Whodunnit?
Contents |
Host
Shaw Taylor (Pilot)
Edward Woodward (1972-3)
Jon Pertwee (1974-8)
Co-hosts
Frequent panellists included: Anouska Hempel, Patrick Mower
Broadcast
ITV (Thames), 15 August 1972 (pilot), 25 June 1973 to 26 June 1978 (48 programmes in 6 series)
Synopsis
Worzel Gummidge puts on his clever head for this early bash at Cluedo on TV.
A murder is committed at the beginning of the show, and up pops the graphic of the title: WHODUNNIT? Four panellists are tasked at finding out. A 15-minute TV play is shown in which clues are planted, usually containing some manner of flashback and differing points of view.
The panellists go through a multi-step process where they can ask questions to the eight-or-so assembled cast members (those still living, in any case), and ask for a piece of film to be shown again. At the end of the deduction process, they have to write down who they think Dun It along with the clues they've spotted. (The studio audience also gets the opportunity to do this, with the winner receiving the fabulous Whodunnit trophy.) The panellists then say out loud the name of their accused and the main clue that gave it away.
The host then asks the guilty party, or parties, to stand up in the style of Tell the Truth. Jon decides a nominal winner based on who spotted the most correct clues. Rather disappointingly, the solution was described in a rather rushed manner at the end of the show, and there are usually only two or three small things that you were supposed to have spotted. The nature of the solutions were fairly typical paperback affairs, such as left/right handedness, or "how could that innocent person point out the exact location of the murder if he wasn't there?"
Key moments
It took four years of programmes before all four members of the panel got the right answer.
Catchphrases
"Only the murderer can lie"
Inventor
Created and written by Jeremy Lloyd and Lance Percival.
Trivia
In later series, the "prize" for the panel was to take a piece of the set home with them, preceding Trivial Pursuit's second incarnation by a couple of decades.
A US version of five shows, hosted by Ed McMahon, was broadcast in 1979.
Pictures
Original host, the Equalizer.
A typical panel of 'amateur celebrities', as the End of Part One spoof would have you believe.
As far as we could tell, no other show would offer Avon off Blake's 7 to appear like this.