Round the Bend

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Round the Bend
Roundthebendtitlescreen.png
Genre Satirical children's television series
Created byPatrick Gallagher
Tony Husband
Mark Rodgers
Written byPatrick Gallagher
Tony Husband
Directed by John Henderson
Starring Anthony Asbury
Simon Buckley (Series 2-3)
Richard Coombs (Series 1-2)
Alistair Fullarton (Series 1)
Barnaby Harrison (Series 2-3)
Nigel Plaskitt
Kaefan Shaw
John Wheatley (Series 3)
Tony Robinson (one episode, Series 1) [1]
Aswad (one episode, Series 1) [2]
John Fashanu (one episode, Series 1) [3]
Voices of Jon Glover
Jonathan Kydd
Philip Pope
Enn Reitel
Kate Robbins
Susan Sheridan
Composers Philip Pope
Simon Franglen
Big George (Series 3)
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series3
No. of episodes18
Production
Executive producer Denise O'Donoghue
Producer John Henderson
Cinematography Martin Hawkins (Series 1)
Albert Almond (Series 2-3)
EditorsMike Cross (Series 1)
Mykola Pawluk (Series 2-3)
Camera setupMartin Hawkins (Series 1)
Albert Almond (Series 2-3)
Running time20 minutes
Production companies Hat Trick Productions
Yorkshire Television
Original release
Network ITV (CITV)
ReleaseJanuary 6, 1989 (1989-01-06) [4]  
May 7, 1991 (1991-05-07) [5]

Round the Bend! is a satirical British children's television series, which ran on Children's ITV for three series from January 6, 1989, to May 7, 1991. The programme was produced by Hat Trick Productions for Yorkshire Television. After its first run concluded, it was later repeated on Channel 4, The Children's Channel and Nickelodeon UK (the "Yorkshire Television Production" and "A Yorkshire Television Production for ITV" company logos were also removed from the end of the episodes in each case, and they would just fade to black where they originally were), and was nominated for an RTS Award.

Contents

The programme was created by the team behind the comic book magazine Oink! (Patrick Gallagher, Tony Husband, and Mark Rodgers). The puppets, animated characters and main sewer set were designed by Gallagher, who was also the programme's graphic designer. The puppets were made by the team who made the ones for Central Television's Spitting Image . Round the Bend! was a satirical parody of Saturday morning magazine shows, with a host providing linking material between cartoons, music videos and news reports (albeit set in a sewer). The anarchic tone of the programme and its parody cartoons was like that of Viz.[ citation needed ] The animated sketches were produced by Catalyst Pictures (who made the crudely drawn cel animations and stop-motion cardboard animations) and Aardman Animations (who made the clay-animated serials, all three of which were spoofs of B-movies).

The title of the programme is a double entendre. Referring to a toilet U-bend, the cel-animated opening titles began with the camera being flushed down a toilet and ending up in a sewer (for the first series' opening titles, a live-action boy also sat at his kitchen table waiting for his copy of the Round the Bend! comic to be delivered, and when his mother grabbed it after it came through the letterbox just before he could, he mouthed something that made the comic give her an electric shock and forced her to drop it, and the view then changed to the now-fully-animated shot of the comic's front cover). It was also a popular saying at the time to describe someone who was insane.

Main characters

In three episodes, the cast were plagued by a sunglasses-wearing teddy bear who, despite his diminutive size, would inflict severe physical beatings on them. On the second one of these occasions, the cast were also visited by the teddy's (much larger) father, who took on Doc Croc in a boxing match, and would have won had it not been for Luschetti making a "big brother" crocodile out of cardboard (with Jemima impersonating Doc's voice when Luschetti projected its silhouette onto the wall of the sewer) to frighten both teddies away.

Other characters

Other non-regular cast members were often satirical parodies of real-life celebrities and existing television programmes, including:[ citation needed ]

Merchandise

In 1990, a one-off tie-in magazine special was published as Round the Bend!: TV Special.[ citation needed ] A video game based on it, Round the Bend!: Doc Croc's Outrageous Adventures!, was produced by Zeppelin Games for the ZX Spectrum in 1991 and ported to the Commodore 64, Amiga, and Atari ST. A preview of a sequel was also released, but it was never finished.[ citation needed ]

Global broadcasters

See also

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References

  1. ""Round the Bend!" Episode #1.1 (TV Episode 1989) - Full Cast & Crew - IMdb". imdb.com. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  2. ""Round the Bend!" Episode #1.2 (TV Episode 1989) - Full Cast & Crew - IMDb". imdb.com. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  3. ""Round the Bend!" Episode #1.3 (TV Episode 1989) - Full Cast & Crew - IMdb". imdb.com. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  4. ""Round the Bend!" Episode #1.1 (TV Episode 1989) - IMDb". imdb.com. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  5. "BBC - Comedy Guide - Round The Bend". Archived from the original on 1 January 2005. Retrieved 9 August 2013.