| Whodunnit? | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| 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 | 35 minutes (pilot) 50 minutes (inc. adverts) |
| Production company | Thames |
| Original release | |
| Network | ITV |
| Release | 15 August 1972 – 26 June 1978 |
| Related | |
| Whodunnit? | |
Whodunnit? is a British television game show that aired on ITV from 15 August 1972 to 26 June 1978. The show was devised by Jeremy Lloyd and Lance Percival and was originally aired as a pilot with Shaw Taylor as host. 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.
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 panellist 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?". 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.
| Series | Start date | End date | Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pilot | 15 August 1972 | 1 | |
| 1 | 25 June 1973 | 30 July 1973 | 6 |
| 2 | 24 June 1974 | 29 July 1974 | 6 |
| Special | 26 December 1974 | 1 | |
| 3 | 14 July 1975 | 15 September 1975 | 10 |
| 4 | 28 June 1976 | 9 August 1976 | 7 |
| 5 | 27 June 1977 | 25 July 1977 | 5 |
| 6 | 3 April 1978 | 26 June 1978 | 12 |
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Celebrity panellists | Original release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | - | "Pilot" | Edward Woodward, Frank Windsor, Anne Summer | 15 August 1972[1] |
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Celebrity panellists | Original release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | "Missing on Voyage" | Dick Francis, Frank Davies, Julie Ege, Kenneth Haigh | 25 June 1973[2] |
| 3 | 2 | "Knife in the Back" | Shaw Taylor, Reginald Bosanquet, Daliah Lavi, Jon Pertwee | 2 July 1973[3] |
| 4 | 3 | "Crime After a Fashion" | George Sewell, David Hemmings, Sally Geeson, Joe Lynch | 9 July 1973[4] |
| 5 | 4 | "Did He Fall or Was He Pushed?" | Peter Byrne, Moira Lister, Kingsley Amis, Russell Hunter | 16 July 1973[5] |
| 6 | 5 | "Dead Likeness" | Alfred Marks, Dulcie Gray, Michael Denison, Marius Goring | 23 July 1973[6] |
| 7 | 6 | "Happy New Year" | Patrick Mower, Barbara Windsor, John Woodvine, Tom Tullett | 30 July 1973[7] |
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Celebrity panellists | Original release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 1 | "The Last Act" | Patrick Mower, Margaret Lockwood, Anthony Valentine, Robin Nedwell | 24 June 1974[8] |
| 9 | 2 | "It's Quicker by Train" | Harry H. Corbett, Sheila Hancock, Leslie Crowther, Richard O'Sullivan | 1 July 1974[9] |
| 10 | 3 | "The Final Chapter" | Jimmy Jewel, Aimi Macdonald, Francis Matthews, Henry Cooper | 8 July 1974[10] |
| 11 | 4 | "Goodbye Sarge" | Rodney Bewes, Billie Whitelaw, George Sewell, Reginald Bosanquet | 15 July 1974[11] |
| 12 | 5 | "The Art of Theft" | Kingsley Amis, Jackie Collins, Arthur Mullard, Pete Murray | 22 July 1974[12] |
| 13 | 6 | "Teddy Bears' Picnic" | Hughie Green, Alfred Marks, Dawn Addams, Jackie Pallo | 29 July 1974[13] |
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Celebrity panellists | Original release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | - | "A Piece of Cake" | Patrick Mower, Wendy Craig, Derek Nimmo, Leslie Crowther | 26 December 1974[14] |
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Celebrity panellists | Original release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | 1 | "Dead Grass" | Stratford Johns, Sheila Hancock, George Savalas | 28 June 1976[25] |
| 26 | 2 | "Future Imperfect" | Magnus Pyke, Lindsay Wagner, Patrick Mower | 5 July 1976[26] |
| 27 | 3 | "A Time to Dye" | Anouska Hempel, Terry Scott, Gareth Hunt | 12 July 1976[27] |
| 28 | 4 | "Final Verdict" | Richard O'Sullivan, Honor Blackman, Norman Bowler | 19 July 1976[28] |
| 29 | 5 | "A Bad Habit" | Robin Nedwell, Yootha Joyce, Brian Murphy | 26 July 1976[29] |
| 30 | 6 | "A Deadly Tan" | June Whitfield, Rodney Bewes, Tony Selby | 2 August 1976[30] |
| 31 | 7 | "Dead Ball" | William Franklyn, Sandra Dickinson, Gordon Honeycombe | 9 August 1976[31] |
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Celebrity panellists | Original release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32 | 1 | "The Rajah's Ruby" | Terry Wogan, Prunella Scales, Bill Pertwee | 27 June 1977[32] |
| 33 | 2 | "Village Fete" | Jimmy Jewel, Liza Goddard, Trevor Bannister | 4 July 1977[33] |
| 34 | 3 | "No Happy Returns" | Alfred Marks, Patrick Mower, Kate Williams | 11 July 1977[34] |
| 35 | 4 | "The Q43 Experiment" | Magnus Pyke, Tessa Wyatt, Michael Aspel | 18 July 1977[35] |
| 36 | 5 | "Last Tango in Tooting" | Anouska Hempel, Patrick Mower, Roy Plomley | 25 July 1977[36] |
All six series of Whodunnit? have been released on DVD by Network.
| DVD Title | Discs | Year | Episodes | Release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Complete Series 1 | 2 | 1972-1973 | 6 (+ pilot) | 31 January 2011 |
| Complete Series 2 | 2 | 1974 | 6 | 13 August 2012 |
| Complete Series 3 | 3 | 1974-1975 | 10 (+ special) | 4 June 2012 |
| Complete Series 4 | 2 | 1976 | 7 | 25 March 2013 |
| Complete Series 5 | 1 | 1977 | 5 | 27 April 2015 |
| Complete Series 6 | 3 | 1978 | 12 | 20 November 2017 |
| The Complete Series | 13 | 1972-1978 | 48 | 20 November 2017 |
