As we near series' end, Liza - we're told - will not be in the next few episodes due to theatre commitments. As there are now just two episodes left, it's looking like I've watched her last
Whodunnit? Her place has been filled by some woman I've never heard of (even though IMDb tells me I've seen her in a number of things): Anna Dawson.
Even more curiously, one of Anna's first episodes also featured Anouska Hempel, the predecessor of her predecessor. Anouska has seemed very serious on her recent return visits. The conspiracy theorist in me started to wonder if she hadn't wanted to be there (to continue with my earlier
Charlie's Angels parallel, rather like Farrah Fawcett's forced contractual return to the series). I suspect I'm looking too deeply into it, but that's what binge watching this series does to a viewer, I suppose.
Patrick Mower was also absent in the last episode due to "night shooting" and I believe is also not returning for the rest of the series. This actually feels like a reprieve for me. He takes the game very seriously. Which is fine... someone needs to. But he's become a little more overbearing this series. There have been a number of whispered confabs with other panellists, particularly Liza (conferring has been a big no-no up to this point, since the panellists are essentially in competition with one another). He's butted in to either ask a question or even to instruct someone else what they need to ask And his hand is constantly in the air, waiting to ask another question. His questioning is great, and his success record very impressive. But he's become something of a bleeding deacon which is not a good thing.
There's a balance to be struck with how seriously one takes the game, I suppose. At the opposite end of the scale to Patrick, there's Jimmy Jewel who is not the least bit interested in finding out whodunnit, but uses his questioning time to fire off tedious and unfunny wisecracks. The episode I watched last night was, inexplicably, his fourth appearance on the series.
There's also an increase in the episodes that are getting laughs. Not just the panel game part, but the actual acting out of the murder. I'm not sure about it. On the one hand, this isn't a series that needs to be taken seriously, but I've found that too much frivolity all round makes the series feel somewhat vacuous and meaningless. Last night's
A Dead Cert is a case in point. Audience laughter could be heard in the moments leading up to the murder and it fell a little flatter as a result. It's so much funnier when the panel is able to get some laughs from a more grave situation. The episode in question featured a school to sex up men and make them more attractive to women. As is the law with any sex related comedy of the Seventies, Valerie Leon was one of the teachers.
The biggest revelation of the episode was actually Norman Bowler's legs, which are very impressive indeed. All of which led me to discover just moments ago that pre-
Emmerdale patriarch, Bowler was well-known as a bodybuilder and muse of homoerotic artist John Minton.