Whodunnit Part 2

It's been a while, but I'm finally back online. Thought I'd kick-off this second wave of reviews with a flashback to my first one - the 70's panel game 'Whodunnit'.

I mentioned in my earlier review that later series were hosted by Jon Pertwee, and recently I've had the chance to watch the complete second series, so it seems appropriate to offer a follow-up review, comparing it to the first. Does it keep improving? Or perhaps it reached a plateau and went on a steady downhill decline...

Good news is it gets no worse, and improves on some of the basic errors of the first series. Jon Pertwee is a slick presenter, follows his auto-cue well and keeps the program flowing. When the murderer is revealed they also now have a flashback to how the crime actually happened which was a major fault with the first series. No longer do you sit there scratching your head wondering how it all transpired - now you can actually see the crime unfold. There still seems to be a million loopholes in every plot, but hey, it's only TV.

A strange point crops up in series 2. Two of the episodes have the TV studio dressed up to match the murder scene. I thought it was a really nice touch (one set in a WWII bunker for instance, with the celebrity guests acting like a military tribunal), but for some strange reason they revert back to a plain white set for the end of the series.

They still have audience participation, but thankfully that has been trimmed right back, and we don't get subjected to as many dodgy fashion victims as Mr Woodward had to endure. Series two also has a wonderful collection of celebrity panelists - Harry H. Corbett, Rodney Bewes, Henry Cooper amongst many others. A real 'who's who' of 70's culture.

Of course this gets a thumbs up. The first series did, and this is a marked improvement. The murders range in difficulty from one that is far too obscure to one that is so obvious you assume you can't be right (but you are) but I guess that is another positive appeal to the show - it caters for all abilities.