Cluedo is a British game show based on the board game of the same name. Each week, a reenactment of the murder at the stately home Arlington Grange of a visiting guest was played and, through a combination of interrogating the suspects (of whom only the murderer could lie) and deduction, celebrity guests had to discover who committed the murder, which of six weapons (not usually the original six from the board game) and in which room it was committed, whilst viewers were invited to play along at home.
Production
The TV show is similar to an earlier detective fiction programme named Whodunnit?, where audience members had to guess the identity of the culprit after viewing prerecorded footage and interrogating suspects. The Doctors Who's Who describes Whodunnit? as a celebrity quiz show "not unlike Cluedo...where the panel would see some visual clues and a piece of film and decide who killed whom and in what capacity". Dalek I Loved You described Whodunnit? as "an earlier version of Cluedo".
David McCallum, who played Professor Plum in series 2, said "This is not the Royal Shakespeare Company but it still requires technique. It's not overacting and it's not underacting. it's just slightly over the top". Series three's Colonel Mustard Lewis Collins said in an interview with This Morning: "Cluedo is the most nerve-racking thing I've ever done...", despite one magazine saying he was "tailor-made" for the role. Lysette Anthony, who played Miss Scarlett in series 3, said "Cluedo is fun to play because it's camp and it's the complete opposite of what I'm about". Despite the notion that the Colonel's prior occupation would make him the obvious suspect for every murder, it is stressed that "everyone has equally good reasons for bumping off the victim". Built in 1744, Arley Hall was privately owned and had become a major tourist attraction since it was opened to the public in 1962. Despite the episode ending with one of the suspects confessing to murder, all six would return in the next episode as if nothing had happened.
Cast
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Character !! Series 1 (1990) !! Christmas Special (1990) !! Series 2 (1991) !! Series 3 (1992) !! Series 4 (1993)
|-
| Mrs. Elizabeth Peacock || Stephanie Beacham || Kate O'Mara || Rula Lenska || Susan George || Joanna Lumley
|-
| Col. Mike Mustard || Robin Ellis || David Robb || Michael Jayston || Lewis Collins || Leslie Grantham
|-
| Rev. Jonathan Green || Robin Nedwell || Derek Nimmo || Richard Wilson || Christopher Biggins || Nicholas Parsons
|-
| Prof. Peter Plum || Kristoffer Tabori || Ian Lavender || David McCallum || Tom Baker || John Bird
|-
| Ms. Vivienne Scarlett || Tracy Louise Ward || Toyah Willcox || Koo Stark || Lysette Anthony || Jerry Hall
|-
| Mrs. Blanche White || June Whitfield || Joan Sims || Mollie Sugden || Pam Ferris || Liz Smith
|}
Episodes
Critical reception
Understanding the Global TV Format likened the show to Voce Decide, describing them both as "a hybrid, an amalgamation of a gameshow with a fictional situation and story". Similarly, The A to Z of Australian Radio and Television deemed the Australian version a "hybrid gameshow/whodunnit". One magazine said the show "promise[s] to keep us guessing till the very end". One magazine noted the difficulties involved in giving life to a one-dimensional character "when the only source material they have to work on comes out of a small cardboard box". Cluedo fansite Cluedofan deemed it "an absolutely brilliant TV gameshow".
On his stint as host, Chris Tarrant was later quoted as saying, "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."
Controversy
In the second episode of the fourth season, Col. Mike Mustard murdered former comrade and property developer Sir Nigel Hussey (Ian McNeice) with a G-string in the kitchen. A short time after the episode aired, the producers received a letter that was written by the family of one Felix Reese, who himself was a taxi driver who was shot in the head by Leslie Grantham (the actor playing Col. Mustard) while the future star of EastEnders was a soldier stationed in Germany. The Reeses found it distasteful that someone who performed an illegal killing as a soldier would be cast as someone who performed an illegal killing as a soldier. Matthew Wright from The Sun asked Grantham about the "irony" of this turn at a press conference, which angered the actor.
International versions
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Country !! Name !! Presenter(s) !! Channel !! Date of transmission
|-
|
| Cluedo
| Ian McFadyen
| Nine Network<br>WIN Network
| 1992–1993
|-
|
| Cluedo
| Christian Morin<br>Marie-Ange Nardi
| France 3
| 1994–1995
|-
|
| Cluedo – Das Mörderspiel
| Gundis Zámbó
| Sat. 1
| 1998
|-
|
| Il delitto è servito
| Maurizio Micheli
| Canale 5
| 1992–1993
|-
|
| Cluedo
| Rogério Samora
| TVI
| 1995
|-
|
| Cluedo – en mordgåta
| Martin Timell
| TV4
| 1996
|}
Australia
France
Germany
Italy
Portugal
The Portuguese version lasted for one season in 1995 consisting of 13 episodes. The show was hosted by Rogério Samora. It premiered on 26 March 1995. It was produced by Cinemate, D&D Audiovisuais, and Televisão Independente (TVI). The show is reported to be a "very interesting novelty, despite having gone unnoticed." It has been deemed an "innovative contest".
Sweden
References
External links
- Cluedo at BFI
- Press clippings for the German Cluedo Das Mörderspiel TV series
- Review of German series (in German)
- Interview with series writer Kevin K. Rattan