Round the Bend
Encyclopedia
Round the Bend was a 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 Patrick 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 parody of Saturday morning magazine shows — with a host providing linking material between cartoon
s, music video
s and news sections - albeit set in a sewer
. The anarchic tone of the show and its parody cartoons was similar to that of Viz (comic)
.
The title of the show is a reference to a toilet
U-bend
, with the opening titles beginning with the camera being flushed down a toilet and ending up in a sewer.
of real people or existing TV shows, including:
and was later ported to the Commodore 64
, Atari ST
, Amiga
and Acorn Archimedes
. 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".
British television
Public television broadcasting started in the United Kingdom in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of...
children's television series
Children's television series
Children's television series, are commercial television programs designed for, and marketed to children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run in the early evening, for the children that go to school...
, which ran on Children's ITV
CITV
CITV is a British television channel from ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive, as well as commissions and acquisitions. CITV itself is the programming block on the main ITV Network .The CITV channel broadcasts from 06:00 to 18:00...
for three series from 1989 to 1991. The show was a Hat Trick production
Hat Trick Productions
Hat Trick Productions is a British independent production company that produces television programmes, mainly specialising in comedy.-History:...
for Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network...
. The show was later repeated on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, The Children's Channel
The Children's Channel
The Children's Channel, also known as TCC, was a television station in the United Kingdom, Benelux and Scandinavia, which was owned by Flextech . It began broadcasting on 1 September 1984, and was closed on 3 April 1998...
and Nickelodeon UK
Nickelodeon UK
Nickelodeon is a children's television channel available on Sky, Virgin Media, Smallworld Cable, TalkTalk TV and UPC Ireland in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including on demand on BT Vision. The channel was launched on 1 September 1993...
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 Patrick Gallagher, who was also the show's graphic designer. The puppets were made by the team who made the puppets for Spitting Image
Spitting Image
Spitting Image is a British satirical puppet show that aired on the ITV network from 1984 to 1996. It was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central Television. The series was nominated for 10 BAFTA Awards, winning one for editing in 1989....
. Round the Bend was a parody of Saturday morning magazine shows — with a host providing linking material between cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
s, music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s and news sections - albeit set in a sewer
Sanitary sewer
A sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to treatment or disposal. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas also carry industrial wastewater...
. The anarchic tone of the show and its parody cartoons was similar to that of Viz (comic)
Viz
Viz. and the adverb videlicet are used as synonyms for "namely", "that is to say", and "as follows".-Etymology:...
.
The title of the show is a reference to a toilet
Toilet
A toilet is a sanitation fixture used primarily for the disposal of human excrement, often found in a small room referred to as a toilet/bathroom/lavatory...
U-bend
Flush toilet
A flush toilet is a toilet that disposes of human waste by using water to flush it through a drainpipe to another location. Flushing mechanisms are found more often on western toilets , but many squat toilets also are made for automated flushing...
, with the opening titles beginning with the camera being flushed down a toilet and ending up in a sewer.
Regular cast
- Doc Croc - The show's host and a temperamental, rude, and overbearing crocodileCrocodileA crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...
. He ran the operations of the sewer and took command of the ratRatRats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
s who worked (unpaid) for him: - 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.
- Vaudville Vince Vermin - A cockneyCockneyThe term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...
rat and the resident comic who always tried to see the bright side of every situation. He hosted his own jokeJokeA joke is a phrase or a paragraph with a humorous twist. It can be in many different forms, such as a question or short story. To achieve this end, jokes may employ irony, sarcasm, word play and other devices...
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'. - Luchetti Bruchetti - an ItalianItalian peopleThe Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
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.
Teddy Bear
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 parodiesParody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of real people or existing TV shows, including:
- A music videoMusic videoA music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
segment featuring: Michael Jackdung, Elton The John, Kylie Manure and Jason Dungovan - parodies (in name only) of Michael JacksonMichael JacksonMichael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, Elton JohnElton JohnSir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
, Kylie MinogueKylie MinogueKylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
and Jason DonovanJason DonovanJason Donovan is an Australian actor and singer. He initially achieved fame in the Australian soap opera Neighbours, before beginning a career in music in 1988. In the UK he has sold over 3 million records, and his début album Ten Good Reasons was one of the highest-selling albums of 1989...
. Each was a hand puppetPuppetA puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer, who is called a puppeteer. It is used in puppetry, a play or a presentation that is a very ancient form of theatre....
designed to look like a pile of manureManureManure is organic matter used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Manures contribute to the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients, such as nitrogen, that are trapped by bacteria in the soil...
, but with a mouth that would sing along to parodied versions of pop songs. In the case of Elton The John, the puppet was a singing toilet. - The news segment: John Potato's Newsround - a parody of John Craven's Newsround, but presented by a potatoPotatoThe potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
. The sports section was presented by David Colemole - a glove-puppet of a moleMole (animal)Moles are small cylindrical mammals adapted to a subterranean lifestyle. They have velvety fur; tiny or invisible ears and eyes; and short, powerful limbs with large paws oriented for digging. The term is especially and most properly used for the true moles, those of the Talpidae family in the...
who wore round glassesGlassesGlasses, also known as eyeglasses , spectacles or simply specs , are frames bearing lenses worn in front of the eyes. They are normally used for vision correction or eye protection. Safety glasses are a kind of eye protection against flying debris or against visible and near visible light or...
and had a voice very similar to David ColemanDavid ColemanDavid Coleman, OBE is an English former sports commentator and TV presenter who worked for the BBC for almost fifty years. In 2000, he was awarded the Olympic Order, the highest honour of the Olympic movement....
