[28] He felt that gameshows were a rare form of television entertainment that required something of the viewer, and that the constant, comforting airing schedules of shows like Wheel of Fortune mean "you know where you are, how to do it and it's a bit of an achievement when you get it done" with the addictive nature of a newspaper crossword puzzle.

[104] Coined by Colin Watson in Snobbery with Violence (1971) this term describes a mystery subgenre characterised by isolated settings in an English country village with a limited cast of characters who generally take a back seat to the puzzle being presented.

[77] Sunday Times highlighted the uniquely soft place 'murder' has in the English lexicon relative to its meaning, noting the unimaginability of a version of Cluedo in which one had to figure out who raped Miss Scarlet in the library, due to the offensive nature of the latter term.

[86] During the first half of Cluedo, a 140-150 member studio audience views on studio monitors a pre-recorded dramatised version of a crime set at glamorous socialite Mrs. Peacock's fictional quaint country home Brindabella Homestead; cases include the six main characters who frequent the property — Peacock, step-daughter Miss Scarlet and her boyfriend Professor Plum, housekeeper Mrs. White, intimate family friend Colonel Mustard, and local vicar Reverend Green — being implicated in a murder when a "villain[ous]" and "obnoxious" stranger interrupts their established social dynamic.

[93] During production season, initial rehearsals were done on a Monday, and actors were not at first told the solution, however, later on they were asked to solve the case to test if the mystery held up to be solvable by a studio audience; they were successful to varying degrees and Westmore improved over the course of the run.

[145] After The Sydney Morning Herald visited a taping, their reporter recalled a small number of oiks in the studio audience, who "looked as if they wandered in expecting a wet t-shirt competition [or] an episode of Chances", and who said to each other "how to we get the fuck out of here" before leaving at the earliest opportunity.

[77] The main cast kept secret how many murders they committed when being interviewed by the press,[90] however infrequently a solution was prematurely insinuated, for example The Herald-Sun revealed a rockstar's death was "felled by heavy metal of a different kind", referring to a tuning fork.

[129] TV Week noted that McFadyen and Daddo were "under pressure" with a "mammoth workload" due to overlapping production schedules with their other projects - sitcoms Bingles, Let The Blood Run Free, and Newlyweds for the former and a Scottish ghost character in the $3.7 million series Round the Twist's for the latter.

[202] In 2014, the Australian version of Cluedo would be listed in a Herald Sun article called 'Classic TV shows we used to love that would never fly today'; the newspaper wrote it was a "bold concept for its time" and more successful in Britain where it originated, but "never struck a chord with enough viewers".

[206] Aberdeen Evening Express wrote the series "reduced a popular board game to a travesty of amateurish dramatics", criticising the "third-rate reconstructions and awful lineup of has-been personalities [with] careers dead and buried long ago" which "provided even less tension than an average session of the cardboard original" and "deliver[ing some rather ropey, semi-improvised dialogue"; the newspaper further commented "the board game’s strength lies in exercising the mind to imagine the crime, its motives and execution in a limited environment, but any hint of mystery was lost as the TV form flabbily fleshed the whole thing out to no advantage".

[207] Having not played Cluedo since a child, watching a few episodes of this series encouraged Daily Mirror to add the old board game to their Christmas shopping list, noting it had been "translated to television wonderfully well" and guessing that "viewers are enjoying it as much as the cast".

[154] felt the TV version "pales disappointingly" in comparison with the "great" board game, suggesting that with the celebrity cast "you'd expect better...but the whole package is too trite and stilted, crassly trying to convince its audience what a good time they're having and how much their brains are being stretched by the whole experience".

[273] That year, the BP ldentiphysics Challenge final, a schools' game show based on Cluedo promoting STEM subjects, took place in which contestants deduced which of six fictional scientists worked in which laboratory using which piece of equipment to make a particular discovery.

[73] Having been drawn to suit-wearing straight men earlier in his career, most recently the news anchors of The Comedy Company, McFadyen appreciated Cluedo over regular game shows with "spinning boards and some girl in a tight skirt".

