Round the Twist - Series 3
Following the success of the first two series of Round The Twist, expect more action packed comedy from the Twist family. Tony Twist (Dad) and his three children – fourteen year old twins Pete and Linda and eight year old Bronson live in an old lighthouse on the rugged Australian coast. The lighthouse is haunted and strange things happen.
Whirling willies, truth microphones, buckets of brains, Moondoggy Throgmorton of the magic Mali-Boo surfboard, the Big Burp and the Nirandathal Beast with a three foot beard. The Twist kids discover a human ice-cream machine who can fill up a cone with ice-cream that comes out of his nose. Linda’s old doll comes back to haunt her and Pete spends a terrifying night with the Gribble family. While Bronson has the whole town talking, there’s something strange happening to Pete – he’s having a baby!
The Twist children each have weird and wonderful adventures with unpredictable ghosts, monsters or gismos. The kids experience first love and heartbreak and Fay, Bronson’s teacher, moves in with Dad for a trial marriage. And for some added passion, the kids discover The Viking Book of Love, which casts a spell of love on everyone who reads from it…...
It’s bent, eccentric, but with a lot of heart. There’s always a bit of yuk and slap stick and lots of laughs along the way. And there’s enough greed, vanity and opportunism to keep it all on the boil.
Round the Twist is an international award winning comedy series based on the stories of celebrated children's author, Paul Jennings.
The series follows the adventures of the Twist kids – Pete, Linda, Bronson – who have moved to the coastal town of Port Niranda with their Dad. Living in a haunted lighthouse, they encounter bizarre magical devices, neurotic ghosts, rampaging entrepreneurs and sneering school bullies. Each story is self-contained with an unpredictable twist at the end.
The many episodes in the series come with lesson plans to encourage students to become critical readers and viewers. The Round the Twistseries, tie-in novels and scripts integrate a variety of strategies for interpreting and comparing written and visual texts.
The stories encourage self-exploration and learning to cope with change. What we take for granted is questioned in every episode, raising the important issues of ethics and behaviour.
See Also
Round the Twist - Series 1 (1989)
When the Twist kids – Pete, Linda and Bronson – and their Dad leave the city for a quiet life in the coastal town of Port Niranda, they get more than they bargained for.
Round the Twist - Series 2 (1992)
In Series 2 of Round The Twist, Dad's love for Bronson's teacher, Miss James, has blossomed - and he is very busy wooing her. Miss James is concerned that the Twist kids are not as fond of her as they should be. Mr Gribble is running for Parliament on
Round the Twist - Series 4 (2000)
Round The Twist - Series 4 delivers more twists than ever before!
Episodes
Episode 1 The Big Burp
Pete finally meets the girl of his dreams. He can’t believe his luck - Jeannie is the most beautiful girl in Port Niranda – even if she is a tree spirit. But when Pete discovers he is pregnant, Linda, Bronson and the Gribble Gang deliver the surprise of their lives.
Episode 2 The Viking Book of Love
Emerging from an eerie fog enveloping Port Niranda, is an ancient long boat of Vikings, lead by the hirsute Chief, Snorri, and his son, Snorrisen. Hardly the sort of tourists Gribble wants in Port Niranda, especially when Chief Snorri claims the lighthouse. Linda falls in love with Snorrisen after he reads to her from the enchanted Viking Book of Love.
Episode 3 The Whirling Derfish
Everyone knows that Bronson will eat anything! But when he swallows a rare Whirling Derfish, nobody could have guessed his willy would spin like a propeller and he would become a human outboard motor known as ‘The Port Niranda Porpoise’. Linda then discovers the Derfish is one of the last breeding pair in existence, and she demands that Bronson cough it up.
Episode 4 Umi
Beware of Gizmos! You never know what could happen when you play a video game. One flick of the switch and 'bang'! Pete’s mind is in Mr. Gribble’s body -and vice versa! But while Pete is spending a terrifying night in Gribble’s house with Matron Gribble, Gribble is making the most of a nasty situation, convincing Tony to sell the Lighthouse.
Episode 5 Truth Hits Everybody
After losing out to Gribbs as the host of the Port Niranda High School Broadcast, Linda decides to do her own show. Anthony, Fiona, Pete and Linda rustle up some old video and sound equipment from a pawnshop, only to discover they have a magic microphone that makes everyone, even Mr Gribble, speak the truth, no matter what!
Episode 6 The Neanderthal Beast
In the Twist household, there is tradition that the razor is passed on from father to son. So when Bronson secretly uses the razor before Pete, chaos is unleashed. First Bronson is cursed with a three-foot beard that won’t stop growing, then he is mistaken for the legendary Neanderthal Beast, and finally a swarm of bounty hunters come to town…
Episode 7 Mali Boo
When Tony discovers an old Malibu surfboard in the garage, Pete is keen to make a splash at the Port Niranda surf carnival. Just when it looks like Pete might finally get to impress the girls, the ghost owner of the board, Moondoggy Throckmorton, turns up and together they surf the legendary 200-foot tidal wave that hits Port Niranda every 30 years.
Episode 8 Brainless
Bronson teams up with resident geekazoid Anthony for a science project that ends up with Pete and Linda having their brains sucked out through their noses. While Bronson is searching for their brains at the local tip, Gribbs and his gang kidnap Linda and Pete’s bodies and make them their personal slaves.
Episode 9 Toy Love
Linda’s old Veronique doll comes back to haunt her. It won’t leave her alone, neither will Gribbs, who has heard Linda read from the Viking Book of Love and is acting really weird.
Episode 10 Tears of Innocence
Port Niranda is in the middle of a drought, when days before the annual flower show, Derek the rainmaker arrives. Pete has high hopes which are dashed when Derek not only refuses to make rain, he also takes part in a hoax with Gribbs and the gang. It is only when Pete confronts Derek with real faith and the tears of an innocent, that Derek has the ingredients required to perform a miracle.
Episode 11 The Ice Cream Man Cometh
When Linda is sacked from Mr Gribble’s ice cream parlor, she finds work with Paulo - the master ice-cream maker. She soon discovers the mystery behind Paulo’s famous ice cream - Giorgio – a huge, hulking simpleton who Paulo keeps hidden. Linda is not sure whether Giorgio is man or machine, when she sees him making ice cream by blowing it out his nose.
Episode 12 If the Walls Could Talk
No one ever tells Bronson anything. They all think he is too young. If only the walls could talk, he sighs - and then, all of a sudden they do! But not only the walls, also the doors, the floors, the furniture, his pillow, even his desk starts talking. Using this newfound power, Bronson decides to retrieve the Viking book of Love and Fay from Mr Snapper.
Episode 13 The Big Rock
When Gribbs gets his hands on The Viking Book of Love and reads the final poem, he unleashes a curse which turns Fay into a frog, and transports all the adults back into the 8th century, leaving the kids alone and unsupervised…
Awards
Winner: Banff Rockie Awards (Canada)
Winner: New York Festival
Winner: Logie Awards (Australia)
Sales and Distribution
Running Time
13 x 24 mins
Production Company
Australian Children's Television Foundation
Language
English