Round the Twist Round the Twist is an 80’s Children’s TV show written by Paul Jennings, whose hobby is Classic Cars. The Lighthouse (which is really know as Split Point Lighthouse) is found at Airey's Inlet, Victoria, Australia. Did you know that they didn't film any of the interior shots inside of the lighthouse and instead filmed them inside a Melbourne Studio!   Now you might not recognise the cast you see below. This is because a number of years passed between each series, and the children had grown up. So the producers keep recasting the show (they are up to their third group of cast members), so it looks like the characters will stay forever young! Currently, they are 4 series of the show. Did you know that Tasmin West (who played Linda in the First Series) sang the Title Song?     Story   The Twist Family (Tony, Pete, Linda and Bronson) have moved from the city to a quiet place next to the sea, called Port Niranda. In fact they moved into a place with a massive Lighthouse, but its haunted. They bought it from a grumpy old woman called Nell Rickards, who lives close by. Music comes from one of the higher floors in the Lighthouse, but Nell keeps telling everyone that she can't hear anything (what is she hiding?). Their other neighbours should not be trusted - the Gribbles. They are always trying to make money and buy the Lighthouse.   But strange things happen in the area surrounding the lighthouse. Such as the time when poor Pete and Linda Twist were covered in a mountain of bird poo. They even tried to hide in a log cabin, but it was covered up to the roof. Luckily they escaped, otherwise they could have easily suffocated in there. There was even a ghost called Old man Chompers, who was looking for his lost darlings. This scared the life out of the kids, as they thought he was after them, but they found out later that he was talking about his false teeth! One other thing, watch out for green babies, they can turn blue if you're not careful :) Round the Twist Characters    Tony Twist     (played by Richard Moir) Tony is the father of Pete, Linda and Bronson. He's a widower, his wife died in an accident 4 years ago. At last his love life seems to be on the up, since he met Fay James. He just can't keep his eyes off her. Maybe its love at first sight? For a living, he is an artist. He makes strange statues out of things that he finds down the local tip. He drags his children along to, but they get really embarrassed if they are spotted down their by any of the locals. He seems to be a bit dozy to me and doesn't notice any of the strange things that happen in the local area.     Pete Twist     (played by Sam Vandenberg) He's 14 years old and is the twin brother of Linda and he likes playing the guitar. He has a tooth missing and puts a fake one in (like an old mouth brace). He is a bit big headed and likes to show off to others. He even met one of the official Santa Clauses (Number 115,302. There's lots of them you know). Santa had drunk a bit too much and crashed on the roof of the village hall. Pete was passing and he caught some of the escaping toys.   To thank him, Santa granted Pete and all his family 2 wishes each. But Pete didn't believe him, as Santa looked more like a scruffy down and out. Eventually they found out that they really did have wishes, but Pete was caught out when his sister told him she wished he didn't have such a big mouth. So the wish was granted and Pete had an extremely small mouth. Luckily Pete woke up and thought it was all a dream, until he had a Christmas present of a framed picture of Santa! Spooky eh?   Not only that, he microwaved his underpants to get them to dry quick, but it gave them special powers - the wearer of the underpants had super strength. He thought it was great, he could run and swim fast, but the pants shrunk in the water and became really tiny. That was the end of his fun, or was it (see James Gribble below). He fancies Fiona Richmand and has been trying to get a kiss from her, but fails each time. So he thought his dreams came true when he was given some magic (invisible) lipstick that made him irresistible to any girl/woman. They wouldn't be able to control themselves and he would only get one kiss from them.    But this became a curse, as each time he put it on to kiss Fiona, she just happened to go off in the other direction. He was kissed by everybody but Fiona, even Fay James and his sister! He eventually worked out he didn't need to steal a kiss with Fiona and instead she was willing to kiss him without an unfair advantage. One of the funniest things that happened to Pete, is when he couldn't say a sentence without saying the words "without my pants" at the end of it. It was hilarious!     Linda Twist     (played by Tasmin West) She is 14 years old and is the twin sister of Pete, and her hobby is Judo. Once, she cloned herself with a machine they found hidden away in the lighthouse. She used the clone to help her win a race (up and down the lighthouse), where the winner would spend time with Hugh Townsend and pick up a trophy. Linda fancied Hugh Townsend, until she found out that he was shallow and only liked talking about himself. She became real good friends with her clone, but the clone became unstable and eventually disappeared into thin air. Linda was really upset about this.   