The Basic Premise Based on the famous Waddington’s board game, each half hour programme (45 minutes for the Christmas special) would open with a sombre announcement by that year’s host that there had been a murder at Arlington Grange. Again. The host would also introduce the same six suspected murderers and the same six rooms in which the murder could have taken place (down from the nine in the board game – no Conservatory, Ballroom or Hall while the Lounge was replaced by the Drawing Room). The six weapons changed each episode – rarely was more than one or two of them drawn from the original game. More often they were replaced by the odd but plausible (a Bridge trophy) or just ridiculous (a flamethrower – one wonders how you could disguise having used this as a weapon).
After this was a short film showing the background of the murder, whereby (normally) a stranger would visit Arlington Grange and put everybody’s backs up sufficiently to warrant a good motive for each character. Each potential murder weapon would be seen being used by one of the suspects for some entirely innocent purpose, while the murder would usually be announced by having a character (often Mrs White) running towards Mrs Peacock in the Hall (ie, an ‘innocent’ location) shouting ‘there’s been a murder!’. Or somesuch. At this point we would go back to the studio, and the presenter would ask each team (two teams of pairs) for their initial ‘gut reaction’. Following this each team would (usually) be allowed to ask any suspect(s) three questions before making their accusation, in the traditional Cluedo manner. At this point one would almost always accuse Mrs White, with the poison - so it seemed, anyway. After the commercial break, some ‘new evidence’ would be presented which took the form of about a minute of extra footage which would usually make either the room or murder weapon more obvious. Each team then took it in turns to ask questions and make deductions until one arrived at the correct solution. Then the lights would dim, with a spotlight on the murderer who would admit to everything and explain what had happened. The others would then be ‘free to go’.
Annual turnover The format and characters subtly changed each year, along with the cast (see below for a full list). The first year was probably the best, even if it was less polished than the (still rather amateurish) later series. Much of this was down to presenter James Bellini, who managed to keep proceedings going along quite nicely while trying to keep a lid on the panto-antics of some of the cast (hello, Professor Plum) in the studio. The audience cheered and booed whoever they thought had, or hadn’t, committed the crime and were even allowed to vote in this first series which at least made the whole thing rather more engaging than it was to become. Interestingly (or not), this first series had one celebrity and one ‘real’ sleuth on each team. This sleuth could be a private detective, or Cluedo champion, for example. From the Christmas special onwards the teams simply consisted of two celebrities.
Following a Christmas Special was a second series, this time hosted by Chris Tarrant who got visibly more annoyed with the contestants each episode. Indeed, as Tarrant was to later say to the Radio Times: "I absolutely hated hosting Cluedo, it's the worst thing I've ever done. It took forever to make the thing. We used to have to turn the studio audience over just to make sure they didn't get any bed sores." This series is much less fun than the first, but the cast are always entertaining.
The third series started to treat the series like a real drama, and suffered from Richard Madeley-syndrome (something well known to viewers of Richard and Judy), whereby the now-presenter would try to interrupt perfectly reasonable questions and answers with his own deductions, rather than just being quiet.
The fourth season (still with Madeley) changed slightly again, with all the drama segments now being shot on film rather than videotape and being rather gloomier as a result. Also, this series included the rather curious option for the audience to watch an interminably long dramatisation of the murder (or so it seemed to those of us with our eyes closed) before the contestants even started their questioning should they so wish. I still have no idea why anyone would want to do this – the show was hardly rivalling Columbo for its detecting prowess.
Final deduction:Overall, then, Cluedo was a good series with a lot of potential, even if it often felt rather rushed and cheap. Problems? Oh, there were plenty. In too many episodes the identity of the murderer seemed entirely arbitrary, with it only being possible to reveal them by a process of elimination rather than genuine sleuthing and clues picked up from the film, making viewing of the drama segment little more than a waste of time. Also, the actors never quite seemed sure whether the whole thing should be played straight or not – the various Miss Scarletts suffered from this the most, as they were all dreadful without exception. There are many internal inconsistencies (often Miss Scarlett seems to be Mrs Peacock’s birth-, rather than step-, daughter), but these can be forgiven.
With interactive TV now being a buzz word, now would seem a good time for a Cluedo revival – perhaps it should be somewhere closer to The Murder Game than this version, however.
Trivia: The first series was the only one where there wasn’t a different murderer each episode. Instead
Mrs Peacock committed two murders, while Reverend Green really was innocent.
Nicholas Parsons, Leslie Grantham and Richard Madeley all appeared as contestants before taking their roles as regulars.
The opening episode of the fourth series (‘Finders Keepers’) was written by Russell T Davies, who would go on to create Queer as Folk and oversee the 2005 revival of Doctor Who.
The Cast: Series 1: Peacock: Stephanie Beacham Mustard: Robin Ellis Green: Robin Nedwell Plum: Kristoffer Tabori Scarlet: Tracy-Louise Ward White: June Whitfield 1990
Xmas special: Peacock: Kate O'Mara Mustard: David Robb Green: Derek Nimmo Plum: Ian Lavender Scarlet: Toyah Willcox White: Joan Simms
Series 2: Peacock: Rula Lenska Mustard: Michael Jayston Green: Richard Wilson Plum: David McCallum Scarlet: Koo Stark White: Mollie Sugden
Series 3: Peacock: Susan George Mustard: Lewis Collins Green: Christopher Biggins Plum: Tom Baker Scarlet: Lysette Anthony White: Pam Ferris
Series 4: Peacock: Joanna Lumley Mustard: Leslie Grantham Green: Nicholas Parsons Plum: John Bird Scarlet: Jerry Hall White: Liz Smith
Key moments: Guests often seemed to have no clue how to play the game, eschewing logical deduction in favour of random guesses. They always got there in the end – although one suspects that some of the episodes took hours of gameplay (cf Tarrant’s comments about bed sores) to finish judging by the sudden ability of the players to know the solution in the edited show.
The one time when the obvious murder-victim wasn’t killed, in series one.
Clement Freud’s brilliant turn as a contestant.
June Whitfield’s constantly inebriated Mrs White.
Catchphrases: “You are invited... to a murder!”