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Round the Bend

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This article is about the British satirical children's show. For the Nevil Shute novel, see Round the Bend (novel). For the 2002 song by Beck, see Sea Change (album). For the 2002 album by Rob Brown, see Round the Bend (album).

Round the Bend!
GenreSatire, children's television series
Created byPatrick Gallagher
Tony Husband
Mark Rodgers
Written byPatrick Gallagher
Tony Husband
Directed byJohn Henderson
Voices ofJon Glover
Jonathan Kydd
Philip Pope
Enn Reitel
Kate Robbins
Susan Sheridan
ComposersBig George
Philip Pope
Simon Franglen
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of series3
No. of episodes18
Production
ProducerJohn Henderson
Running time20 mins
Production companiesHat Trick Productions
Yorkshire Television
Original release
NetworkChildren's ITV
Release1989 (1989) –
1991 (1991) [1]

Round the Bend! is a satirical British children's television series, which ran on Children's ITV for three series from 1989 to 1991. The show was a Hat Trick production for Yorkshire Television. The show was later repeated on Channel 4, The Children's Channel and Nickelodeon UK and was nominated for an RTS Award.

It was created by the team behind the comic Oink! - Patrick Gallagher, Tony Husband and Mark Rodgers. The puppets, animation characters and main set were designed by Gallagher, who was also the show's graphic designer. The puppets were made by the team who made the puppets for 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 sections - albeit set in a sewer. The anarchic tone of the show and its parody cartoons was similar to that of Viz[citation needed]. The animated segments were created by Aardman Animations and Catalyst Pictures.

The title of the show is a double entendre. Referring to a toilet U-bend, the opening titles began with the camera being flushed down a toilet and ending up in a sewer. It was also a popular saying at the time to describe someone who was insane.

Regular cast

  • Doc Croc - The show's host and a temperamental, rude, and overbearing crocodile. He ran the operations of the sewer and took command of the rats who worked (unpaid) for him. Performed by Anthony Asbury and Kevin Bradshaw and voiced by Enn Reitel.
  • Jemimah Wellington-Green - The cleverest of the three rats, she was often sarcastic and miserable about the fact that she worked in a sewer with no hope of a boyfriend. She spoke with a posh accent, a parody of Janet Street Porter. Performed by Richard Coombs and voiced by Kate Robbins.
  • Vaudeville Vince Vermin - A cockney rat and the resident comic who always tried to see the bright side of every situation. He hosted his own joke segment of the show. The jokes were intentionally bad, which was the reason for them being funny. At the end of each segment Doc Croc would ask an "Opinion poll" (a talking barber's pole) what he thought of them, and the pole would say "Rubbish!". There was at one point a talking piece of furniture, the 'Armchair Critic'. Performed by Nigel Plaskitt and voiced by Jon Glover.
  • Luchetti Bruchetti - an Italian rat and the show's resident artist. Not as intelligent as the other rats, and usually the rat that Doc used to take most of his problems out on. Performed by Alistair Fullarton, later Simon Buckley and voiced by Jonathan Kydd.

On occasion, the cast would be plagued by a shade-wearing teddy bear which, despite its diminutive size, would inflict great physical beatings to Doc Croc and the rest of the crew. The cast was also visited by the small teddy's (much larger) father.

Parodies

Other non-regular cast members were often satirical parodies of real people or existing TV shows, including:[citation needed]

Other segments

Other segments included:[citation needed]

  • The Son of, The Return of, The Revenge of.... The False Teeth From Beyond The Stars. Another B-movie parody, featuring a character named Roger Prentice, the Apprentice Dentist. A crossover between the Atomic Banana ensued, entitled False Teeth From Beyond the Stars Meet the Atombanana. These segments were made with stop-motion animation by Dave Alex Riddett (Aardman Animations).
  • Pzycho the Magnificent - an animated section in which Pzycho would attempt to use magic for his own personal gain, but would get caught by the police every time.
  • The Oddbod Family - animated shorts, each week centred on a member of a family who all have abnormal abilities.
  • Tommy's Magic Time Trousers - an animation about a boy who can travel through time whenever he drops his trousers. Many trouser puns were used, such as in the time-travel sequence Tommy would say "The fly's the limit!", with the trousers replying "Brace yourself Tommy!!". The segment always ended with the trousers saying "If only he knew Tommy! If only he knew!".

Merchandise

Due to the popularity of the show, a computer game was created for the ZX Spectrum and was later ported to the Commodore 64, Atari ST, Amiga and Acorn Archimedes.[citation needed] A preview of a sequel was also released but the sequel was never finished. In 1990, a one-off magazine special was also published entitled, "Round the Bend! TV Special".[citation needed]

Global broadcasters

See also

  • Thunderpants is the name of a 2002 film, which is unrelated to the Round the Bend animation of the same name.

References

  1. ^ "BBC - Comedy Guide - Round The Bend". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 1 January 2005. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
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