CBBC Memories – Round The Twist.

Round The Twist (Seven, 1990, ABC, 1993, 2000-2001)

Following on from Just For The Record that I reviewed recently, this is another Australian show that was imported to this country and shown in a children’s TV slot, this time on CBBC. This was a sitcom, and it was a rather odd one that ended up running for over a decade. The early episodes of Round The Twist were based on the series of books by Paul Jennings. There was also a rather memorable opening theme song that was later used on an advert.

The show starred the Twist family (another convenient sitcom surname alert!), consisting of the three children Linda, Pete, and Brosnan, along with their widowed dad Tony (their mum had died four years earlier). They move into a lighthouse on the coast, and they then start to encounter a rather large amount of strange things, including ghosts in the toilet, scarecrows coming to life, dragons that breathe fire, and clones. These were often accompanied by some clever visual effects.

Nobody else seems to believe them though, including nearby neighbour Nell, Mr Gribble, and the children’s teacher Mr Snapper, but they insist that these things are happening to them, is it possible that the lighthouse they have moved into is haunted? I also spotted in an episode that Linda had a poster of Bananarama on her wall, so of course she is terrific.

There were 52 episodes of Round The Twist in four series. Rather curiously, there were some big gaps between series, including a three-year gap between series one and two (along with a channel switch), and a seven-year gap between series two and three. This meant that because of the children ageing, the main parts were frequently recast, meaning two actors played the dad, and three played the children.

This was a show that definitely became popular on CBBC in the early-90s, and I remember watching the early episodes and quickly realising that this was one of the more unusual sitcoms that was around at the time, and there was a rather wide range of enjoyably strange moments. Some episodes were shown in the UK before Australia, there were rather a lot of repeat runs, including one in the mid-2000s on Five, and it has also been shown around the world where it retains a big fanbase.

Rather pleasingly, unlike most other CBBC shows (imported or otherwise) from this era, all of the episodes of Round The Twist have been released on DVD in a boxset (and they are also on YouTube in full), and they are much recommended, if like me you enjoy strange comedy shows where you don’t know what’s going to happen next.