Whodunnit? (British game show)

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Whodunnit?
Genre	Game show
Created by	Jeremy Lloyd Lance Percival
Written by	Jeremy Lloyd Lance Percival
Presented by	Shaw Taylor (1972: Pilot) Edward Woodward (1973) Jon Pertwee (1974-78)
Theme music composer	Simon Park
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	6
No. of episodes	48
Production
Running time	45 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production company	Thames
Distributor	Fremantle
Release
Original network	ITV
Picture format	4:3
Original release	15 August 1972 (1972-08-15) – 26 June 1978 (1978-06-26)
Chronology
Related shows	Whodunnit?

Whodunnit? was a British television game show that aired on ITV from 15 August 1972 to 26 June 1978. The show originally aired as a pilot and was hosted by Shaw Taylor. It then became a full show, with the first series being hosted by Edward Woodward and then Jon Pertwee took over hosting duties from the second series until the show's end.

Format[]

Each week it featured a short murder-mystery drama enacted in front of a panel of four celebrity guests who then had to establish who the murderer was. One week there was a smuggling mystery and no murder.

The panel members could interview the remaining characters, with the proviso that only the guilty party or parties could lie. Each panelist could also request to see a short replay of one section of the initial drama, which would often include events as they occurred and flashbacks as seen and narrated by individual suspects. For series 1, the entire audience also took part in guessing who was guilty (with the winner winning a prop from the set). For series 2 and 3, four members of the audience formed a panel, but did not question the suspects, with the winner taking away a 'Whodunnit?' trophy (a magnifying glass in a frame). For series 4 and 5, the audience panel was dropped and a TV Times competition winner formed part of the main panel (taking away a prop from the set if they won the game). For series 6, they were dropped entirely.

At the end the compere would reveal the guilty (usually a murderer) with the catchphrase "would the real 'Whodunnit' please stand up?".

Sets[]

Whodunnit? originally adopted a conventional panel-game studio layout, for series 2 some episodes would use the murder scene for the panel part of the show, with this being fully adopted for series 3 onwards

Panel[]

The panelists included regular members such as Patrick Mower, Anouska Hempel, Liza Goddard, Alfred Marks and Magnus Pike as many well known celebrities such as Honor Blackman, Sheila Hancock, author Jackie Collins, Billie Whitelaw, Barbara Windsor, Joanna Lumley, Terry Wogan, Lindsay Wagner, Lynsey de Paul and George Sewell.

Transmissions[]

DVD releases[]

All six series of Whodunnit? have been released on DVD by Network Distributing.

External links[]

• Whodunnit? at IMDb
• Whodunnit? at UKGameshows.com