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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 160528" data-attributes="member: 23">A panel game on DVD? Oh - go on then.This space, I suspect, will mostly be a series of sightings of future soap stars, whimsical nostalgia over b-list celebs who were doing the circuit in the Seventies and news about what the well-dressed panellist was wearing in 1973.Even with some decent sets and costumes and even some location work, the Pilot episode felt dry and plodding at times. There's something static and low energy about the series so far, and perhaps a little clunky. Some of this will be a case of adjustment for me. I've been watching a fair bit of TV from the era, but mostly sitcoms (my most recent watch has been ...And Mother Makes Three and its sequel series, both also made by Thames and airing around the same time as this series). Whodunnit? is a panel game interspersed with dramatic enactments of the moments leading up to a crime. And switching between the two so far feels a little unsatisfactory. Just as I get used to one format it switches to the other.More than the drama or the guesswork I'm in this for the guest-stars. The IMDb entry for Whodunnit? is a veritable Who's Who of the British entertainment industry and I think my enjoyment levels will rise as does the number of familiar faces. The first couple of episodes have been fairly low on people I recognise. The highest rating on the excitement scale came in Episode Two when Howards' Way's Jan Harvey appeared, dolled up to the nines (it took me perhaps fifteen seconds to place her as she looked quite different to Jan Howard). Sadly though, she was not questioned at all during the panel sections, which is a shame as I wanted to see her ad libbing in character. Emmerdale's Alan Turner was questioned and did a very nice job of coming up with answers on the spot.The panellists themselves have been... interesting at times. A real-life detective who looked like Jodie Foster but was pretty clueless about the criminal (Hannibal Lecter would have eaten her for breakfast). A former head of the Flying Squad. And a visibly nervous crime writer Dick Francis who knew his stuff but seemed to crumble into a bit of a wreck every time the camera pointed at him. I found his shyness endearing, and I know how he feels as I'm just not designed for a world of camera phones. I love how seriously they took this. Were this filmed today, we'd probably get a panel full of prune pouting, Instagram happy reality stars.Then there are the chairmen. Shaw Taylor was perfectly fine in the Pilot and I can't help wondering why he didn't do the series. Edward Woodward - a panellist in the Pilot - took over the chair from the next episode. It's easy to see why he would be asked as he was the most captivating thing in the Pilot and really gave one of the suspects a good playful grilling during questioning ("Don't mess me about, mate. Come on. I've 'ad your type before, you know"). His chairman style, too, has been on a par with Shaw Taylor's, but his switched role means the panel is less colourful.The next episode is an interesting one historically, since Taylor is back: this time as a panellist. Alongside him will be panellist (and future chair) Jon Pertwee in his Whodunnit? debut, meaning that all three chairmen will appear on the same show.</blockquote>

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