“Have you ever, ever felt like this?
How strange things happen,
Are you going round the twist?”

Yes, it really is 25 years since Australia’s weirdest ever children’s comedy series first aired!

To celebrate Round the Twist‘s 25th anniversary, here are 10 surprising facts about the show…

 

> The Australian Children’s Television Foundation had trouble finding anyone who’d distribute the show. Their marketing manager Jenny Buckland said “the scripts were declared ‘too rude’, ‘not for television’ and ‘outrageous’.”

> The show’s famous theme tune is sung by actress Tamsin West, who played the original Linda Twist. Even though she only appeared in Series 1, her vocals were used for all four series.

> A Round the Twist movie was nearly made, but never happened due to “creative differences”.

> There was a gap of 8 years between the production of Series 2 (1992) and Series 3 (2000).

> Series 3 replaced every single member of Series 2’s cast apart from Mark Mitchell as Harold Gribble.

> Round the Twist‘s creator, London-born author Paul Jennings, previously worked as a teacher and speech therapist.

> Fans can take a 45-minute tour of the lighthouse used as the Twist family’s home: the Split Point Lighthouse in Aireys Inlet, Victoria.

> Writer Paul Jennings also made cameo appearances in the show – notably as the ghost of Ben Byron in ‘Without My Pants’.

> Mathew Waters, who played Bronson Twist in Series 3-4, went on to appear in Steven Spielberg’s HBO series The Pacific .

> Series 2’s Bronson Twist, actor Jeffrey Walker, became a director, working on over 30 episodes of Neighbours in the early-2000’s. Now based in America, he has recently directed episodes of Modern Family.

 

> Buy the complete Series 1-4 boxset on Amazon.

What’s your favourite memory of Round the Twist? Let us know below…