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TV: P is for...

Puzzle Trail

Another DOIG delight, and an interactive one to boot. First series had ANDY JOHNSON and DONNA REEVE fronting five fifteen-minuters dispensing clues and concocting adventures on a giant grid in order to help you, the viewer, identify the whereabouts of some treasure. Over 12,000 people wrote in, apparently. Second series had TOMMY BOYD and SALLY “WEEKENDING” GRACE doing the honours, “searching for something that Tommy had lost.” Our hero “knew all 36 places he had been to and retraced his steps place by place until he found where it was”. Once again, loads of viewers beat Tom – and a minature chromakeyed version of himself – to the solution. Next up were KIRSTY MILLER and HOWARD STABLEFORD in The Puzzleton Plans, a massive three-week affair involving 12 suspects to a burglary of top secret plans in the titular town, with Kirsty and Howard playing everyone as well as themselves. Proving that high crimes of state were no stranger to children’s telly, the plans were “in the Government Office at 6pm on a Tuesday evening and the MP reported them missing at 10am on Wednesday morning.” So what happened in the intervening 16 hours, eh? Finally came DAVY JONES and EILEEN FLETCHER with The Riddle of Skully Island, who “try to find the hidden treasure and keep meeting strange characters who look remarkably like themselves.” All fantastic, harmless, clever fun and the kind of superlative stuff much missed today.

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