Flashback Friday - Round the Twist

"Have you ever

Ever felt like this?

When strange things happen

 Are you going round the twist?"

For most people going Round the Twist is may feel like an every day occurrence, for Linda, Pete and Bronson it really WAS an every day reality.

I loved Round The Twist.... well ok I loved the first 2 seasons (based on Paul Jenning's) books that aired on CBBC in 1989 and 1992.  The 2 later ones (2000 and 2001 passed me by, hence this post will focus on 1 and 2).

Round The Twist was an Australian children's comedy, based around the Twist family and the supernatural goings-on in their town.

The Twist family, dad Tony Twist and his three children, twins Pete and Linda, and youngest son Bronson. moved into the old, usually haunted, lighthouse at Port Niranda in the first series.

Each episode is a self-contained, supernatural story, but there are central story themes hinted at in each episode throughout the series, with the last episode explaining them and drawing to a conclusion.

Main Characters

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

    Tony ("Dad"), Pete, Linda and Bronson Twist

Other characters:

    Helen "Nell" Rickards — the old woman who lives in a cottage next door.  Here 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 and his wife  "Matron" Cecilia Gribble.  They live with their no-good, bully son James.

James' friends, and other bullies in the series are "Rabbit" and "Tiger".

    Fay James is Bronson's schoolteacher and a love interest for Dad.

    Ralph Snapper is Pete and Linda's teacher.

    Fiona is a friend of Linda's and Pete's sometime girlfriend.

    Hugh Townsend is Linda's crush in the first series only.

There are plenty of ghost characters that make appearances during the show.

Storylines

Each series had thirteen episodes.  Whilst the plot lines for each series are different the themes are the same. 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.

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.


Here's a peak at a brilliant scene .......

Series 1 and 2 are also available on dvd.......