One time Linda was being teased by Pete and Bronson, and she fell down the stairs in the lighthouse and broke her nose. When she was given gas in the operating theatre, she had a dream that they couldn't fix  her nose, so she was stuck with the biggest nose in history. Her family weren't very sympathetic, so she ran away to her Aunt's. There she found out that you could transfer certain medical illnesses to another if you made a sound with a gum leaf (from a magical tree). She accidentally gave the rest of her family big noses, when they tried to get her back. Luckily she woke up to find out it was a dream and they had fixed her nose.     Bronson Twist     (played by Rodney McLennan) Bronson is 7 years old and was the first person out of the Twist family to meet a ghost - he met dead Ned in the dunny (toilet). He was told that babies came from the cabbage patch, so he went to check and found one! The trouble was the baby was green and would hold its breath if anyone else, apart from Bronson, looked after him.   The poor kid was shattered after a while and he didn't get any free time, so he decided to put the baby back where he got it from (in the cabbage patch). To his surprise, one of the other cabbages swelled up in size and out popped the green baby's mother. She wasn't too happy with him, but boy was Bronson glad she took the baby away. One thing he likes to do is keep animals (just look under his bed!), but don't tell his dad.     Nell Rickards     (played by Bunny Brooke) Her brother Tom was the last Lighthouse keeper there. She has a cat called 'Bad Smell' and is quite a grumpy person. She had to sell the Lighthouse because someone stole her painting that was worth around $100,000 and she couldn't maintain the place. She suspects the Gribbles and has a hate, hate relationship with them (she loves it when one of their schemes backfires).. She didn't want to sell the lighthouse, and initially she wasn't keen on the Twists having it, but she gradually came to like the family.     Harold J. Gribble     (played by Frankie J. Holden) He is the Father to James Gribble and he will do anything to make money. Amazingly Mr Gribble is the Mayor of the area and also runs an Estate Agents. He would have liked to buy the Lighthouse, but he didn't have any funds at the time it was up for sale. He would like to knock the place down and redevelop it.   That isn't the only place they are after. They want Nell's place too and they tried everything in their power to stop her from paying her mortgage. If she didn't pay the mortgage, then the bank would repossess her house and Mr Gribble would step in to buy it! Luckily Pete and Linda found some hidden Gems of Nell's, which meant she could pay the mortgage.     Cecelia Gribble     (played by Judith McGrath) She is a Matron at the local Hospital. She is just as evil and conniving as her husband, they are the perfect match. She does like to wear a lot of makeup and even subjected Linda to a makeover at Christmas. Boy was that scary.     James Gribble     (played by Lachlan Jeffrey) He is the son of Mr and Mrs Gribble and again is as horrible as his parents. He even has his own little gang, of bullies. Which consists of him and two of his friends, called Rabbit (whose a thug) and Tiger Gleeson (who has a big mouth). James had picked up something from the local tip and put it in a box. The gang force Pete to take their initiation test, by daring him to put his hand in the box and pull out whatever it was.   Pete completed this part (it was a pair of false teeth), but was told he had to take them back to the tip in the middle of the night and retrieve the rotting skull from the a pole in middle of a pond there (to prove he'd been there). But on the way Pete met the ghost - 'Old Man Chompers' and asked him to haunt James. Poor James nearly wet himself when he woke up in the night to see a ghost standing over him! Another time, James entered his frog (Mugger) into a frog race. Well he said it was a frog, but really it was a toad. He was so happy when he saw that it was eating all the opponents frogs, but Pete brought in his frog, which was powered by his magic pants (see Pete) and splatted Mugger (shame).     Fay James     (played by Robyn Gibbes) She is the school teacher that is attracted to Mr Twist, who she thinks is a bit strange, but she like that. But Mr Twist is not her only admirer, there's Mr Snapper, who is one of the other teachers. He's a bit regimented and straight laced, which is probably why she doesn't fancy him.   Round the Twist T-Shirts - Round the Twist T-Shirts Round the Twist DVDs Region 2 (Europe) - Round the Twist DVDs Region 1 (USA) - NONE Round the Twist Video Round the Twist Episodes Series 1 (1989)  1. Skeleton on the Dunny  2. Birdsdo  3. A Good Tip for Ghosts  4. The Cabbage Patch Fib  5. Spaghetti Pig Out  6. Santa Claws  7. The Gum-Leaf War  8. Wunderpants  9. Lucky Lips  10. Know All  11. The Copy  12. Without My Pants  13. Lighthouse Blues   Series 2 (1992)   1. Next Time Around  2. Copy Cat  3. Little Squirt  4. Pink Bow Tie  5. Nails  6. Sloppy Jalopy  7. Smelly Feat  8. Grandma's Gifts  9. Ice Maiden  10. Yuckies  11. Quivering Heap  12. Little Black Balls  13. Seeing the Light   Series 3 (1999)   1. The Big Burp  2. Viking Book of Love  3. The Whirling Derfish  4. UMI  5. Truth Hits Everybody  6. The Nirandathal Beast  7. Mali Boo  8. Brainless  9. Toy Love  10. The Tears of Innocence  11. The Ice Cream Man Cometh  12. If Walls Could Talk  13. The Big Rock   Series 4 (2000)   1. Welcome Back  2. Monster Under the Bed  3. Linda Godiva  4. Dog by Night  5. TV or Not TV  6. Face The Fear  7. Hair Brain  8. The Princess and the Pete  9. Boy Bird  10. The Shadow Player  11. Radio DA DA  12. Skunkman  13. Isle of Dreams  Round the Twist Images (click to enlarge) © JedisParadise.com Toys & Gifts T-Shirts Bargain DVDs