recurring feature of the third and fourth series.

Series 1 (1989)

The lighthouse is haunted by eerie music coming from upstairs. In the final episode, Lighthouse Blues, the music is revealed to be played by the ghosts of Nell's deceased family. The ghosts help the Twists to stop one of Mr. Gribble's business associates from destroying the lighthouse.

In a subplot, Tony falls in love with Fay, and spends the series developing a relationship with her, culminating in a marriage proposal at the finale. The answer to the proposal is left open-ended.

Series 2 (1992)

The lighthouse is again haunted, this time by ghosts visible to the viewers, but not to the characters until the final episode. The two ghosts are Matthew and Jeremiah, who fade into view once in each episode. They are being punished because as lighthouse keepers 100 years previously they failed to stop a ship bearing Matthew's love, Jane, from being wrecked on the rocks. In the final episode, "Seeing the Light", the ghost ship comes again, and this time, all of the characters from the show help to turn on the lighthouse light and save the family who were lost at sea, redeeming the ghosts.

Another recurring theme in Series Two is Bronson's foul-smelling feet. In episode 7, Smelly Feat, he reveals that he has been 'saving the stink' to stop the Gribbles from killing an endangered turtle. In the end, he helps save the turtle.

Tony and Fay become officially engaged, but Fay becomes increasingly concerned that Bronson does not want her to marry Tony, eventually leading to the engagement being broken off. They are re-engaged at the end of the series.

For the only time in the show's run, Mr Gribble's primary concern is not with removing the Twists from the lighthouse. Rather, he spends the series campaigning for a senate seat with the fictional Progressive Conservative Party. Disagreeing with his policies, Nell runs against him in a party similar to the Australian Greens, and ultimately wins in a landslide.

Series 3 (2000)

In the second episode Linda is given a book of poetry, The Viking Book of Love by a young Viking who finds the lighthouse. In most of the episodes, a character falls in love with someone who reads poetry from the book to them; each love spell lasts up until the next one is cast. In the final episode, the Big Rock, the Vikings return and the book's effects are reversed, with terrible consequences.

Series 4 (2001)

In each episode, a knight in armour enters the lighthouse through a magical door. At the beginning of the series the knight's face is hidden behind a visor, in the second half of the series the visor is raised. In the final episode, The Isle of Dreams, the stranger is revealed to be a girl, Ariel, who has come to offer the children a perfect life on the Isle of Dreams, if Pete will become her husband. In the end, they decline, and Ariel disappears forever, along with the enchanted isle.

A subplot in this series is Faye's pregnancy to Tony. The baby, named Ariel, is born in the series finale.

Another subplot is Bronson collecting various smells throughout the series with his Smellsucker, a vacuum cleaner with a nose built into it for storing the smells. This leads Bronson to becoming a superhero of sorts called Skunkman. He appears randomly throughout the series, but his true identity is not revealed. His friend Lois, appearing only in the Skunkman episode, is made out to be Skunkman to Gribble's gang.

Production

The first two series were written by Paul Jennings, with heavy editing by director Esben Storm (who also played Mr. Snapper in series 1-3). Each of these episodes, with the exception of the second series' final episode Seeing the Light, were based on Jennings' short stories. A Round the Twist movie was planned, but due to creative differences, it was never made. After the second series Jennings left the show, taking the rights to his stories with him. Paul Jennings also made some cameo appearances, in particular as the ghost of Ben Byron in series 1's Without my Pants.

The third and fourth series were written by various writers, and did not draw from Jennings' material. The latter series did not match the popular acclaim of the originals, and because of this, the show was cancelled.^{[citation needed]} Incidentally, at around the same time as the third series was released, Jennings' stories were being adapted into a different show called Driven Crazy, which also failed to match the popularity of the early Round the Twists, and of which only one series was produced.

Several locations were used for the filming of the series. The most notable location is the Twist family's lighthouse home, with exterior scenes shot at the Split Point Lighthouse in Aireys Inlet, Victoria. School and some town scenes were shot in Williamstown, Victoria, Point Lonsdale, Victoria and Queenscliff, Victoria.

Content

Round the Twist is notable for having pushed the boundaries of what is acceptable for children's television, to the extent that the Australian Children's Television Foundation had difficulty finding a distributor for it: according to the ACTF's marketing Manager Jenny Buckland, "the scripts were declared 'too rude', 'not for television' and 'outrageous'".^[2]

Some episodes include references to flatulence, defecation, urination, body odor, underwear, birth, death, nudity, incest, and genitalia.^[3] However these are all used for comic effect, and the series also engages with significant personal or social issues such as environmental conservation, or relations with the opposite sex.^[4] Many episodes revolve around helping restless spirits of dead people or animals find peace.^[5]

In the UK Round The Twist was released on DVD, the first three DVDs were given a U rating and the fourth DVD was given a PG rating.^[6]

In Australia, the series was released on DVD through Magna Pacific originally in 2000/2001 consisting of 7 volumes.

Volume 1: Series 1: Episodes 1-9 (2 Disc Set)

Volume 2: Series 1 & 2: Episodes 10-18 (2 Disc Set)

Volume 3: Series 2: Episodes 19-26 (2 Disc Set)

Volume 4: Series 3: Episodes 27-32

Volume 5: Series 3: Episodes 33-39

Volume 6: Series 4: Episodes 40-45

Volume 7: Series 4: Episodes 46-52

In 2005 these same 7 volumes were then placed in a box and given the "Box Set" name and sold as a complete series and in 2009 the series was re-packed and re-issued.

On 2 February 2010, Magna re-released the whole series in a new packaged box set as 'Completely Twisted Collection'.^[7] Series 1,^[8] Series 2,^[9] Series 3^[10] and Series 4^[11] were released as individual season sets on 1 July 2010 through Magna.

Reception

In the UK it was aired on the BBC's CBBC segment several times in the 1990s and early 2000s, and was repeated again in 2007 on Five on Sunday mornings. It also regularly appeared on Network 2 in Ireland. The show was also popular in Germany and the Netherlands. In Canada it won the Banff Television Festival award for "Best Children's Programme" in 2000, and in Australia it won the Logie Award for "Outstanding Children's Programme" in 2001 and 2002. It was also nominated for an award at the Australian Film Institute. The show is currently seen in Australia on ABC3.

The only time the series was ever shown in America was a brief run on Fox Kids in 1997.

See also

• List of Australian television series

References and notes

External links

• Round the Twist website
• Writing Round the Twist (Paul Jennings)
• Learning resources for Round the Twist from the Australian Children's Television Foundation
• Round the Twist at TV.com
• Round the Twist at the Internet Movie Database
• Round The Twist at ClassicKidsTV.co.uk
• Round the Twist at the National Film and Sound Archive