[170] He described hos Cluedo persona on as "sort of a cross" between lawyer Geoffrey Robertson and talk-show host Phil Donahue,[11] though Cockington felt he came across as Count Dracula actor Bela Lugosi mixed with a dance hall crooner, informed by his "brilliantined hair".

[110][304] The Age assessed his performance as a "passable imitation of an undertaker"[46] while The Sydney Morning Herald thought he "seems ill at ease",[147] further described the compere as "looking most Barry Humphries-like in 1940s waistcoat, slicked back hair and eyeglasses"[106] and a "cross between Sherlock Holmes and Freddie from Elm Street".

[310] Four days later the actress broke her foot and sprained her ankle by falling down the stairs while filming at Arley Hall for series three of the British version having tripped over her high heels and long skirt; she returned to set after a week of convalesching.

[298] Widely reported in media for being Prince Andrew's ex-girlfriend, Koo Stark came to the project after becoming emotionally drained from researching people's traumatic experiences for her photography book Survivors, and felt both "delighted" and "relieved" by the opportunity.

[319] Pam Ferris was announced as the third British Mrs. White on 25 March 1992 in The Sun;[320] the actress was "easily persuaded to take time out" from her ITV The Darling Buds of May role, as her interest was sparked during Cluedo's first series watching her Connie costar Stephanie Beacham and she decided, "I really fancy having a go at that".

After entering his adoptive father's profession and working in the Homicide Squad for 1500 cases, he requested a transfer to the small village of Creswick Falls for a quiet life handing out speeding tickets, and was not expecting the frequent murders at Brindabella.

[note 7] The "intrepid" character's role was to try to solve the "grisly...gruesome" murders[6] and can't crack a case without the help of the studio audience and "eagle-eyed" home viewers, unlike other TV sleuths like Jessica Fletcher, Charlie Chan, and Father Dowling.

[84] From initial impressions, TV Weekly's Lawrie Masterson thought the programme was a "touch unsatisfying" as the audience winner is not asked about their deductive reasoning or time taken to reach their conclusion; he also felt it dragged compared to 30 minute versions of Cluedo.

[99][373] On 10 June, The Herald-Sun suggested its failure as a drama is irrelevant as its "purely" designed as a money-making gameshow; the newspaper noted the "hammy...over-the-top music hall melodrama" acting and McFadyen's "uncomfortable...ambl[ing]" through the audience, though concluded that the show "relies not on production values or performances for success".

[351][374][96] Observing the gamification of life and pointing to re-election competitions in Parliament and guest humiliation in current affairs interviews as examples, The Age thought of Cluedo as the game show evolution of the copper drama genre.

[87] In his third consecutive review on 24 June, Figdeon reported receiving abuse from Daddo and McFadyen fans for writing negative comments about the show; he was accused of treating Paull "shabbily" despite having not mentioned her in the previous article, and of being "a bit rough" to Mallaby even though he said the actor was "about the best thing in it".

[153] Noting that "in television, more of a good thing rarely produces better", the newspaper felt that "much of the fun and froth is lost" by extending the commercial game show, pointing to the "tedious, repeated plugs for the prizes" of Cluedo and The Main Event as prime examples.

[147] However The Sydney Morning Herald wrote the following episode "Red Herring" was a "ripper of a show" due to guest Tina Bursill "revelling" in the role, the audience "lift[ing] its game", and Sumner giving a humorous reply when queried on Reverend Green's attitudes towards celibacy in the church.

[111] In The Canberra Times, he suggested that Cluedo's technology pre-empted a cable TV market where interactive home devices would circumvent the need for studio audiences by allowing viewers to become full participants in the murder investigation.

[111] The Sydney Morning Herald argued that this technique meant the audience are "as much the stars of the show" as the actors, as a "clever dick in row five can conceivably nail the suspect by asking the kind of fiendish question that always solves the case for Hercule Poirot".

[76] Arguably the first time an electronic device was used by a studio audience as instant feedback to an onscreen graphic, the "razor-edge television technology" was later employed in The Great Debate (1993) to allow voters to register their approval or disapproval by turning the knob.