Round the Bend


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. 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

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 father.

Parodies

Other non-regular cast members were often satirical parodies of real people or existing TV shows, including:
Other segments included:
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. 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".

Global broadcasters