In conversation with Cluedo 2

Both actors admit they can’t wait to go on tour. It’s Ellie’s first ever theatre role after she shot to fame playing Faye Windass for 12 years in Coronation Street and then went on to win last year’s Strictly Come Dancing. Meanwhile Jason, who has starred in many TV roles and until recently portrayed Nurse David Hide in Casualty, admits he has long harboured an ambition to return to his theatre roots.

Both roles have been cleverly reinvented to fit in with the new setting of the play in the rock and roll 1960s – something they are both hugely excited by. “At first, Miss Scarlet seems like butter won’t melt,” reveals Ellie. “She is an interior designer and she seems very unassuming. But as the play develops, well… people may not be quite what they seem. Cluedo is, after all, a thriller and murder mystery game!”

Like Miss Scarlett, Colonel Mustard is also hiding secrets; “We are going to be reinventing the narrative,” Jason explains. “Rick Black is a rock star in the play and Mustard is his manager. “Like Elvis had the Colonel, this chap has Mustard! He thinks he knows what he is doing but he doesn’t really.”

The icing on the cake is the chance to work alongside the show’s critically acclaimed director Mark Bell, who is also the director behind the global hit The Play That Goes Wrong.

Smiling, Mark insists it’s the play’s writers, Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, who should win all the praise. “I am a minor Viscount compared to their Highnesses,” he jokes before adding: “They are royalty and as soon as I met them, we hit it off. It’s a privilege to be working with them and this great new cast. It’s a new story with new twists and what I love is the fact Cluedo is such an important part of our culture.”

Indeed, for both the new stars of the play and Mark, the Cluedo boardgame represents such an iconic part of British heritage. It’s one of the reasons, says Mark, why the first Cluedo play proved to be such a big hit in its stage tour in 2022. “I played Cluedo as a child and I think it’s why we had such a fantastic audience response with the first Cluedo stage play,” Mark continues. “People enjoy seeing these characters come to life.”

Determined to throw everything into the new production, all three are working hard behind the scenes to make sure it’s another huge success. Jason says he hopes to be sure to steady his stage nerves whilst Ellie is drawing from her experience performing in front of thousands on her recent Strictly arena UK tour. “All the cast have welcomed me with such open arms,” she says. “Thousands came to watch the Strictly tour and it did give me a sense of what it is like to perform in front of a live audience. It’s going to be also amazing to take on this new experience and do something different to TV, which is practically at the other end of the acting scale. Television is very naturalistic and on stage, everything happens a thousand times bigger. But that’s what is so exciting.”

Meanwhile, one of Mark’s goals is to focus on making sure the actors feel relaxed in their verbal and physical delivery of comedic moments ahead of the tour. And so now, with rehearsals underway, he reveals he’s already got a few tricks up his sleeve to make sure the actors don’t feel afraid of being silly. “I like to start off each day of rehearsals with a silly game to warm up. Putting on a comedy is far harder than a straight play because the comic timings have to look effortless.

“The jokes won’t work otherwise. For me, I never get bored of telling stories and structuring jokes so you get laughter. Shared laughter is so important and so one of my favourite improvisations with the actors is to run a pretend job interview. Only it gets sillier and sillier and by the end, they might be tap dancing whilst pretending to be a chicken!”

Touring around the UK can be tough, but each are making sure to balance family life and other work commitments. With other projects also on the go, Mark explains he tries to visit different cities hosting the play every fortnight whilst both Ellie and Jason reveal they are planning to bring their families along to watch. “It’s never great leaving home but you make it work,” admits Jason. “My wife and children will definitely be coming to watch. It will be a chance for us to have a giggle. I think I look rather fetching in yellow!”

Ellie adds “My family can’t wait to come and watch me in this show. Obviously after going on tour with Strictly, I have now had experience of living out of a suitcase and what is great about this show is I am going to be going back to acting again. I was known for many years as Faye Windass and as amazing as that was, it was then nice for people to find out more about me and my personality on Strictly. Now it’s going to be great to transform myself into a new character. I love how Cluedo 2 is perfect for everyone in the family and it is lovely how, thanks partly now to The Traitors too, people really enjoy murder mysteries!

“When I spoke to Mark about how the play felt a bit like The Traitors, he agreed. He said ‘yes, everyone is trying to suss everyone out!’ I can’t wait for everyone to come and watch it.”