. - Vegetables - a parody of NeighboursNeighboursNeighbours is an Australian television soap opera first broadcast on the Seven Network on 18 March 1985. It was created by TV executive Reg Watson, who proposed the idea of making a show that focused on realistic stories and portrayed adults and teenagers who talk openly and solve their problems...
. All the parts were played by vegetableVegetableThe noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
s with AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n accents. - Wee-man and the Masters of the Looniverse - a cartoon parody of He-Man and the Masters of the UniverseHe-Man and the Masters of the UniverseHe-Man and the Masters of the Universe is an American animated television series produced by Filmation based on Mattel's successful toy line Masters of the Universe...
. - Nursery Crimes - a cartoon parody of JackanoryJackanoryJackanory is a long-running BBC children's television series that was designed to stimulate an interest in reading. The show was first transmitted on 13 December 1965, the first story being the fairy-tale Cap o' Rushes read by Lee Montague. Jackanory continued to be broadcast until 24 March 1996,...
. - Teenage Mutant Ninja Toilets - a cartoon parody of Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesTeenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesThe Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a fictional team of four teenage anthropomorphic turtles, who were trained by their anthropomorphic rat sensei in the art of ninjutsu and named after four Renaissance artists...
, using animated toilet characters, lampooning the turtles. - Teenage Mutant Ninja Teddies - another cartoon parody of Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesTeenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesThe Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a fictional team of four teenage anthropomorphic turtles, who were trained by their anthropomorphic rat sensei in the art of ninjutsu and named after four Renaissance artists...
, but using teddy bears. - Old Age Useless Nitwit Tortoises - yet another cartoon parody of Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesTeenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesThe Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a fictional team of four teenage anthropomorphic turtles, who were trained by their anthropomorphic rat sensei in the art of ninjutsu and named after four Renaissance artists...
. Their nemesis was Bottom Brain, a parody of KrangKrangKrang is a fictional supervillain who appears in the Sonic The Hedgehog TV shows and most frequently in the 1987 STH cartoon and its associated media, such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comic book and most of the classic TMNT video games....
. - Attack of the Atomic Banana - a B movieB movieA B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
/serial parody with a 50ft. bananaBananaBanana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
rampaging through New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. King KongKing KongKing Kong is a fictional character, a giant movie monster resembling a gorilla, that has appeared in several movies since 1933. These include the groundbreaking 1933 movie, the film remakes of 1976 and 2005, as well as various sequels of the first two films...
made a cameo, and the "banana problem" was solved by a group of teenagers in a style similar to Scooby-DooScooby-DooScooby-Doo is an American media franchise based around several animated television series and related works produced from 1969 to the present day. The original series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, was created for Hanna-Barbera Productions by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears in 1969...
. This section was (fictionally) produced by Stubby Broccoli and Samuel J. Greengrocer, a play on the names of Cubby Broccoli and Samuel J. Briskin. These segments were made with stop-motion animation. - Thunderpants - a parody of ThunderCatsThunderCatsThunderCats is an American animated television series that was produced by Rankin/Bass Productions debuting in 1984, based on the characters created by Tobin "Ted" Wolf. The series follows the adventures of a group of cat-like humanoid aliens...
. - Transformaloids - a parody of Transformers, featuring Octopus Slime the octopus-headed transforming robot, who on at least one occasion went up against his arch enemy, Armadillotron.
- Woolly The Wonder Sheep - a parody of both Champion, the Wonder Horse and heroic dog Rin Tin Tin.
- Botman - a parody of BatmanBatmanBatman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
, with the lead character having an abnormally huge bottom.
Other sections
Other sections included:- 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 DentistDentistA dentist, also known as a 'dental surgeon', is a doctor that specializes in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity. The dentist's supporting team aides in providing oral health services...
. A crossover between the Atomic Banana ensued, entitled False Teeth From Beyond the Stars Meet the Atomic Banana. - Pzycho the Magnificent - an animated section in which Pzycho would attempt to use magicMagic (illusion)Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...
for his own personal gain, but would get caught by the police every time. - The Oddbod Family - animated shorts, each week centred around 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 punPunThe pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
s were used, such as in the time-travel sequence Tommy would say "The fly's the limit!", with the trousers replying "BraceSuspendersSuspenders or braces are fabric or leather straps worn over the shoulders to hold up trousers. Straps may be elasticated, either entirely or only at attachment ends and most straps are of woven cloth forming an X or Y shape at the back. Braces are typically attached to trousers with buttons...
yourself Tommy!!". The segment always ended with the trousers saying "If only he knew Tommy! If only he knew!". - Cosmic Comprehensive - an animation about a school of aliens.
Merchandise
Due to the popularity of the show, a computer game was created for the ZX SpectrumZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
and was later ported to the Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
, Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
, Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
and Acorn Archimedes
Acorn Archimedes
The Acorn Archimedes was Acorn Computers Ltd's first general purpose home computer to be based on their own ARM architecture.Using a RISC design with a 32-bit CPU, at its launch in June 1987, the Archimedes was stated as running at 4 MIPS, with a claim of 18 MIPS during tests.The name is commonly...
. A preview of a sequel was also released but the sequel was never finished. In 1990, a one-off magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
special was also published entitled, "Round the Bend! TV Special".
See also
- ThunderpantsThunderpantsThunderpants is a 2002 family film about a boy whose incredible capacity for flatulence gets him a job as an astronaut. The film was directed by Pete Hewitt, whose previous work included Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey and The Borrowers...
is the name of a 20022002 in filmThe year 2002 in film involved some significant events. The first significant releases of sequels took place between The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Men in Black II, Analyze That, Spy Kids 2: The Island of...
film, which is unrelated to the Round the Bend animation of the same name.