Whodunnit? (British game show)

This article is about the British game show. For the 1979 American adaption of the show, see Whodunnit? (American game show). For other uses, see Whodunit (disambiguation).

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
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	15 August 1972 (1972-08-15) – 26 June 1978 (1978-06-26)
Related
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 hosted by Shaw Taylor, and then became a full series, 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.

The panel members could interview the remaining characters, with the proviso that only the murderer 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 the murderer was (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 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 full adopted for series 3 onwards

Transmissions

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

DVD releases

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

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	16 October 2017
The Complete Series	13	1972-1978	48	16 October 2017

External links

• Whodunnit? at UKGameshows.com

See also

Cluedo (British game show)